Mixed opinions on the resurgent popularity of Ayn Rand, but this is one of the better responses:

JOSEPH BOTTUM
Ayn Rand? The Cher of the libertarian movement? Sweet Mary and Joseph, it?s hard to believe she?s back in the news. Does nothing ever go away? Are we never rid of the flotsam and jetsam of ages past? Then put your little hand in mine. / There ain?t no hill or mountain we can?t climb ? ?cause I got you, babe.

Look, we all read Atlas Shrugged back when we were 14, mostly for that randy little minx, Dagny Taggart. Was there any heroic character in the novel who didn?t, at some point, enfold her in his orgasmic embrace? But let?s not pretend it actually meant anything worth thinking. Fourteen-year-olds don?t like to read serious philosophy; they like to read about Dagny?s sex life and pretend that it?s serious philosophy. They say we?re young and we don?t know. / We won?t find out until we grow.

Taken simply as fiction and prose, Ayn Rand is something an adult reader would hesitate to shove in a laundry bag, for fear it would soil the dirty socks. William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review did the world a favor, all those years ago, by throwing the randy Randians overboard. Do we really have to let them climb back on the ship now?

? Joseph Bottum is editor of First Things.