Mr. A debuted in 1967, in the third issue of Witzend, a collection of more artistically fulfilling side projects by mainstream comics professionals led by Wally Wood. In his very first panel, the Objectivist hero addresses his readers directly, stating his case that in moral life, there are no shades of gray, only evil or good, black or white. The hero stares at us, blank, emotionless. There’s a montage around him showing that his calm face is actually a metal mask, and that evil is truly disgusting. At the story’s end, Mr. A. beats up a nasty juvenile delinquent, ironically named Angel, and then allows the kid to fall to his death from a city rooftop. -
Pat Barrett [more inside]
posted by Egg Shen
on Sep 22, 2012 -
46 comments
"We were wondering if you would petition to be emancipated," he said in his lawyer voice. "What does that mean?" I asked, picking at the mauve paint on my hands. I later discovered that for most kids, declaring emancipation is an extreme measure -- something you do if your parents are crack addicts or deadbeats.
"You would need to become financially independent," he said. "You could work for me at my law firm and pay rent to live here."
This was my moment of truth as an objectivist. If I believed in the glory of the individual, I would've signed the petition papers then and there. But as much as Rand's novels had taught me to believe in meritocracy, they had not prepared me to go it alone financially and emotionally. I began to cry and refused.
posted by fernabelle
on Apr 15, 2011 -
102 comments
The pictures show a lovely celebration. A crowd of 100 or so is seated on a well-groomed lawn in front of a trim orchestra and a grand old plantation house. A retired astronaut has been flown in to address the group. Late in the day, two hot-air balloons skim the dusky sky. That fall day in 2007 seemed an auspicious start for a college with only five professors and 10 students. But as the year wore on, the students, professors, and staff members became convinced that it was a sign of something else entirely: an elaborate facade.
The brief rise and rapid fall of
Founders College, an
experiment in
Randian education.
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Nov 30, 2010 -
83 comments
Co-creator of Spider-Man,
Steve Ditko is famous for
weird,
distinctive art,
his 1966 departure from Marvel Comics, and granting
very few interviews in the course of his
decades-
spanning career, preferring to let
creations such as
The Creeper, the
Objectivism-
inspired Mr. A, and
Squirrel Girl speak for him.
Okay, Squirrel Girl not so much.
Jonathan Ross turns the spotlight on the artist in the
BBC4 documentary,
In Search of Steve Ditko. Did they find him?
Well, that's
The Question, isn't it?
posted by Alvy Ampersand
on Sep 23, 2007 -
26 comments
The Ayn Rand Institute held their
yearly confab in Telluride, CO, near the purported location of the fiction Gault's Gulch of
Atlas Shrugged, celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of the most turgid novels of all time. Part of the program included a panel of academics discussing their experiences "as objectivists." The
Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the state of objectivism in academe.
Rand Grants are up,
tenure is tendentious, and a for-profit
Founders Institute appears to be foundering. (more inside)
posted by beelzbubba
on Jul 14, 2007 -
111 comments
