Afbeelding auteur

Anne Conover Heller

Auteur van Ayn Rand and the World She Made

2 Werken 523 Leden 12 Besprekingen

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Werken van Anne Conover Heller

Ayn Rand and the World She Made (2009) 439 exemplaren

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Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1950

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I didn't know much about Hannah Arendt but kept coming across her name, this is a short introduction as to why she is famous. She is part of that post-war question to understand what went wrong in Germany and what might be done to stop it from happening again. Here we are again in Ukraine, Arendt has something to say on the failure to think clearly, or as she says the banality of evil.
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Stbalbach | 5 andere besprekingen | May 11, 2022 |
Hannah Arendt is pretty much the definition of complicated; I'd read several of her books but knew little about her life (other than philosophy student, pretty assimilated in high German culture, Jewish, WW2, and then subject of a lot of intra-communal hate over her writings about the Eichmann trial). I had no idea she'd dated Heidegger (who was apparently both a player and a nazi himself...), etc.

There's nothing really useful here other than just a more full appreciation of a historical figure (the same time would be better spent actually reading her books), but it was still interesting.… (meer)
 
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octal | 5 andere besprekingen | Jan 1, 2021 |
ספר ארוך, מפורט (מדי) ומרתק על חייה של הסופרת והפילוסופית. סיפור מרתק ומדכא כאחד על גולברית מוקפת גמדים שכולם דוחים ולא נורמלים באותה מידה.
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amoskovacs | 5 andere besprekingen | Jul 20, 2017 |
A very well-researched biography of this writer and philosopher. I listened to it as an audiobook (did not see the listing here on LT at this time), and discovered an author willing to tackle the myth of Ayn Rand. Heller digs right in with Rand's growing up as a Jewish merchant-class girl, different from her sisters right from the start, in Russia before the Revolution. Details about her family's life under Soviet occupation are documented, as are the difficulties faced by many of their class during this time. Her ability to immigrate to family in the US is fortunate for her; she lives with cousins in NY and Chicago, and it is in NY that she becomes infatuated with skyscrapers. Unfortunately for her family in the US and still in the Soviet Union, she neither pays her debts that she accumulated in the US, nor does she seek to get her family out of their own hell. Heller is quite comfortable calling Rand out on her narcissism and on her re-writing of her own history; Rand wrote that it is every man for himself and no one should help another while living quite a different reality. She also manages to outstay her visa, causing her to be an illegal immigrant until she marries an American and is able to live in the US as a legal citizen.

I read The Fountainhead a number of years back, and liked the idea of sticking to one's dreams and visions even if it makes you an outsider. The rape scene was horrible to read, and Heller does articulate the passage as an example of Rand's infatuation with her strong male characters, and I was also struck in Fountainhead with the radio host who does not believe his own schtick of ugliness countered by the "everyman" architect who thinks that the host's word is gospel. Quite a precursor to modern alt-right radio.

Good, well-researched biography, lots of good information, and worth borrowing a copy.
… (meer)
 
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threadnsong | 5 andere besprekingen | Oct 2, 2016 |

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Statistieken

Werken
2
Leden
523
Populariteit
#47,534
Waardering
4.0
Besprekingen
12
ISBNs
19
Talen
2

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