Peter Saint-Andre

This review provides a precis of The Literary Art of Ayn Rand, edited by William Thomas, a recent volume of essays that delve into the often-neglected literary aspects of Rand's major novels. After summarizing work on Rand's style, characterization, plots, and themes, the reviewer also raises issues that remain to be explored regarding Rand's imaginative writing

PETER SAINT-ANDRE explores the personal meaning of progressive rock music and Rand's fiction as both consistent with a world-view that values "joy and reason and meaning." This exploration leads him to ask whether Rand's novels and philosophical project are progressive, and to urge further cross-pollination between libertarian and progressive thinking and action in politics and the arts

This essay traces a trajectory of ethical thought from Epicurus through Friedrich Nietzsche to Ayn Rand. Nietzsche originally celebrated Epicureanism as a form of refined heroism but subsequently repudiated Epicurus for being overly concerned with mere happiness. Out of Nietzsche's turn away from Epicurus came a focus on the nobility of creative work, which provided a springboard for Rand 's ethics of productivity and achievement.

Saint-Andre diverts attention from the ideological content of Ayn Rand 's novels to focus on their sometimes startling literary qualities. In particular, Saint-Andre analyses Rand 's use of traditional stylistic and rhetorical devices and examines the integration of certain passages of pure description into the broader themes of Rand 's novels We The Living, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.

Saint-Andre explores the possible literary and intellectual influence on Ayn Rand of the Russian writer and theorist Yevgeny Zamyatin, author of the dystopian novel, We.

Peter Saint-Andre provides textual evidence that calls into question Ayn Rand's characterization of conceptualism as simply a kind of nominalism, as well as her claim that her theory of knowledge is a sui generis "Objectivism" rather than a form of conceptualism

Saint-Andre explores the personal meaning of progressive rock music (especially the music of Yes) and Rand's fiction as both consistent with a world-view that values "joy and reason and meaning." This exploration leads him to ask whether Rand's novels and philosophical project are progressive, and to urge further cross-pollination between libertarian and progressive thinking and action in politics and the arts

PETER SAINT-ANDRE explores the possible literary and intellectual influence on Ayn Rand of the Russian writer and theorist Yevgeny Zamyatin, author of the dystopian novel, We.