Thursday, March 12, 2009

Ready Writers' Essay Review #1

Review the following essay. I have provided the topic below. Comment on three strengths of the essay you feel you could use in your own writing. Comments due by next Friday.

Topic I
“[O]bserve that in all the propaganda of the ecologists – amidst all their appeals to nature and pleas for ‘harmony with nature’ – there is no discussion of man's needs and the requirements of his survival. Man is treated as if he were an unnatural phenomenon. Man cannot survive in the kind of state of nature that the ecologists envision – i.e., on the level of sea urchins or polar bears....
In order to survive, man has to discover and produce everything he needs, which means that he has to alter his background and adapt it to his needs. Nature has not equipped him for adapting himself to his background in the manner of animals. From the most primitive cultures to the most advanced cultures, man has had to manufacture things; his well-being depends on his success at production. The lowest human tribe cannot survive without the alleged source of pollution: fire. It is not merely symbolic that fire was the property of the gods which Prometheus* brought to man. The ecologists are new vultures swarming to extinguish that fire.”
*a Titan who is chained and tortured by Zeus for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to mankind
— Ayn Rand, “The Anti-Industrial Revolution,” from Return of the Primitive, 1971

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1 comment:

  1. As to the first essay, the flowing rhythm in the introduction seems to move the piece along as a whole. I think in my writing i need to be more flowing and try to give it the poetic feels like Rebecca does. Also i like throughout the piece there are very few choopy sentences but there are no lapses in the writing and all of her thoughts are complete. I know that in my writing my head tends to get ahead of my hand.
    The second one semed a little plain following the first. but in all it was a very well rounded work. both illustrate the importance of picking one theme and following it through
    they helped me to see it is better to have 1 thought well portrayed than 3 ideas barely skimmed.

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