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[sprinkled chariot]

Is Ayn Rand worth reading?

[Frumple]

No.

... or if you kinda' hate yourself, I guess. Ideological/plot aspects aside, the books themselves (what I've read of them -- school related, et al) are just kinda' bad. Poor characterization, unengaging writing, etc., etc., etc. They're just not a particularly good writer qua writer, never mind the rest of it.

[IronTomato]

Is Ayn Rand worth reading?

Jesus Christ no. Don't put yourself through the suffering I had to put myself through.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Why does bay12forums.com go to Bay12Games homepage, but bay12forums.com/smf goes to the forum?

Because bay12forums.com redirects to Bay12Games.com? If you're really curious, you can always PM Toady.

[sprinkled chariot]

No.

... or if you kinda' hate yourself, I guess. Ideological/plot aspects aside, the books themselves (what I've read of them -- school related, et al) are just kinda' bad. Poor characterization, unengaging writing, etc., etc., etc. They're just not a particularly good writer qua writer, never mind the rest of it.

But how is she major figure in american philosophy/literature then? 

[Frumple]

She kinda' ain't, tbh. She's a figure, but not a major one. Sorta' a major figure in libertarian philosophy or literature, but even they don't tend to cite her works particularly often.

Honestly, she's well known mostly because of the volume of some of the folks attracted to her message, not because of the merit of the work itself or the meaningful influence it's had on any particular field. Kinda' like Twilight or somethin', now that I think about it.

Guess if you really want to know more, you could give the forum a search or wait for someone who cares more about her nonsense to chip in. There's a few folks idling around that can give a pretty decent breakdown on exactly how her shit is shit, heh.

E: Though I've kinda' belatedly noticed that wasn't really the question. If you're wondering why the message appeals to some folks, I can't really help you. It's a mindset that's pretty foreign to me, and I think my ability to ken and communicate that sort of thing has degenerated a bit. Either that or this headache is getting in the way.

[EnigmaticHat]

Fun fact, the Ayn Rand Institute gives high schools free copies of her more popular books.  So if you had to read that torture in high school, its not because its good.  Its because its free.

Pretty ironic considering her aggressively capitalist views.

[itisnotlogical]

A booru is a website that categorizes vast amounts of images by their contents, using "tags" that are added by the community. You can search for images that meet pretty specific criteria by searching for certain combinations of tags, or excluding some tags, etc.

The question is: Is there a software like this that I can use to organize my offline image collection?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I just want to let you all know that Ayn Rand is not by far the worst philosopher you can be made to read. Are her ideas rather repulsive? Certainly.

However, a large and unspoken element of her popularity is that while she was mediocre as a writer, this still put her head and shoulders in writing quality above every other philosopher but Nietzsche. Master of fire and all.

I say this because I was once forced to read ALMOST. EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. published by one Paul Virilio over the course of a month. It is still burned into my brain, every transhumanist rape allegory and symbolic art holocaust. Do you think I'm fucking kidding you? I am not having a giggle. Those are but two examples of many, taken almost verbatim, from shit Virilio has written in his quest to become the most verbose old man yelling at clouds ever.

God. Fuck.

[Aklyon]

I've never heard of him. I'll assume thats a very good thing.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I mean, don't get me wrong, boiled down Virilio isn't too difficult or shocking. Like Heidegger before him the central point is basically "technology has its own inherent coercive force, if we hand our human position in society over to machines we'll lose all control and be destroyed".

But he cannot to save his life establish any sense of writer's cadence or appropriate framing for his ideas. Which is while I can understand what he means and is actually saying when he says that "the Holocaust was a collective act of necro-art by the human race against itself", that doesn't mean he should have written it like that.

[Baffler]

I mean, don't get me wrong, boiled down Virilio isn't too difficult or shocking. Like Heidegger before him the central point is basically "technology has its own inherent coercive force, if we hand our human position in society over to machines we'll lose all control and be destroyed".

But he cannot to save his life establish any sense of writer's cadence or appropriate framing for his ideas. Which is while I can understand what he means and is actually saying when he says that "the Holocaust was a collective act of necro-art by the human race against itself", that doesn't mean he should have written it like that.

It's baffling that so many philosophers think novels are a good vehicle for their ideas in the first place, really.

[Helgoland]

-snip-

Hey, Camus is pretty decent, too.

[Egan_BW]

I mean, don't get me wrong, boiled down Virilio isn't too difficult or shocking. Like Heidegger before him the central point is basically "technology has its own inherent coercive force, if we hand our human position in society over to machines we'll lose all control and be destroyed".

But he cannot to save his life establish any sense of writer's cadence or appropriate framing for his ideas. Which is while I can understand what he means and is actually saying when he says that "the Holocaust was a collective act of necro-art by the human race against itself", that doesn't mean he should have written it like that.

It's baffling that so many philosophers think novels are a good vehicle for their ideas in the first place, really.

yeah, the obvious vehicle is videogames, like metal gear

[Rolan7]

I am looking to buy an Xbox 360 to play Halo 3 and some other older games.  Not new stuff like GTA.  Which version do I need?

I went to Gamestop yesterday and they were offering 360's for $50 and I was like "Yeah that's a great price to play Halo 2&3 (from bargain bin) and get a controller.  I need a real XBOX controller anyway.

But the clerk basically told me that the $50 one would probably die of the "red ring of death", and was honestly pretty evasive when I asked about warranty.  He was pushing the ones with hard drives which are more like $120, so I bought some games and left.  (He also acted confused when I asked if I'd be able to play Halo 3 without the hard drive).

I guess I should probably get the worst one that has a hard drive?  Which I think is like $80

(Huh I keep thinking this is called the "Simple Questions Thread")