"Atlas Shrugged"
by Ayn Rand
"Atlas Shrugged"
by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand, John Galt, Frederick Nietzsche
Mon Jan 4 00:03:00 1999
From: "Cheese Lasagna" (blueglobug@hotmail.com)
To: cybrgbl@deltanet.com
Subject: hello there
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 00:02:31 PSTMime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Hello Mr. Geib,
When I first discovered your web site a couple of years ago as a freshman at UCLA, I became a regular visitor. I know that I am not the first to say that your website is very thoughtful and refreshing considering that most of the homepages I come cross are vacuous and full of bullshit.
That is why I feel somewhat self-conscious in writing you this. I have become increasingly disturbed at how Eurocentric, or rather, how Western-centric your writings about literature and philosophy are. Now before you become defensive, please know that I am not imposing a moral judgment on you in any way. Actually, if this were the case, I understand why this is so. You grew up in the West (as I did also). As far as I know, you know only Western languages, English and Spanish. And you may not feel that there is any reason why your interests should venture anywhere outside of Western literature or philosophy. But because I respect you so, I would feel truly saddened if this were the case.
Eastern literature and philosophy differ from their Western counterparts in so many fundamental ways. I sense that you feel very wise and knowledgable because of all your readings, and yet there are philosophies and entire frameworks of thought that you don't seem to have penetrated at all. I feel a little silly right now, because I feel like I am preaching. It's just that the more I observe this in the intelligent people around me, the more irritated I become. How can someone who has not read any of the literature from Eastern civilizations (which are so many times older than the West) proclaim that Shakespeare was the greatest writer that ever lived? I am not speaking of you when I say this. But I sense the same sentiment when you quote Western writers and thinkers all the time, and contrastingly, don't seem to even have a meager sampling of the literature of the other 60 or so percent of the world.
It's the strangest thing admiring someone who is so well-read, and at the same time seems to be closed off from so much.
You are a unique person who seeks knowledge. And that is why I would like to sincerely say that there is a world that may surprise and enrich you beyond the Western hemisphere.
Go Bruins,
Lai
____________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Dear Lai,
First of all, my primary language is English. I distrust much of what I read in translation -- and when the differences between langauges and cultures increase, I become even more suspicious. restless and aggressive Firmly planted in a understanding, which is not something so many university students in the United States can say anymore. Overly syncretic mixmash of multiculturalism, knowing a little of everything and not much of any one thing, If you can recommend a counterpart to Goethe of Germany, Cervantes of Spain, Dante of Italy, I would be eager to try it out.
