The Romantic Manifesto
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Product Description
In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned book, Ayn Rand throws a new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again Miss Rand eloquently demonstrates her refusal to let popular catchwords and conventional ideas stand between her and the truth as she has discovered it. The Romantic Manifesto takes its place beside The Fountainhead as one of the most important achievements of our time.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I came to this book as a new student of Objectivism, having read her novels and having a great interest in the Arts. I found this book to be incredibly good, as it provided a defense of Romanticism in the same way 'Atlas Shrugged' and 'The Fountainhead' were a defense of Man. She provides a philosophically reasoned position for exactly why Romantic art is different from any other kind of art, and why it is the most proper style of art.
The way she can bring together metaphysics, epistemology, morality with Art is astounding. She explains how good art expresses the importance of man's ability to make choices, and the consequences of his choices, and how bad art - such as naturalism - undermines choice, by making man a helpless pawn whose life is merely moved about by external forces. She shows the exact method by which art functions, philosophically, by appealing to the philosophical nature of man - and why, therefore, a man's philosophy is reflected in the art he creates.
I simply cannot do this book justice in a review - I am not a good writer, but Ayn Rand is, and I highly recommend you give this book a read.
The way she can bring together metaphysics, epistemology, morality with Art is astounding. She explains how good art expresses the importance of man's ability to make choices, and the consequences of his choices, and how bad art - such as naturalism - undermines choice, by making man a helpless pawn whose life is merely moved about by external forces. She shows the exact method by which art functions, philosophically, by appealing to the philosophical nature of man - and why, therefore, a man's philosophy is reflected in the art he creates.
I simply cannot do this book justice in a review - I am not a good writer, but Ayn Rand is, and I highly recommend you give this book a read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a compelling work on the nature and meaning of art. Besides containing Rand's manifesto, it is also a highly entertaining piece of criticism and analysis of art, culture and psychology.
In the introductory chapter: The Psycho-Epistemology Of Art, Rand defines art as a selective recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical value judgements. Art brings one's concepts to the perceptual level of conscience and enables one to grasp them directly as if they were precepts.
Chapter 2, Philosophy And Sense Of Life, deals with the "merciless recorder" that is the integrating mechanism of the subconscious mind. The next chapter, Art And Sense Of Life, opens with a fascinating observation on a hypothetical painting. Here Rand further explains the concept of a sense of life as it manifests in art. She argues that the emotion involved in art is automatically immediate and that it holds a deeply personal value-significance to the person experiencing it.
Art And Cognition is devoted to the question: What are the valid forms of art, and why? Here the author explores literature, painting, sculpture, music and architecture in turn. I find her speculations on music particularly thought-provoking.
Rand refers to Aristotle in discussing the attributes of the novel in Basic Principles Of Literature: theme, plot, characterization and style. Chapter 6 provides a definition of Romanticism, which recognizes volition, as opposed to Naturalism which denies it. She identifies determinism as the basic premise of naturalism in The Aesthetic Vacuum Of Our Age and hails the appearance of the novel in the 19th century as the vehicle of Romanticism.
Other essays include discussions on bootleg romanticism and moral treason in art, whilst the actual manifesto appears in chapter 11: The Goal Of My Writing and chapter 10: Introduction To Ninety-Three. This essay is an abbreviated version of the introduction she wrote for a 1962 edition of the book by Victor Hugo. The Romantic Manifesto concludes with The Simplest Thing In The World, a short story that illustrates the nature of the creative process.
Throughout this fascinating book, Rand provides examples of different manifestations of art plus informed criticism of personalities and a wide variety of works like Anna Karenina, Thomas Aquinas, The Avengers, Balzac, Dostoevsky, Lord Byron, Camille, Günter Grass, Salvador Dali, Don Carlos, Dumas, Flaubert, Ian Fleming, Gone With The Wind, Goya, O Henry, Alfred Hitchcock, Victor Hugo, Boris Karloff, Fritz Lang, Ira Levin, Michelangelo, Edgar Allan Poe, Friedrich Schiller, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Jan Vermeer, HG Wells, Thomas Wolfe and Emile Zola. Both high and popular culture is covered.
One does not need to agree with Rand's analyses and manifesto to find this a most stimulating and highly entertaining read. Many of her insights are valid and quite relevant to the state of culture and civilization today.
In the introductory chapter: The Psycho-Epistemology Of Art, Rand defines art as a selective recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical value judgements. Art brings one's concepts to the perceptual level of conscience and enables one to grasp them directly as if they were precepts.
Chapter 2, Philosophy And Sense Of Life, deals with the "merciless recorder" that is the integrating mechanism of the subconscious mind. The next chapter, Art And Sense Of Life, opens with a fascinating observation on a hypothetical painting. Here Rand further explains the concept of a sense of life as it manifests in art. She argues that the emotion involved in art is automatically immediate and that it holds a deeply personal value-significance to the person experiencing it.
Art And Cognition is devoted to the question: What are the valid forms of art, and why? Here the author explores literature, painting, sculpture, music and architecture in turn. I find her speculations on music particularly thought-provoking.
Rand refers to Aristotle in discussing the attributes of the novel in Basic Principles Of Literature: theme, plot, characterization and style. Chapter 6 provides a definition of Romanticism, which recognizes volition, as opposed to Naturalism which denies it. She identifies determinism as the basic premise of naturalism in The Aesthetic Vacuum Of Our Age and hails the appearance of the novel in the 19th century as the vehicle of Romanticism.
Other essays include discussions on bootleg romanticism and moral treason in art, whilst the actual manifesto appears in chapter 11: The Goal Of My Writing and chapter 10: Introduction To Ninety-Three. This essay is an abbreviated version of the introduction she wrote for a 1962 edition of the book by Victor Hugo. The Romantic Manifesto concludes with The Simplest Thing In The World, a short story that illustrates the nature of the creative process.
Throughout this fascinating book, Rand provides examples of different manifestations of art plus informed criticism of personalities and a wide variety of works like Anna Karenina, Thomas Aquinas, The Avengers, Balzac, Dostoevsky, Lord Byron, Camille, Günter Grass, Salvador Dali, Don Carlos, Dumas, Flaubert, Ian Fleming, Gone With The Wind, Goya, O Henry, Alfred Hitchcock, Victor Hugo, Boris Karloff, Fritz Lang, Ira Levin, Michelangelo, Edgar Allan Poe, Friedrich Schiller, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Jan Vermeer, HG Wells, Thomas Wolfe and Emile Zola. Both high and popular culture is covered.
One does not need to agree with Rand's analyses and manifesto to find this a most stimulating and highly entertaining read. Many of her insights are valid and quite relevant to the state of culture and civilization today.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After reading several on-line reviews of Ayn Rand's books at Amazon.com, I come to realise that there are the two usual categories of people doing the reviewing: the one's who love her ideas and the one's that hate them. Fine with me, but why can't the people who hate her give any other arguments that she is 'fascist', 'dangerous' or 'takes a strong grip on her readers'? Fascist - she is not (look up a definition of fascism in any dictionary), dangerous - for whom?, and the 'grip' she delivers is a positive sense of life and that, of course, captures a lot of people. I believe that Mats Landstrom (from Sweden) and others with him should try to ask themselves what it is that they 'hate' about Ayn Rand and when doing so they will hopefully reach an answer about themselves (or of their psyche), and how they see life. Then they (hopefully) could give any reasonable, authentic 'arguments' why they dislike Ayn Rand - instead of all the predictable, untrue, and highly non-personal views.
Thanks for listening to my words. Think about them.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An essentially Nazi screed
"The Romantic Manifesto" is a bizarre and essentially Nazi screed penned by Ayn Rand, the goddess of Nietzschean-libertarian crackpotdom. To Ms. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ashtar Command
Romantic Fascism
Rand was a Romantic Totalitarian.
Those who call Rand a 'fascist' are correctly recognizing her totalitarian tendencies - as is easily demonstrated by 'other arguments' based on... Read more
Published on 27 May 1999
An astonishingly clear manual for writers of fiction
I'm an aspiring writer. I also like Ayn Rand enough to be considered a "randroid" (love it, and props to whoever came up with it) by some. Read more
Published on 11 May 1999
This book presents a clear view of the ideals of art.
Ayn Rand's creative genius once again shines through. She shows her commitment to the expression of her philosophy in a practical reality.
Published on 4 April 1999
Has nothing to do with romance, and even less with "reason"!
I believe Ayn Rand's writings are very destructive. And this isn't because of her highly un-original philosophy. Read more
Published on 5 Mar 1999
Philosophy of aesthetics or manual for Randroids? It's both
Despite having some helpful things to say about literature and other forms of art, this collection of essays is in the end an extended "proof" that there's something... Read more
Published on 19 Nov 1998
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