I am enrolled in “English 304: Creative Writing Fiction”, instructed by Fern Kupfer, and I must say Shirley Keller’s indictment of Ms. Kupfer is an impressive example of fictional creativity; perhaps you enrolled in the wrong course Ms. Keller?

My experience in Fern Kupfer’s class is amazingly opposite yours. I find Ms. Kupfer to be friendly, funny, open-minded, knowledgeable, and receptive. Receptive to everyone’s opinion, from the nose-ringed skateboarder to the crew cut-wearing prep.

I would suggest that Objectivism is anything but; as Ayn Rand and yourself so often and eloquently reveal. Your liberal use of direct quotes is highly suspect. You must possess an incredible auditory memory, indeed elephantine! (Playing “Trivial Pursuit” with you must be a nightmare!) Ayn Rand never composed a piece of non-fiction; that is, anything based remotely on reality, creative or otherwise. Her mammoth scribblings of fictional-drivel, “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead”, contrary to your assertions are celebrations of sick, miserable, and perverted people and concepts.

“The Fountainhead” depicts the rape of a woman as somehow cathartic! Is this the “…expression of values that are beneficial to human life.” that you say Rand exhibits?

If you would take a look around the world — not YOUR world Ms. Keller, THE world — you would see that failure, misery, suffering, sickness, perversion, and death are indeed the norm. These are not held up to be ideals, they are facts. Creative non-fiction brings to light these tragedies which would otherwise go unnoticed, many times inspiring activism to thwart these tragedies.

Rand’s Objectivist vision inspires people to turn a blind eye to the needs of their fellow man. “The Virtue of Selfishness” breeds contempt, prejudice, and apathy.

In your hero-worship of Ayn Rand, libelous depiction of Fern Kupfer, and blind acceptance of Objectivism, Ms. Keller, you have broken the second Golden Rule: Never Judge A Book By Its Cover.

Jay Berkey

Junior

Environmental Science