tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-417475152705096483.post3275576965856234471..comments2023-06-04T03:08:10.609-04:00Comments on Salty Current: The necrophilous Ayn Rand, Part 2SChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328512370690763252noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-417475152705096483.post-69892974368229255692019-11-26T21:37:55.200-05:002019-11-26T21:37:55.200-05:00Hello SC,
Thank you for your interesting discussi...Hello SC,<br /><br />Thank you for your interesting discussion of Rand and the issue of necrophilia. I came across your blog because I was trying to find the source of a Fromm quotation which I remembered as "we are increasingly attracted to what is unalive", in order to check the accuracy of my memory of his exact words. Your quotations from The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (which I have read) suggest the probable source of the phrase.<br /><br />I had a similar sense of illumination to yours with Rand and necrophilia while thinking about Ingmar Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander. The family and the house in which the children grow up, with it's life, color and humanity as compared to the Bishop's dreadful cold stone castle with its hidden life-hostile sadism seems a remarkable illustration and validation of Fromm's biophilia/necrophilia thesis.<br /><br />My intention is to find exact wording of the Fromm quotation so that I can print up a short essay called "Prettiness is unaliveness". If you will indulge me, here is the thesis--<br /><br />"Erich Fromm says somewhere that we are increasingly attracted to what is unalive. Think of the glossy quality of new cars, flat screen TV's, laptop colors, picture postcards, advertisements, models in advertisements, the colors used in packaging everything that we buy, our packaging ourselves based on advertisements, movies and magazines, the House Beautiful look, lawns in upscale suburbia, etc. Alternatively, think of wandering around in the pre-modern part of cities in the Mediterranean. Everything is made of stone or stone covered with stucco and painted. It is weathered. The more it is weathered the more it's idiosyncratic beauty, the more humanly comfortable and comforting it is, and the more it is an expression pf the region's colors, climate and geography. But we are desperate to turn everything into picture postcard prettiness. This may be the fundamental drive of our society -- which the newly rich are adopting around the world. But prettiness is deadness. We are degrading, degrading, degrading the world and it's resources in order to turn everything into lifeless prettiness!"<br /><br />Again, thank's for your interesting post,<br /><br />Chris<br /><br /><br /><br />Chris Diverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828732194002118505noreply@blogger.com