UNX Book Club: We the Living

Welcome to the UNX Book Club discussion of Ayn Rand’s We the Living. I suggested we read this book back in November mainly because Kipe snatched up some controversial quote from Ms. Rand and threw it into his sig (also, someone at work was using the book as a doorstop, so it was convenient for me to rescue, borrow and read it). Anyway, the quote Kipe posted, ostensibly from We the Living, was "What are your masses but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?" Pretty shocking quote, if you ask me, especially coming from a woman I admire as much as Rand; after all, it seems to run counter to the "live and let live" philosophy evident in her later works, like The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I wanted to know the which character in the novel spoke these words, and in what context.

Turns out, the edition of We the Living I read didn’t have that line at all. In fact, most modern editions of the book don’t! It wasn’t hard to identify the passage where the quote should have been when I encountered it, because the tone was similar; that particular line was just missing. A little bit of research reveals that Rand excised a few sentences from the book during its second printing, which says something about her evolving ideals. As it pertains to the UNX Book Club, however, it seems this whole endeavor was for nothing—unless someone else’s edition had it.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did, and very much so. I was talking to a friend the other day about recommending books and how we’re both so often loath to do so, since one’s enjoyment of a book can be tied up with the particular place the reader is in at that point in his of her life. This subjective element may be why I connected with this book as much as I did. To be brief, I read this little story last November, a period during which I was hopelessly enamored with a guy who with self-destructive tendencies, much like the character Leo. During this same time period, I went into my high-stress job each day hoping I wouldn’t get fired and have to move back home. These factors made it easy for me to identify with Kira. Rand instills her writing with such a passion for life that it became comforting ritual each day to spend time with her and Kira. My life wasn’t great, but I fought bitterly to make it better, and that hope for the future gave it meaning.

I wouldn’t say this is a great book, though. It drags at times and isn’t as philosophically compelling as Rand’s other novels. However, it does have its moments of enticing philosophical glimmer. My favorite occurs when Kira asks Andrei if he believes in God. He says he doesn’t, and Kira tells him that she doesn’t either—and that it was actually an upside-down question to discern whether or not he believes in life. She goes on to say that anyone who believes in God cannot truly believe in life, explaining it like this: "Because, you see, God—whatever one chooses to call God—is one’s highest conception of the highest possible. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it." I don't know what I could possibly say to add to the liberating simplicity of that passage.

Other memorable moments include Kira’s line about not wanting to be part of any movement but just wanting the freedom to live her life. I also loved when, while attending a Communist rally, she stated that the Communist Party’s anthem would make a great funeral dirge. And, finally, I think it was bold that she made the novel’s true male lead a member of the very Communist Party that Rand—and Kira—so loathes. The revolutionary Leo ends up being a deadbeat, but Kira has enough sense to see a similar joie de vivre in Andrei, the man who should be her sworn enemy. They say that opposites attract but this relationship would make the case that, sometimes, perceived “opposites” are not opposite at all, but fundamentally the same.

Did anyone else read the book? If so, I look forward to your snarky insights.

Ooh, thanks for the book recommendation, Savant, and for your insightful analysis of the book. That infamous line makes much more sense when read that way.

Apparently there was an Italian film adaptation of this novel made back in 1942 that I now want to see. They showed a clip from it during an Ayn Rand documentary I watched recently -- the scene with Kira telling her family she wants to be an engineer -- and it looks like a good adaptation.