Good news for FlynnFiles readers who are first and foremost readers of my books. I'm enjoying a productive run of book writing/research that began before Christmas and has extended well into the New Year. A fourth book is fast taking shape.

Success, in my case, does indeed have many fathers. One claimant to paternity is my new HP "netbook," a gift from Santa Claus. On my recent trip West, it was a Godsend. In archives and in restuarants, on the train and on a plane, at the airport and by my fireplace, the miniature computer enabled me to work more effectively and efficiently. The netbook has replaced the notebook. Each has benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, no shifty-eyed train passenger ever coveted my notebooks the way they eyeball my netbook. On the other hand, I doubt I will ever lose my netbook the way I lost countless notebooks.

The decision to go West was another such catalyst. One trick of the trade: one must research before one can write. To write this book, it was necessary to conduct research at several venues--the Hoover Institution and the San Francisco Public Library being two. So many wonderful people were instrumental in making this trip happen. And it was a happening. I liken it to my winter venture to Europe back in '06, which transformed a case of writer's block into a case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Bleak winters, people speaking gibberish, and barrooms for miles have that effect on me. My San Francisco trip, I imagine, has done for this book what my European jaunt did for A Conservative History of the American Left.

Fortuitously, while conducting research at Stanford, I received an invitation to speak in Chicago. It just so happens I have pending research to conduct in the Windy City. Piggy-backing multiple purposes upon one trip is just about my favorite thing in the world. The added bonus that the trip is for the most part paid for is just frosting on the cake. You could say that I am on a winning streak.

Back East, I have negotiated a winter truce with the bats in my attic. Are they hiding in my walls? Have they journeyed to a Southern bat cave for the winter? I do not know. I only know they don't harrass me when I work. Added to the stimulating attic environment, is the reemergence of cigars. As was the case with Ayn Rand, Eric Hoffer, and so many of the writers that I am fascinated with, tobacco is a performance-enhancing drug for me. During the past five days, for instance, I've penned 2,700 words for my new book. This would be some kind of record if it were not for my testing positive for a PED (cigars). When asked by aspiring preteen writers what they must do to become a published author, I always advise them that they should take up smoking. Cigarettes, cigars, pipes--it really doesn't matter so long as it's some addictive tobacco product.

I anticipate a completed book by the end of Spring and a published book sometime early next year. With any luck, the remnant of book readers will not go extinct in the intervening period.

I'm glad you had a good trip and look forward to purchasing your new book.

For the life of me I cannot understand why any human being who is reasonable and who possesses an ounce of compassion could like Ayn Rand, who completely lacks probity. Perhaps your new book will remove the scales from my eyes.

"It is not hard to understand why Rand’s philosophy - expressed in her novels “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead” - would be popular among rightwingers today. Just like rightwing talk radio, it tells them exactly what they want to hear - that they (the readers) are privileged and special and that they should spend all their time and energy advancing their own interests and not worry about or bother with anyone else. It is the ultimate paen to greed and selfishness and that is pretty much what much of Republican political philosophy boils down to today."
-Mike Thomas
http://rhetoricrhythm.blogspot.com/2009/11/ayn-rand-and-contradictions-of-gop.html

"I strongly dislike the figures you mention. Rand in my view is one of the most evil figures of modern intellectual history."
-Noam Chomsky
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/12/question-period.html

No conservative or libertarian argument has been able to validate Ayn Rand's theory of selfishness as a virtue. Are you going to address that in your new book?

LOL! Come on PMA read one of the chapters in Intellectual Morons and see what the author thinks about Ayn Rand. Before your time maybe PMA but some Randians came on this site a few years back and were having a Rand Roid Range from a post that provoked some anger to say the least.

Howard Roark, in the Fountainhead, epitomizes what the earliest American settlers discovered that did not exist in the world at the time. It was the ability for each individual to think, imagine, create, build and change the environment with their sweat, even disturbing the established and accepted way things were done, and without fear of punishment. That was America, and what set her apart from all other nations, as cited in Save Pebble Droppers & Prosperity at Amazon and claysamerica.com. Individual freedom caused local government, close to the governed within a day’s horseback ride. The governed ruled, and they could change government in Town Halls, voting or by vigilante movements, much like the Tea Party movement today. It is the tradition rising from a Howard Roark kind of people. Claysamerica.com

Just to second Joe's comments: I am a little confused how one could conflate my "fascination" regarding a figure with my liking that figure. I am fascinated, for instance, by Jim Jones. I don't like Jim Jones. Anyhow, Joe mentioned my history with Randians, which includes a critical chapter in "Intellectual Morons" and also this memorable blog post and its ensuing discussion. It's worth a re-read:

http://www.flynnfiles.com/archives/culture2004/ayn_rand_intellectual_moron.html

Dan, I'm glad to hear you are writing another book. I've enjoyed the last three, especially A Conservative History of the American Left. Hopefully the year continues to be as productive as it started.

Buying Intellectual Morons very soon, probably this weekend. I read through the comments by the Objectivists; they're pretty slippery but I'm going to post a long response (again) soon.

Hell yea!

Oh, and PMA, can you tell me what you dislike about Ayn Rand, in your own words?

How much of her work do you even know about? Have you read, for instance, her non-fiction?

Dan,

All joking aside, I have always wondered about the connection between stimulants and writing. I always found coffee and other aids helpful to my synapses. Do you think is merely a question of concentration over short durations? Do you think Adderall or other heavyweight substances help or hinder a person? What other drugs have been used by literary figures: opiates, alcohol?

Regarding the Ayn Rand stuff, one does not need to agree with her to know she is a hell of a writer. She just needs to be framed in the context of what she is: a screenwriter, a lover of pulp fiction and detective novels. Then she went a bit nuts as is well documented. But so did George Lucas. The Phantom Menace is more tragic than Atlas Shrugged. I am fascinated with how creative minds atrophy with their success and begin to revere themselves as demigods.

The Fountainhead if one of my favorite novels of all time. I wasn't crazy about Atlas Shrugged because I think by that time she was getting didactic and black and white.

I think it has to do with concentration and being in the right mood, James. I like music in the background. I don't like to be bothered. I smoke cigars and drink redbull. Sometimes I drink other stuff, too, but that happens more when I read.

My take on Rand is probably similar to yours. She's makes for a good writer but unconvincing god. This probably says as much about her misguided followers as it does about her. I like "Atlas Shrugged" and "Anthem"; I couldn't get into "The Fountainhead." She's also a decent polemicist. Her nonfiction writing about feminists and environmentalists I remember as being very good. Ultimately, she's an ideologue--a theory-based rather than a fact-based person--and that's her undoing (and probably her appeal too).