More on Joss Whedon and Ayn Rand

Last week I noted that fans of Joss Whedon’s Firefly had discovered, and were enjoying, Monica White’s review for the Atlasphere.
A new thread has begun on a discussion board devoted specifically to Firefly. This group seems more sympathetic to Monica’s analogy between Joss Whedon (and his hero, Mal Reynolds) and Ayn Rand’s heroes.
Here are a few choice quotes from various participants:

“I looooooove Ayn Rands work, maybe that is why I love Firefly. I never really noticed parallels between her books and the whole creation of FF, but now that I think about it, there really are so many.”
“Me too. I hadn’t noticed it either, until someone else pointed it out. Monica, the author, described it well. Her article should sell some more DVDs and movie tickets, too. :)”
“I’m so SICK of seeing television shows that have promise get RUINED because they end up being run by committee and the one guy with the real vision gets pushed out. Shows like Firefly (and I’ll say B5 too because JMS ran his ship tightly too) maintain consistent levels of excellence *because* there’s a real bossperson with whom the buck truly stops.”
“I couldn’t agree more. There are many, many examples of shows that have been destroyed that way. I suspect the purpose of committees is to cover for and carry those who lack the talent of a Joss or JMS. It doesn’t work.”
“There’s a line in Atlas Shrugged, said mainly by John Galt… ‘I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.’ Sounds a bit Mal-ish, don’t it? Only it predates Firefly by about 45 years. That’s kind of Rand’s overriding philosophy, and I think it complements nicely. That’s why I love Firefly… loved Atlas Shrugged first, and Mal is Rand’s kind of hero, IMHO.”
“The setting may be a bit dated today, but AS is still a terrific book. I agree, Mal is a Randian kind of hero.”
“Yes, *very* Mal-like! I think Mal would have a copy of “Atlas Shrugged” at his bedside.”
“You know, it just goes to show what an intelligent, well-written show Firefly was/is. You don’t see people making favorable literary references to things like ‘Joe Millionaire’ or ‘Fear Factor’. Now…how to get Fox et al to give the public credit for having some brains!”

See the full discussion if it interests you.