Taboo

The New Individualist came in the mail. The one whose cover features that Danish cartoon with the Prophet wearing a bomb for a turban.

The issue broke another taboo, too. It contained a favorable discussion of romance novels in an Objectivist publication. The title of the article is "Individual Meets Pulp Fiction."

The author, Lou Villadsen, makes the very true point that successful businessmen are often the heroes of romance novels. She's obviously a fan herself and writes about the genre with enthusiasm. She doesn't try to make a strong aesthetic argument for romance novels, but makes a case for the values embodied in these books.

A lot of times the plot line goes like this:

When she meets a guy who embodies success
And she feels all tingly under her dress,
You know where the story's headed.
They're going to end up wedded
And thoroughly embedded.