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A review by austinstorm
The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis by Darryl Cunningham
2.0
What a great idea for a comic book. Ayn Rand is already a larger-than-life villain, seemingly directly motivated by trauma she experienced early in life and completely uncompromising in her advocacy of 'selfishness'.
The book is divided into three parts. The first is a biography of Rand, which does a decent job of condensing things. The second is an overview of the 2008 financial collapse, which is also great.
Where things fall apart is in the third section, which attempts to be balanced in its presentation of the differences between liberals and conservatives, but feels forced and odd - like he's trying to assure us that he really understands conservatives so that he can lay the blame for the entire financial crisis at their feet.
It's frustrating because there are so many great contradictions in the life of Rand - her fierce advocacy for abortion (in the name of self-interest, of course) and her denunciation of feminism. And in the financial crisis - the selfishness of bankers, and the selfish entitlement of the 'American dream' of home ownership. But the author is ultimately too ideological to get beyond white hats and black hats.
Finding ideology in your comics is like getting unsweetened shredded wheat as your breakfast cereal.
The worst part of the book, unfortunately, is the format. This didn't need to be a comic book. Apart from a few standout moments, it's just narration. The compositions are all the same, and are very flat. I wasn't expecting the comic version of the 9/11 commission report, but this could've been so much better.
I get the need to be reductionistic, but there's so much pathos in the life of Rand. This attempts to get at it in a few places (her husband's marginalization) in a Chris Ware-esque way, but it's unsuccessful.
The book is divided into three parts. The first is a biography of Rand, which does a decent job of condensing things. The second is an overview of the 2008 financial collapse, which is also great.
Where things fall apart is in the third section, which attempts to be balanced in its presentation of the differences between liberals and conservatives, but feels forced and odd - like he's trying to assure us that he really understands conservatives so that he can lay the blame for the entire financial crisis at their feet.
It's frustrating because there are so many great contradictions in the life of Rand - her fierce advocacy for abortion (in the name of self-interest, of course) and her denunciation of feminism. And in the financial crisis - the selfishness of bankers, and the selfish entitlement of the 'American dream' of home ownership. But the author is ultimately too ideological to get beyond white hats and black hats.
Finding ideology in your comics is like getting unsweetened shredded wheat as your breakfast cereal.
The worst part of the book, unfortunately, is the format. This didn't need to be a comic book. Apart from a few standout moments, it's just narration. The compositions are all the same, and are very flat. I wasn't expecting the comic version of the 9/11 commission report, but this could've been so much better.
I get the need to be reductionistic, but there's so much pathos in the life of Rand. This attempts to get at it in a few places (her husband's marginalization) in a Chris Ware-esque way, but it's unsuccessful.