This compilation of short fictional stories, shows how the author, Ayn Rand, developed her writing skills and her showed how her objectives had evolved. The earlier stories show slight uncertain grasps of the subtleties of the English language, while after a short space of 10years, she wields the pen with such mastery that is astounding for one who had only been exposed to English for the past ten years. For the most part, the earlier stories are joyful, and light-hearted, using fewer characters to portray her objecties, while the latter parts are more ‘realistic’, showing all the grey-in-betweens. Even her objectives for writing have changed. Initially, the stories portrayed her stand against communism, but later, they emphasised her philosophy.
The Husband I Bought
It’s a story of how a woman, who marries a millionaire-turned-pauper, stayed by his side till he became rich and famous again… and how she voluntarily left him when he fell in love with another woman. On the surface, it might seem like one of those typical soap operas - the tragic love story of a woman who ’selflessly’ removes herself from her husband’s path, but to Ayn Rand, it had the opposite meaning. This was her way of showing. not selflessness (her philosophy despises that), but self-preservation and reaffirmation of the wife’s values. In essence, the wife is a passionate preserver of values. ‘She cannot accept anyone less than [her husband], or any relationship with him less that what she has had.’
Actually, it’s really quite cheem, it took me ages to attempt to grasp this concept and right now, even I can’t be sure that I’ve successfully understood it.
The Night King
The night king is an extremely entertaining, short story with a rather unexpected twist in the end… No deep philosphy whatsoever…
Good Copy
Good copy is a very light-hearted piece, it’s the predecessor of future masterpieces like ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and ‘The Fountainhead’. There’s a rather interesting ’story’ behind this story.
Ayn Rand read this story during a fiction-writing club, claiming that it was done by a beginning writer and asked for comments. A number of students were astonished, even indignant when they found out that she was the author. They criticised that the story ‘was unserious, doesn’t deal with big issues as in her novels, has no profound passions, no immortal struggles, no philosophic meaning’. Rand had gone on to explain, that ‘it deals with only one ‘big issue’, the biggest of all: can man live on earth or not?’. Good copy was her evidence, her proof that men are NOT doomed to suffering and defeat. It went against the grain of society’s belief. Even now, we all believe that we have to struggle, to suffer, to grit our teeth and bear our burdens, before we can achieve the sweetness of success, or as the Chinese idiom says - 苦尽甘来. Rand felt that this attitude ascribes far too much power to ‘evil’. Er… if I should attempt to describe what she means by evil, this would become a thesis. Perhaps it’d be sufficient to read my posts on ‘Atlas Shrugged’.
Escort
Another wonderfully written tale. Brief but leaving you gasping… as if you were at the verge of tasting ambrosia, but then realising that your tongue had frozen over. heh… It’s not the best of analogies, but the only one I can think of at the moment. I used spend so much time collecting such stories and thinking of more creative plots, I could almost feel the cogwheels turning within my head. I’m really upset now that all this effort and thinking has gone to waste since years of undergoing the grind of the education system has started filling my head to the brim with all kinds of dry, boring facts. I’m so ashamed of myself. I’ve not exercised my brain enough.
