Rational passion and passionate reason
who is chatting on SOLO ChatThe Free RadicalPopular contentWho's onlineThere are currently 4 users and 28 guests online.
Online usersPollWhat should the government do about ailing financial institutions? Nothing, except to back off and get out—as any Objectivist knows, intervention is treating the disease with the disease 84% Intervene judiciously—enough to avert a catastrophe that is otherwise imminent 3% Intervene massively—as it's doing 3% Nationalize the whole economy and be done with it. Bring on the USSA! 1% Something else (specify) 9% Total votes: 76
 Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
 Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
|
It's unrealistic for statist intellectuals in 'Atlas Shrugged' to have weird names? I don't think so! Submitted by Stuart Hayashi on Sun, 2007-12-09 03:52.
A common criticism I hear of Ayn Rand's fiction is that a lot of the statist intellectuals are given weird names: "Ellsworth Toohey," "Balph Eubank," "Tinky Holloway," etc. We're often told that's unrealistic. But is it really? It's true that most famous advocates of statist ideology have ordinary names (i.e., Michael Moore, Stanley Fish, Matthew Josephson, Peter Singer, actor Matt Damon, and anti-globalization academician John Gray, not to be confused with the American self-help author of the same name). But from the late 1800s to the early twenty-first century, there have been many, many, many famous statist intellectuals with names that sound like they came out of Atlas Shrugged. Here's a list. Yeah, some of the names probably only sound weird to me because they aren't currently common in the United States. But how many "Whittaker Chamberses" have you heard of? * Adolph Berle
( categories: )
|
User loginFeatured BookNavigationSyndicate  The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
 Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
|
I always thought W.S.Scherks
I always thought W.S.Scherks posts completely lacked clarity and clarity is a virtue,well I thought so anyway.
Here's Another
I do hope I will be forgiven for this one -- and of course it is just a name, but how 'bout "W. S. Scherk"?
If Rand had named a villain intellectual who refused to address real issues "Scherk," one who used only arguments from authority, she would have been called unrealistic, of course...
... and let's not forget Flemming's
penchant for interesting girl names:
Honey Ryder
Pussy Galore
Domino
Kissy Suzuki
Solitaire
Mary Goodnight
Holly Goodhead
and of course, Miss Moneypenny
Fun thread...
New Zealand's most famous historian is one John Cawte Beaglehole... don't know how the poor sod made it through school.
My mum had a friend at school called Rhoda Peacock, which always cracks me up.
Dippy? Dopey? Bueller?
How about any one of Dubya's lackeys with their fun nicknames. Scooter, anyone?
Jennifer
-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.
I have no idea,I just saw it
I have no idea,I just saw it as a dedication to his daughter in one of his books
John Lott named his daughter Dagny?
Mr. Fasher, I didn't know that.
Do you know if Dr. Lott liked Atlas Shrugged, or if he just liked the name?
I did meet a science major named Dagny who read Atlas Shrugged, but I don't know if she was named after the character. She told me that she liked the idea of puuuuuuuuuuuuuuure science that would not be cheapened by having anyone find any practical application for it to help the global economy. I thought, "Gee, maybe she should have been named Robert (Roberta?) Stadler instead."
John.R.Lott Jr the author of
John.R.Lott Jr the author of "More Guns Less Crime" named his daughter Dagny
How 'bout...
Bertrand Russell
Lewis Mumford
Harold Laski
and, my personal favorite, Bosley Crowther.
But names like Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, James Jerome Hill, Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and... Ayn Rand all have a Rand sound, don't they?
Isn't "Dagny" similar to the real Danish name "Dagmar," a name you can find in Rand's screenplay for Love Letters (the dead, generous and maybe stuffy old "Aunt Dagmar")? Perhaps significantly, one Princess Dagmar of Denmark became the Russian empress, Maria Feodorovna, and the mother of the last Tsar.
But isn't "Dagny" also another very real Swedish name meaning "new day"? (The maternal grandmother of the Crown Prince of Norway is "Dagny Ulrichsen.")
Food for thought.
Good point, BUT
I don't remember the source exactly, either her fiction course, RM, or Ayn Rand Answers (I think it was the last one) but she pointed out that she simply chose names that sounded interesting to her.
Granted you don't see a lot of Cuffy Meigs in the real world but how many Dagny Taggarts do you see or Ellis Wyatts or Ragnar Daneskjolds or Kay Ludlows. Come to think of it I've never heard of anyone named Dagny that wasn't named that by an Objectivist.
Sometimes I think the names she chose were a bit unrealistic but I always saw it as an even handed thing. Granted that is a nice list you built there.
---Landon
Inking is sexy.
http://www.angelfire.com/comics/wickedlakes
Two more
I forgot:
* Vance Packard
* Burrhus Frederic Skinner (reminds me of Bertram Scudder)