John Steinbeck

Excerpt from "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck (1952), Chapter 13, Part 1.

"Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.

"And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost."

This is pure Rand. Does anyone know if Rand had anything to say about Steinbeck?

Paul

Post 1

Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 10:33am

Rand would definitely NOT agree with "Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy," except maybe for two or three items in the list. For example, Merwin and Webster's CALUMET "K," her favorite novel. Most songwriters collaborate, and a musical play is almost always a joint effort by book writer, lyricist, and composer.

But I believe she would emphasize that in each person's sphere of labor, his individual mind must rule. And that the integration of the several contributions into a harmonious whole must be under the control of one mind.

In short, individualism is a basic principle of man's relation to reality, but there are many ways it could play out in the complexities of life.

But yes, the rest of the quotation might have been agreed to by Rand!

Rodney Rawlings

Post 2

Sunday, January 9, 2005 - 10:07am

I do not think that Rand could be much of a Steinbeck fan, rather a fan of his philosophy. "Grapes of Wrath" would kill any such possibility.
A fan of his ability to write is another issue. It would be difficult to deny his ability as a writer.

Post 3

Sunday, January 9, 2005 - 9:54pm

Objectivist Shoshana Milgram (professor of English at Virgina Tech) said in an interview with the Ayn Rand Institute:

"Last December I spoke at a session entitled "Problems in Literary Research," about my detective work on the parallels between a passage in John Steinbeck's East of Eden and Roark's courtroom speech. I'd noticed the similarity many years ago, when I taught the Steinbeck novel, and I've been trying to discover how and when Steinbeck might have encountered Ayn Rand or The Fountainhead. A highlight of my investigation-in-progress was a phone call from Thomas Steinbeck, whom I'd contacted: he told me that his father had indeed known Ayn Rand."

In The Letters of Ayn Rand, to Dewitt Emery, May 17, 1943. Excerpts

... the Reds have done a good job of building up literary celebrities for their own purposes, such as Orson Wells, Clifford Odets, John Steinbeck, etc. These celebrities then appear on Red committees, endorse Red causes, build up other Red names, and the racket works as the radicals best propaganda method.

...a private person who would undertake to finance a campaign to publicize my book from the political-ideological angle on a large scale-as the books of Willkie, Quentin Reynolds, Vincent Sheean, Steinbeck and the rest of the comrades have been publicized.
...I think I can do better than the Steinbecks and Orson Welleses-- and God knows they've done plenty for their side.

To put in context, what was going on with the Reds, see "Steinbeck's myth of the Okies" by Keith Windschuttle in The New Criterion Vol.20, no. 10. On line at--

www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/jun02/steinbeck.htm

Post 4

Monday, January 10, 2005 - 9:27am

Bob: Thank you for that very interesting bit of information. Perhaps we need more insight into the mind of Steinbeck, though. It is curious that he would be so explicit and public in his belief in individualism and also exploit the depression, seemingly to sell books, as in The Grapes of Wrath.

I can understand Rand's condemnation of him from the point of view of The Grapes of Wrath but it's as if she perceives an insidious plot in his contradictions.

Is it possible that Steinbeck had a change in his philosophy from the Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to East of Eden in 1952?

Sam

Post 5

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 6:46pm

"Is it possible that Steinbeck had a change in his philosophy from the Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to East of Eden in 1952?"

Wonderful question, and considering the given passage, quite possible. I have read Grapes of Wrath, however I have yet to get to East of Eden, so I can only say this without any other knowledge of the text.
Steinbeck's for GoW is almost as bad as Sinclair's the Jungle, however it seems unlikly that Steinbeck was part of a plot, in fact the idea is more comical that plausible.

(Edited by Dana Ingram on 1/12, 3:10pm)

Post 6

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 7:26pm