The Romantic Manifesto brings together Rand's central essays on aesthetics. But it's a thin book, and if you're really curious about the full range of her aesthetic views, there are some other key pieces to look at.
The 2 posthumous books on writing, one on nonfiction and one on fiction, are both worth a read - even though these edited lectures may be way over-edited. I once listened to the tapes of the fiction lectures, and the book is much shorter than the lectures. If memory serves, the fiction book misses, in particular, the sense of nuanced interpretation of other writers that was evident in the lectures.
There are incidental introductions (to The Man Who Laughs, and Calumet K, and her own fictional works) and short reviews (of Mickey Spillane novels as I recall) that help to flesh out her thoughts about fiction a bit.
There is an article about a painter she admired, Capuletti, which is her most sustained meditation about painting in particular.
And there are articles by other people, about particular art forms, that sound suspiciously like they were heavily edited - by Rand - and probably reflect her views pretty closely. I say this based partly on writers' complaints about how heavily she would edit their pieces. In this category:
Metaphysics in Marble, by Mary Ann Sures, a discussion of sculpture.
Kay Nolte Smith's articles on Rattigan and Ibsen, which are very interesting discussions of writing for the stage. One interesting angle of both of these playwrights is that they are perceived, usually, as realists rather than romantics. But the reviewer calls Rattigan a romantic, and heaps praise on Ibsen for his mastery of dramatic plot structure and integration with theme.
I'm not saying you should swallow her aesthetics whole,
but if comprehending it is your goal,
then these are some extra nooks
in which to look.
No comments:
Post a Comment