Kira

The past week has been anything but boring. Work is now in full swing, as are the projects, and my Environmental Science class has finally started. But enough about that for now, it’s bedtime and work is the last thing I want on my mind. Instead, I wanted to post a quick update about some of my reading. 

I must mention that this past weekend was extremely fun. Tina came all the way from Seattle It was great to spend time with her, despite the fact that it was rainy. In fact, the rainy weather allowed for us to just relax and catch up on watching movies. Buuuut, back to why I wanted to post this update (aside from the fact that I am trying my hardest to post more frequently, with less content and time spent on editing, etc.)

Anyway, so in between reading through the New York Times’ Guide to Essential Knowledge (heh I enjoy reading a few pages a day from select subjects), I have been still working through Jung’s “The Undiscovered Self” (of which I can only truly appreciate 10-15 pages in a sitting) and Rand’s “We the Living”. All great books, and only have about 10-15% left in each. My hope is that by this time next week, I’ll be moving on to my next set of novels. 

But I must admit, I have been thoroughly enjoying “We The Living”. Set in Soviet Russia, the novel follows the life of Kira (the protagonist and a spirited counter-revolutionary). Without revealing too much about the story itself, I just wanted to say that as a lover of Rand’s novels, this one certainly stands apart from the rest. Perhaps it’s the fact that as a reader I get the sense that I am reading about Rand herself, during her adolescence. Anyway, I had a passage that I’d like to copy down into this journal for future reference. Here it is:

“Comrade Taganov,” she whispered, “how much you have to learn!”

He looked down at her with his quiet shadow of a smile and patted her hand like a child’s. “Don’t you know,” he asked, “that we can’t sacrifice millions for the sake of the few?”

“Can you sacrifice the few? When those few are the best! Deny the best its right to the top- and you have no best left. What are your masses but millions of dull, shriveled, stagnant souls that have no thoughts of their own, no dreams of their own, no will of their own, who eat and sleep and chew helplessly the words other put into their brains? And for those you would sacrifice the few who know life, who are life? I loathe your ideals because I know no worse injustice than the giving of the undeserved. Because men are not equal in ability and one can’t treat them as if they were. And because I loathe most of them.” 

“I’m glad. So do I”

“But then…”

“Only I don’t enjoy the luxury of loathing. I’d rather try to make them worth looking at, to bring them up to my level. And you’d make a great little fighter for our side [Kira].”

…

Kira then says, “…I have less in common with you than the enemies who fight you, have. I don’t want to fight for the people, I don’t want to fight against the people, I don’t want to hear of the people. I want to be left alone– to live.”

“Isn’t it a strange request?”

“Is it? And what is the state but a servant and a convenience for a large number of people, just like the electric light and the plumbing system? And wouldn’t it be preposterous to claim that men must exist for their plumbing, not the plumbing for the men?”

“And if your plumbing pipes got badly out of order, wouldn’t it be preposterous to sit still and not make an effort to mend them?”

…

Anyway, you might not like it, but I figured it was a good passage and worth keeping. Take care and ttys.