Now that I am straight, I decided it was high time that I started reading the literature of my people. As such, I was reading Ayn Rand’s first novel We the Living, and guess who makes a cameo?
Historians will write of the “Internationale” as the great anthem of the revolution. But the cities of the revolution had their own hymn. In days to come, the men of Petrograd will remember those years of hunger and struggle and hope — to the convulsive rhythm of “John Gray.”
It was called a fox-trot. It had a tune and a rhythm such as those of the new dances far across the border, abroad. It had very foreign lyrics about a very foreign John Gray whose sweetheart Kitty spurned his love for fear of having children, as she told him plainly. Petrograd had known sweeping epidemics of cholera; it had known epidemics of typhus, which were worse; the worst of its epidemics was that of “John Gray.”
-p. 154
The revolution in question is the Russian revolution that brought the Communists to power. It turns out Rand is not fond of communism, given that she spent formative years living through the Russian revolution and apparently had her father’s business confiscated by the State.
It turns out that John Gray makes more than a cameo in the book. In her characteristically deft and understated way, Rand beats us over the head with the song any time she wants to juxtapose the rhetoric of the glorious Communist Revolution with the miserable way people living under the Revolution actually lived.
And what does this “John Gray” sound like, I hear you ask? Fortunately for you, the capitalist pig-dogs at Youtube have made it available:
Old Lurker 
So, besides turning straight on us you are now becoming a Theoretical Communist as well. Will you begin to dress in red and black and sport a cute little baret?
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“Begin” to dress in red and black? I never got that memo. I wouldn’t call my beret “cute”, though.
In all seriousness, I wholeheartedly assure you I am at no risk of turning into a Communist, theoretical or otherwise. Marx may have been an insightful historian but Marxism has been a disaster.
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Oh, Lurkie.
You lost me at Ayn Rand. Her ‘Yay, self-interest; Nay, altruism’ gets to me. Especially after she did use government handovers. But she was Russian, after all. Can’t trust them.
And the straights are still reading her? Next thing you tell me is that now your prefer to do missionary over doggy style. Spank my butt and call me silly.
And when you mentioned John Grey, all I could think about was fellow blogger John Gray. So confused. I should tell him. LOL
XOXO
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/r/whoosh.
One can’t trust Russians, hrm? That is not prejudiced at all. She was also a Jew, if you need more fuel for that fire.
Rand definitely has deficiencies as a writer (boy howdy is she bad at descriptive prose) but I can see why fourteen-year-olds find her insightful, and honestly this book is not half-bad. The actions of her characters did not match my stereotypes of Objectivism as closely as I thought they would, but to be fair this was her first novel. If you were straight I would recommend you give the book a shot.
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Oh, I would not trust the political rantings of someone whose privilege was snatched in such a way. And everybody knows her family was Jewish, Lurkie. Come on. Your patronizing is showing.
And her writing is atrocious and pretentious (you should know, because you are a self-professed snob, according to your post at Debra’s), and of course teens find her insightful. Teens are just out of their Oppositional-Defiant era and read her as a confirmation that control (the adults) will hinder their pursuing self-interest. They’ll learn soon enough Ayn was very, very wrong.
And you know better than to trust stereotypes. The Fountainhead introduces sex with a rape.
And this straight path for you is as bent as they come. Enjoy!
XOXO
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Oh, you wouldn’t trust the political rantings of someone whose privileged was snatched away in such a way? Interesting. I suppose Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is also off-limits for you?
Although Rand is not a great stylist there’s something in her writing that strikes a chord with people. I would argue that there’s lots and lots of people who never learn that Ayn was very, very wrong.
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LOL
You silly goose. That’s beyond the point. He was an atheist, so that gives him points. I find Rand pretentious and intent in believing her own bullshit. It reminds me of the way some right wingers write nowadays. She could have done much better.
And that’s what happens with populist writers, Lurkie: all flash, little substance. And in the case or Rand, a lot of bluster.
I think you should write about what communism and socialism actually ARE and how the right wingers have made it seem like everybody who is not them is either a communist or a socialist.
Now, THAT I would like to see your newly minted straight self tackle.
XOXO
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It is very much not beyond the point. So far I have seen you make two truth claims: (1) Russians can’t be trusted. (2) Those who make political rants and also had their privilege snatched away can’t be trusted. I happen to think both of these claims are incorrect, and that the first is bigoted.
As for Solzhenitsyn being an atheist? Oy vey. He did not start out being an atheist and he did not end up an atheist. I have not yet read the Gulag Archipelago but I am led to believe it is an accurate critique of Soviet Russia despite both of your claims above.
Sure, Rand believes her own bullshit. Sure, some of the most problematic people I have met fall for her writings. That makes it more intriguing to me, not less. How can otherwise intelligent people I respect fall for this stuff? What is clear to me is that for all her failings, she is kind of interesting, and makes acute observations of Soviet Russia, and the failings of the bureaucratic state.
Writing about communism would be an interesting exercise. From what I have learned about it so far I am quite against it, but I have not read (nor understood) enough. Again, this is a situation where I find myself asking how otherwise intelligent people could fall for this stuff, which seems transparently idiotic to me. So there is some truth I am not yet understanding. Probably Das Kapital needs to go on my reading list as a first step.
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I love it when you try to show off. It’s entertaining.
XOXO
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And appropriately enough for we degenerates who love John Gray, it’s a butch-femme couple dancing in the video!
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Damn!
That’s hawt. I did not notice it was a butch-femme couple! Let’s subvert!
XOXO
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The YT description says this was filmed in 1976 and that Mr Red Trousers is named Vladimir Nikolsky. Thus far I have not been able to dig up anything about him, but I would be surprised if Soviet censors would have allowed two women (or a woman and a transman!) to be dancing like that on TV.
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Then Vladimir is damned effeminate, that’s all I can say.
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Oh, yes. Vlad is giving me hips and thighs.
The shag he’s sporting is not helping either. But yeah, if this is Russian, Soviet censors would have had a conniption.
XOXO
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Someone mentioned me???
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Ayn Rand, apparently?
Did you know that you share your name with a famous Russian foxtrot? Like the “John and Janet” stories I imagine it is something people point out a lot, but I do not know for sure.
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Dear me!
I hope this is straight thing is just a phase you are going through.
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Has that not been the lament of parents everywhere? (Particularly parents of gays?)
Maybe it is a phase and maybe it is not. That is not up to me, is it? It is the licensing board that gets the final say in these matters, and so far the prospects do not look good.
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