Wondering About Novelists

I read L. Ron Hubbard novels as a teenager, and was pre-audited once, while depressed in Boston, but have been neither audited nor cleared by the Church of Scientology. I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead in the early 1960s, and have engaged in heated arguments about value beyond their quality as novels for almost 50 years.

I’ve been wondering about these two novelists for a long time.

As I grew up in Kentucky in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, my family did not think much about novelists (although my sister’s middle name, Zane, came from a western novelist’s first name). They certainly did not say to me, “Jimmy, why don’t you grow up to be a novelist.”

Here are two examples of why Jimmy might want to consider becoming a novelist.

Example One: A major new religion, Scientology, was created in 20^th Century New Jersey by a novelist.

Novelist L Ron Hubbard CREATED A NEW RELIGION that has attracted thousands of followers from around the world. Think about that. In my lifetime, while Billy Graham, Joel Osteen, and other preachers preach about religions that were established thousands of years ago, this novelist created a new one.

Hubbard wrote science fiction novels (Battlefield Earth and Final Blackout being two of them) that sold well. Springing from those novels came self-help books, including Dianetics, a manifesto/prescription of sorts. From that scrip came Scientology, which is, I believe, the only religion invented in the late 20^th Century by a novelist.

John Travolta and Tom Cruise are just two beneficiaries of this new religion.

Example Two: A major new personal/philosophy, Objectivism, was created in my lifetime by a novelist.

Novelist Ayn Rand CREATED A NEW SCHOOL OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. While other philosophers espoused philosophical tenets created thousands of years ago, related to epistemology or ethics, to students in academic institutions, Rand created a new philosophy related to the value of selfishness, preached in social and political marketplaces from the political pulpits of neo-conservatives and libertarians.

Rand wrote two major novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. From these novels, with the help of her lover Nat Branden, she created a new school of philosophy, Objectivism, which has thousands of followers around the world.

Barry Goldwater, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and the tea party are some of the beneficiaries of this new philosophy.

So, the next time your kid asks you about possible jobs as miners, teachers, doctors, lawyers, factory workers, athletes, and the like, I wonder if you’ll say:

“Honey, why don’t you choose an exciting and rewarding career? Become a novelist so that you can create a new religion or political party. Money, power, fame, and self-fulfillment will surely follow.”

Or maybe you’ll tell your honey that you are about to start that novel you’ve been meaning to write?