Henry Oliver: commitment

Transcript context

…What made it interesting to you? Well, Hollis Robbins told me to read it. I had always not read it because I had met actual Randians, like fully paid-up objectivists. I just thought, “Get me away from this party. I’ve got to leave.” Of course, she’s famous for being nasty and having bad ideas and all that kind of thing. When Hollis recommended it, I thought, “Okay, this is a totally different kind of recommendation, so I will definitely take this. ” It was just so exciting on the plot level. It’s maybe the best genre novel ever written. Then you get all this first-rate B-movie dialogue. If Humphrey Bogart had been in the film of Atlas Shrugged, it would have been brilliant. Then, it is actually interesting. Some people, I think, are blocked from enjoying it because they’re so anti her philosophy. It is actually interesting to see how unclunky her handling of ideas is in the best moments of the novel—the party scenes, some of the arguments about the train. Obviously, the three-hour speech is quite wearing for anyone. At other times, I think she’s more subtle than she’s given credit for. The villains are remarkably true to current life, I find.…

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