Category: The Atlasphere

All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.

Lionsgate's Michael Burns discusses Atlas Shrugged movie

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Here are some excerpts from a Box Office Mojo interview with Michael Burns–Vice Chairman at Lionsgate.

Box Office Mojo: But Atlas Shrugged is your personal favorite Ayn Rand novel?

Michael Burns: It is. It’s one of my favorite booksâ??with some of the richest, most colorful characters of any book. I read it when I was in the ninth grade and it just stuck with me. I can still vividly remember specific scenes in the book. I can’t wait to see what [director Vadim Perelman] does with them. …

Box Office Mojo: What makes Dagny a great character?

Michael Burns: She is strong and smart but [she’s] also flawed; she’s really stubborn, almost dogmatic at times, and, if you remember the book, she goes down hard. She really does everything she possibly can to save the railroad. She’s got a brother who’s a buffoon that’s allegedly her boss, a sort of checkered life with lovers and an interesting dynamic with people who work for her and with her. She fights to the bitter end when the great minds of the world go on strike before she capitulates. That’s a really interesting character.

Box Office Mojo: Do you see her as the main character?

Michael Burns: Certainly, in the first two acts of the movie, Dagny Taggart will be the lead and, in the end, that’s who the audience is rooting for, so, if there were one lead, I think it would be Dagny. But there are other fantastic characters, [playboy] Francisco [d’Anconia] who basically fleeces all these people that he thinks have been taking advantage of societyâ??obviously [industrialist] Henry Rearden, or Hank Reardenâ??and this great character, the pirate Ragnar [Danneskjold] and John Galt, who’s sort of a tangential character in many ways, but certainly a central character.

Read the full interview for more on Burns’s thoughts on the Atlas Shrugged movie.

Vadim Perelman discusses Atlas Shrugged movie

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Excerpts from a new interview with Vadim Perelman at Box Office Mojo:

Box Office Mojo: Are you one of the men of the mind?
Vadim Perelman: Yes. [Pausing] I am. That’s my way in [to Ayn Rand’s novel]â??where I am right now and where I started, I had to be [a man of the mind]. That’s what my mom told me when she read Atlas Shruggedâ??because she knows I have to have a door to get in [to adapting a literary work] and that’s what she said: “look at your life.” To [live under communism and] have no hot water and come to Hollywood with 14 dollars and not a single contact [and succeed]â??that’s only due to my individualism and my entrepreneurial spirit. I mean, I’m not changing the world. But maybe I am.
Box Office Mojo: Would you go on strike?
Vadim Perelman: If I was feeling victimizedâ??yes, I would.
Box Office Mojo: How does having survived a childhood in Soviet Russia affect your work?
Vadim Perelman: I left with my mother when I was 14. That was 1977. [The communists] were letting [some] Jewish people out for public relationsâ??also because there was a wheat shortage. I remember that [U.S. President Jimmy] Carter and [Soviet dictator Leonid] Brezhnev struck some sort of deal and I remember thinking: we are worth a couple of loaves of bread. It kind of made me who I am. There was a lot of death in my family. That definitely has an effect on my work; it made me stronger. …
Box Office Mojo: The novel is written in three parts. Did you consider producing Atlas Shrugged as a trilogy?
Vadim Perelman: I don’t think it would hold up as a trilogyâ??remember, [J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary series] Lord of the Rings was written as a trilogyâ??but there isn’t enough climax after each part in Atlas Shrugged. …
Box Office Mojo: Is moneyâ??as Ayn Rand wrote in Atlas Shruggedâ?? the root of all good?
Vadim Perelman: I have a great quote from Ayn Rand that I actually believe: “If there’s a more tragic fool than the businessman that does not realize he’s an extension of man’s highest creative spiritâ??it’s the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.” That should be on the masthead of your Web site. So, that answers your questionâ??and that’s from Atlas Shrugged.

See the full interview for much more about the Atlas movie as well as Perelman’s other movies.

Monster Cables' patent lawyers take it in the nose

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Many Objectivists and free market advocates have mixed feelings about patent law and how it is used. If you’re one of them, don’t miss this letter to the lawyers representing Monster Cable. It is hilarious. (Hat tip Instapundit)
Here’s one interesting excerpt, just to save you a click:

I have seen Monster Cable take untenable IP positions in various different scenarios in the past, and am generally familiar with what seems to be Monster Cable’s modus operandi in these matters. I therefore think that it is important that, before closing, I make you aware of a few points.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues. My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle. In plaintiffs’ practice, likewise, I was always a strong advocate of standing upon principle and taking cases all the way to judgment, even when substantial offers of settlement were on the table. I am “uncompromising” in the most literal sense of the word. If Monster Cable proceeds with litigation against me I will pursue the same merits-driven approach; I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds. As for signing a licensing agreement for intellectual property which I have not infringed: that will not happen, under any circumstances, whether it makes economic sense or not.

But read the whole thing.

Campus socialists: Afraid of a little competition?

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

New Individualist editor Robert Bidinotto has one of the best responses I’ve seen to the brouhaha about BB&T’s donations to college campuses.
He wrote to The New York Times:

I have never heard any howling about common university course requirements that have students read environmentalist or socialist “literature” — material often prepared or pushed by various “nonprofit” advocacy groups.
Would any of the protesters here complain about the classroom use of materials created by, say, the Sierra Club, NRDC, or St. Al Gore?
What’s the matter, folks? Afraid of a little competition in the marketplace of ideas?

I think this observation gets at the heart of what’s so ridiculous about certain professors’ protestations. The “academic autonomy” thing is mostly manure, because no one is being forced to do anything against their will.
See Robert’s full post for more.

Profiting from Rand

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Bloomberg writer Matthew Keenan reports on a controversial, but growing trend: businessmen are openly supporting academic institutions that teach Ayn Rand. Apparently, not only is resistance to Ayn Rand and fear of disclosing any association with her or her philosophy fading, but more and more people in academia, the media, and elsewhere are discovering that it now pays to be associated with her:

“After BB&T mandated that some schools teach Atlas Shrugged, grant seekers became aware of Allison’s interest and now tailor their applications by stating up front their interest in Rand.”

When being in some way associated with Rand is no longer a kiss of death, but on the contrary becomes profitable, the culture is approaching an important tipping point.
The full article is here.

Perelman on Atlas Shrugged movie

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

In an interview with ReelzChannel, Vadim Perelman says of his Atlas Shrugged script: “I was really true to the book and they said that I solved it, finally. Not my words. I didn’t feel I did, but they really liked it a lot.”
Perelman doesn’t say who “they” are, but one would assume (and hope) that at least one of the “they” is David Kelley, founder and senior fellow of The Atlas Society, who has been working with Perelman, The Baldwin Entertainment Group, and Lionsgate to insure philosophical fidelity to the novel.
There isn’t a whole lot more in the interview, but the rest of it is here.

Why the Atlasphere isn't like Match.com

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

We’ve had more than 100 140 new members join in the last 24 hours, on the strength of this mention in the NY Times Book Review.
One of our new subscribers just sent us the following feedback, which highlights a key aspect of the Atlasphere’s business model that most members probably aren’t aware of:

…Speaking of credit, I’d like to “credit” the Atlasphere for not requiring that both boy and girl be subscribed in order to communicate through the dating site. As you know, Match.com and others require both parties to subscribe before communcation can occur, and so a large percentage of the “available” women (and men, I’ll guess) on these sites are not truly available because they haven’t subscribed. This is borderline fraud in my opinion, and I’m glad to see that at least one site has the integrity to be fair to its customers…but I shouldn’t be surprised, because this is exactly what one would expect from an Objectivist-affiliated business. 🙂 Keep up the good work!

Couldn’t have said it better myself. When the person you’re writing to must have a paid subscription to respond, and less than 1% of the members have subscriptions (which is quite common on mega-sites like Match.com), that means you’re 100 times less likely to be able to strike up a conversation — and your subscription has 1/100th the value you thought it would.
The Atlasphere’s policy, here, is beneficial not only for subscribers, but for free members as well — because even if you don’t have a subscription yourself, you can still meet people on the Atlasphere by simply replying (for free) whenever a subscriber contacts you.
And neither of you must figure out stealthy ways conceal your e-mail address in your message.

Sometimes it's the Howard Roark problem

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

New York Times writer Rachel Donadio explores the “It’s not you, it’s your books” problem in romantic love — a problem very familiar to many admirers of Ayn Rand’s novels.
From her perspective, though, it’s the like (rather than dislike) for Rand’s novels that indicates middlebrow tastes:

Pity the would-be Romeo who earnestly confesses middlebrow tastes: sometimes, itâ??s the Howard Roark problem as much as the Pushkin one. â??I did have to break up with one guy because he was very keen on Ayn Rand,â? said Laura Miller, a book critic for Salon. â??He was sweet and incredibly decent despite all the grandiosely heartless â??philosophyâ?? he espoused, but it wasnâ??t even the ideology that did it. I just thought Rand was a hilariously bad writer, and past a certain point I couldnâ??t hide my amusement.â? (Members of theatlasphere.com, a dating and fan site for devotees of â??Atlas Shruggedâ? and â??The Fountainhead,â? might disagree.)

Indeed.
Sounds like they both dodged a bullet. Two cheers for being unable to hide your own literary tastes!
And I’ll second Donadio’s suggestion to fall in love with someone who shares your taste in art. It makes a lot of other things go more smoothly.

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