Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Words that make a difference.

Words have always played an important role in my life. From books to dialogues in movies, to things that people say aloud, if you can learn to look beyond the obvious and understand the profound, you would find many answers staring at you in the face. Most of us take everything that’s said or written at face value. Very rarely do we stop to psychoanalyze why a certain sentence was uttered or what was it that made a certain author write the things he has.

Yet most of us have been influenced in more ways than one by the things that we read. Good authors have the power to make you spend hours together pondering over the words they write. Words that make you question preconceived notions and beliefs. Or words that force you to think along lines you never knew existed. Either ways these are the words that will change your life. And that is what Ayn’s writings mean to me.

Most people I know who like her writing fall in two categories. One, who like her ideas cause they are radical, something they would never have been able to think up of. The other are the ones who have heard she’s good, and hence believe that its in vogue to rave about her work.

To me, Ayn Rand is my counselor and guide. During the formative years of my life, the things that disturbed me the most was that everything I genuinely believed and lived by, was something that was questioned by the world at large. Ayn’s writing gave me the strength to fight for what I believed in. They gave me a sanction to question, to understand and to form my own beliefs. She helped me put in words the creed that I had started living by. Hence no matter whether I write or not, my posts will always keep appearing with her words. The words that changed my life.

Thought for the day:
"To acheive you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power"
Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not sure where i read this one, but it seems that some guys interviewing JRR Tolkien wanted to know if he had any secret meaning or deeper thoughts for the lord of the rings. to which he replied that it was just a story that he has written and that he did not write with any deeper meaning intentions for the audience.

while talking about face value, i've noticed that while most people love to look behind the words and for deeper meanings, they fail to look at the thoughts that went into it. more often then not, words are crystallisations of thoughts (unless you are a dodo that does not follow that good old saying). well at least that's the case with me... that's not really coming out rite or making any sense... not enough crystallisation i guess... :-p

--xh-- said...

Today i came to your blog from rearset, and i saw what i want to put in words.When i was @ my teenage and had major problems and was not unable to decide on my life, i got The Fountainhead, and teh Atlas Shrugged. It is not exaggeration if I said that these books saved my life. They are my bible, and anti-depressent. Greetings to one rand fan from anoterh one.

rearset said...

You do realise that it has now been more than half a year. A post is most definitely overdue, right?

nyctophobia, do something!

Unknown said...

I too came from rearset's blog. It is funny how Ayn Rand provokes strong emotions - love or hate among different cross sections.

I love and cherish Ayn Rand writings and have tried hard to pass the infection to whoever would listen - but that is harder than i thought.

Anyway I have a theory which I am thinking to blog about. Ayn Rand is the definitive book for the formative years of the adolescent or in Ayn Rand's words - the new intellectual. But why is it that so many people say that they have grown out of Ayn Rand's reach? They say they have moved on to something like Sartre or even Richard Bach. I think it has to do with passion and practicality. When we are in those formative years, we have dreams but have not seen the world. So we tend to be idealistic and immediately jump at the idealistic outlook of the Ayn Rand characters. But when most people get into corporate life, they realize that ideals dont pay - end of story. Well, that's my pet belief.

Thank you for the memories - from Ayn Rand fan to another.

Anonymous said...

Kavitha, you wrote...".....Good authors have the power to make you spend hours together pondering over the words they write. Words that make you question preconceived notions and beliefs..."

What you wrote is very true. When I wrote my book AM I A HINDU? in the middle my regular engineering job, I never ever thought anyone will care about what I wrote.

When my book became very popular all over the world, I was totally amazed to see how much inner meanings to all the things I wrote in my book by some of my readers.

Sometimes, I want to say, my God, I never ever thought about all the things they are reading into what I wrote.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

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