[ExI] Rand and Friedman

[Dan]

--- On Mon, 6/15/09, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 3:46 PM, Dan<dan_ust at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>> Did you read and like _Anthem_?  I did, but I have a
>> penchant for dystopian fiction.
> 
> Right now, I believe I confuse We, the living and Anthem,
> even though
> I am persuaded that I read both, a long time ago...

I can understand that.  Memory really is a fickle thing.

_We the Living_, her first novel, is set in the Soviet Union just after the Civil War.  It's the longer novel and she said something like it was as close to an autobiography as she would ever write.

_Anthem_, her second novel, is set in a future society so collectivized that even the word "I" has been expunged from the lexicon.  It's fairly short; I read it in a single night (and I'm a plodding reading).  It seems she was definitely doing a rewrite of Zamyatin's novel (which was much longer) -- and, of course, not just imitating his work, but critiquing it.  (Other important parallels: both books are, IIRC, epistolatory novels in the form of diary entries -- with only the (respective) protagonist's entries forming the novel; in both, the character's names sort of "depersonalized" names -- "D-503" in _We_ and "Equality 7-2521" in _Anthem_.)  E.g., IIRC, his future dystopia society is technologically advanced and people who rebel against it are savage-like; hers has technologically regressed.
 
>> Ummm.  Well, as far as libertarianism is concerned,
>> I'm not sure Milton Friedman was a libertarian.  I think
>> him more libertarian leaning, but he seriously slips up in
>> the realm of monetary policy and externalities.  That said,
>> I believe he changed his mind of some of this late in life.
> 
> Admittedly, my knowledge of Friedman is entirely second
> hand.

I've read a few of his works.  I think _Free to Choose_, which his co-authored with his wife, is probably his most popular, but I've read more of the technical economics stuff, especially some of the essays in his _Essays in Positive Economics_. 

Regards,

Dan