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I always get attached to the characters that Ayn Rand created - so much that I think they actually exist. Same with Terry Goodkind. In fact, I got very emotional at the ends of We the Living with Kira Argounova, Soul of the Fire and Faith of the Fallen with Richard Rahl. Is this commonplace with anyone else besides me? Am I alone in this?!
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Anyone emotionally attached to heroic characters?
I know I get attached.
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#1
studentofobjectivism 
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Posted 01 May 2005 - 08:35 PM
"And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: I." - Ayn Rand
"Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality; it is our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see." - Terry Goodkind, Faith of the Fallen
Hemlock: The best drink for socialists and various other parasites.
"Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality; it is our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see." - Terry Goodkind, Faith of the Fallen
Hemlock: The best drink for socialists and various other parasites.
#2
iouswuoibev
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Posted 02 May 2005 - 06:32 AM
studentofobjectivism, on May 1 2005, 09:35 PM, said:
I always get attached to the characters that Ayn Rand created - so much that I think they actually exist.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
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Why would being emotionally attached lead you to thinking they exist?
Please yourself.
#3
The Wrath
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Posted 02 May 2005 - 09:32 AM
I got attached to Kira and to the dude from Anthem. Anthem is still my favorite Ayn Rand book...so short, yet incredibly powerful. For some reason, I had a hard time getting into Atlas Shrugged. I loved the underlying philosophy that it contained, but I just couldn't get into the story.
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air.
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly,
Out of the corner of my watering eye.
A dream unthreatened by the morning light,
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night.
There's no sensation to compare with this,
Suspended animation, a state of bliss.
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies,
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I.
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air.
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly,
Out of the corner of my watering eye.
A dream unthreatened by the morning light,
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night.
There's no sensation to compare with this,
Suspended animation, a state of bliss.
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies,
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I.
#4
the tortured one
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Posted 02 May 2005 - 09:35 AM
I have that same issue: I get emotionally attached to them as well. I found myself not wanting Atlas Shrugged to end, as well as Fountainhead. One scene that stands out in my mind was when Rearden was looking for Dagny's crashed plane towards the end of Atlas Shrugged. Someone tell me you couldn't feel the raw emotion of that scene.
I find that they exist not in a physical sense but in a spiritual sense (ignore the mysticist connotations that comes with that word) Howard Roark and John Galt are not actual living men, but concepts in my mind, the ideal towards which I strive. Their existence in my mind is all that I need.
What Would Galt/Roark Do? Of course, the question is somewhat rhetorical since the answer is always "think"
I find that they exist not in a physical sense but in a spiritual sense (ignore the mysticist connotations that comes with that word) Howard Roark and John Galt are not actual living men, but concepts in my mind, the ideal towards which I strive. Their existence in my mind is all that I need.
What Would Galt/Roark Do? Of course, the question is somewhat rhetorical since the answer is always "think"
Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance but the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms: the one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, the other of granting it.
-- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Ma
I made my fortune on the seas, and in the mines, and in the cattle wars of the old frontier... I made it by being tougher than the toughies, and smarter than the smarties. And I made it SQUARE! -Scrooge McDuck
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides
-- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Ma
I made my fortune on the seas, and in the mines, and in the cattle wars of the old frontier... I made it by being tougher than the toughies, and smarter than the smarties. And I made it SQUARE! -Scrooge McDuck
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides
#5
Andy_X69
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Posted 04 May 2005 - 07:30 AM
Well your emotional reaction is a reaction to what you liked about those characters. Rational people have rational emotions. There is no reason/passion dichotomy.
But in all honesty, I would advise you not to idolize them, they are floating abstractions designed to represent concepts. And may I dissent from 'popular Objectivism' on one regard: hero worship is something to be avoided because worship, in the true sense of the word, is unrestrained and unlimited devotion, and from my perspective, such a thing is irrational (it undermines cognitive independence for one) for I have never met any being worthy of worship. Admiration, of course, is something else, and admiring heroes is a good thing, but it has its limits. Worship doesn't.
But in all honesty, I would advise you not to idolize them, they are floating abstractions designed to represent concepts. And may I dissent from 'popular Objectivism' on one regard: hero worship is something to be avoided because worship, in the true sense of the word, is unrestrained and unlimited devotion, and from my perspective, such a thing is irrational (it undermines cognitive independence for one) for I have never met any being worthy of worship. Admiration, of course, is something else, and admiring heroes is a good thing, but it has its limits. Worship doesn't.
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