robinturner | Sometimes I despair ...

... of humanity, or at least of literature.

I am a high school student. This is the most inspiring work I have ever read, and it has encouraged me to turn my life around.

The book? No, not the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching or any other sacred text. Not Epictetus' Enchiridion, Socrates' Apologia or Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy. Not King Lear, Jude the Obscure or Nostromo. Not even Everything I Ever Needed To Know, I Learnt From Star Trek.

You've probably guessed: an Ayn Rand novel.

If one day, I ever get my philosophy sorted out, I shall write a novel. I will populate it with heroic characters who express my views at length, and despicable characters who represent moral and political systems I don't like. I will include gratuitious sex. And I will make it very, very long, so that those who make it to the end will feel a great sense of achievement. It will be the death of my academic career, but it will make me an icon, and I will probably receive offers of money and sexual favours.