I’d also like to thank Gabbjectivist for his continuous and consistently excellent submissions, most recently the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller.

The secretaries were twirling, each in her own leather chair
While they dreamed of a golden Bull, chasing away a black Bear.
And VP Smith in her pants suit, and I in my vest
Had just popped the cork on Coppola’s best.

When down in the lobby there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
My key to the locked drawer I flew like a flash.
And brought out my silver pistol hidden ‘neath the petty cash.

The moon on the barrel of…. I call her the Duke
Gave a sparkle that went well with my black Armani suit.
When on the security monitor what should appear?
A tall, quick-paced Capitalist, and eight profiteers.

With a proud, scornful gaze and cashmere robes flaring
I knew in an instant it must be the Robber Baron.
The Producers of wealth, his partners they came
And he lifted his head and called them by name;

Bill Gates! Jack Welch! Steve Jobs! Sam Walton!
Walt Disney! Dave Thomas! Howard Shultz! Tom Watson!
To the top 5%! Till the market can’t take it!
While others have money, you’re the men who make it!

As small business stocks that before the opening bell tolls
When they meet a corporate merger, increase in value by ten-fold
So through every office the eight CEO’s traded
Until luxury filled the firm and work’s tire faded.

And then, like an order, I heard at my door
The knock of The Baron- The great Commodore
I invited him inside and Smith drew a chair
But he pointed behind my desk and said, “I’d rather sit there.”

His suit had the quality that so easily upstages
(And worth more than most men’s annual wages)
Fine jewels he rolled, like marbles in his hand
And he looked like a merchant admiring his brand

His eyes– so attentive! The intellect he must employ!
But his face showed no age… Like that of a boy.
His manner was all business, but his mouth became a smile.
He thought of this night’s earnings and the profit he’d compile

Without further ado he spread his gems before my eyes
Desire flickered across my face and he quoted the price for his prize
My face did not flinch though the number was high
He knew what he was doing, but then again, so did I.

We went back and forth as he countered all I offered
Until he revealed a ruby for which I would’ve emptied every coffer
He grinned as I surrendered and swept his hand through his silver mane
“Capitalism is all about trade,” he said, “and each man’s mutual gain.”

I smiled and shook his hand, then I cut him a well earned check
He said, “Next year it’s plastics, call me for the specs.”

Then he and his partners caught the Bullet to the New York Hyatt.
(Jack Welch liked the train so much, he decided to buy it.)
Then I heard the Baron call, as the train moved away with silent stealth
“Happy Capitalism Day to all, and to all liberty and wealth!”

CAPULETTI. El pintor y su obra. (The biography of Spanish painter Jose Capuletti)
Virtues in Verse, by Berton Braley
Ninety-Three, by Victor Hugo
Maxfield Parrish by Coy Ludwig

It is mainly for this reason that On Truth is both so refreshing and so difficult to read.

At the beginning of his book Stefan Molyneux warns the reader of what awaits him. That “This book will mess up your life, as you know it.” And though this may first seem a dramatic or arrogant statement, he is right to warn us, and we are right to be afraid.

Focusing primarily on parents and background, Molyneux reveals the nature of the relationships we cherish the most, the relationships we have not chosen, and the unrequited duty and obedience to those relationships. Each of these relationships – family, culture, government, and religion – are bestowed, or rather forced on us at birth, and latch us to their respective codes of behavior. But the foundation of those codes, the source of the morality almost all of us have grown up with and accepted, is a blackout, an empty space.

Parents have the ability to declare right and wrong for their children with no qualifying criteria other than the ability to bear children. Culture attempts to define who you are by telling you who your ancestors were before, and who your brothers are now. The government passes laws that encroach heavily into the areas of morality, with nothing but the concept of patriotism to lean on. And religion, holding veto power over them all, offers the most complete system of morality, and therefore garners the most control.

Through his brief book Molyneux deftly exposes these false moralities for what they are: useless, destructive and evil. Parents with no real concept of virtue turn to religious or cultural definitions (more often that not, an entirely inconsistent hodge-podge of both) to provide a framework for ethical behavior, and in doing so cut off their children from their ability to reason the truth behind action and consequence.

At times, particularly when he discussed religion, I felt certain that Molyneux needed to qualify his statements, to assure us that not all religious figures are seeking a sense of control over their own lives by demanding the obedience of others. But it was quickly apparent what a mistake that would be. Such an abdication would serve as the apology his readers needed, and they would quickly throw themselves into that tiny minority of “not all.” Molyneux is unyielding, and as well he should be, because he is right.

Perhaps his most startling insight is the application by the power hungry of what Ayn Rand called “the sanction of the victim.” Those who wish to control do so by appealing to right and wrong, sin and virtue. In order to be good, they say, you must do as they command. And in doing so, Molyneux shows us that they are “using goodness in the service of evil.” By appealing to the drive in those under their control to be virtuous and moral, they succeed in fulfilling their own evil ends.

By the end of the book Molyneux leaves no question as to what isn’t a reliable source of virtue and morality. As he points out, we would not trust a doctor who does not heal, and so we should not heed the teachings of the unlearned. I expected that the second half of the book would discuss what should be the source of virtue, and I gather from his epilogue that Molyneux expected that as well. But the books power lies partly in its brevity, so that answer is saved for another read, one I hope to get to as soon as possible.

On Truth: The Tyranny of Illusion is available from Lulu as a paperback book or audio download. Stefan Molyneux is the host of Freedomain Radio.

Written in 1902, Monna Vanna was Maeterlinck’s first brilliant success. It was played on every important stage in Europe, except in England, where it was forbidden by censor. In 1911, Maeterlinck was honored with the Nobel Prize for literary achievement.

“It is the late fifteenth century, and the battered city of Pisa faces imminent vanquishment by the superior army of Florence. As the city’s commander prepares for the inevitable end, he receives from the enemy an astonishing offer of rescue. The attack will be called off, the siege will be lifted, the starving city will be resupplied — on one condition. The commander’s wife, a woman revered as the epitome of honor and virtue, must surrender her body for a night to the hated leader of the Florentine army.

“Thus begins Monna Vanna — and thus is unleashed a torrent of conflicts and sub-conflicts, masterfully orchestrated by the playwright, concerning the meaning of honor and the pursuit of values.

“You will find a noble, distinctively elevated spirit in this 1902 drama. All the characters, even minor ones, are loyally committed to some moral principle and act only out of profound conviction. There are no shallow men or petty motives here — only heroic figures, sublime choices and epic decisions.” Second Renaissance, Inc., Publisher

For those of you able, I would definitely recommend going to see the live production, which is playing November 29 thru December 16, 2007 at the Stella Adler Theatre. It will definitely be a treat. For those of you who can’t make it, be sure to check out the Monna Vanna Blog where you can listen to regular podcasts from the director and cast about their roles and experiences with this play.

For more information visit the Monna Vanna website. And don’t forget to read the play!

This week five new works have been submitted and approved.

• Books
  • July 5 by Joseph M. McHugh
  • Revolutions by Stefan Molyneux
• Movies
  • Dangerous Beauty
  • Queen Christina
  • Bicentennial Man

Recent Reviews

argounova posted a short but spirited review of Edmond Rostand’s excellent play, Cyrano de Bergerac:

“F*cking fantastic. If you want a great piece of poetically rich Romanticism, Cyrano is your man.”

And I posted a brief review of The Mysterious Valley by Maurice Champagne.

Movie Previews from Unbox

Using Amazon’s Unbox, you can now watch previews of the movies listed on NHB available for download from Amazon. It’s a new service, so only a handful are available, but hopefully this will improve over time. You can view the available previews here.

After completing Faith of the Fallen I started over from the beginning and made my way through Goodkind’s incredible books. I had learned at some point that Terry Goodkind is an Objectivist, and its presence was an explicit, driving force in his novels. As such we watch the philosophical growth of the hero, Richard Rahl, over the course of time. Becoming more strict in his standards, more sure of his judgement, and more confident in his abilities. Especially in the later novels Richard makes decisions that even his closest friends cannot understand, but throughout we see that Richard is guided by reason, and is unfailing in his commitment to seeking the truth.

The series follows Richard as he comes to grips with both his powers and his heritage as a king as the entire world is threatened by the Imperial Order, an army beyond measuring that preaches common good and brotherly love while wiping out cities by the handful. A truly selfish individualist, Richard fights for his own values of freedom from tyranny and brute force, matched only by his love for his wife, Kahlan. The books are fast-paced and mysterious, with a good amount of action thrown in. But as the story has progressed the battles become far more moral and psychological, and Goodkind uses every opportunity to point out the dichotomies between freedom and collectivism, obedience and choice, love and fear.

Tomorrow, November 13th, the eleventh and final book in the Sword of Truth series, Confessor, is released. I pre-ordered my copy weeks ago, and I can’t wait for it to arrive later this week. The hardcover is available from Amazon for $17.97. Visit Amazon to reserve your copy, or see all books we list by Terry Goodkind.

User Accounts

You can now register with New Height Books. Doing so makes it quick and easy to use some of the special features in the site (more on that soon), and allows us to keep out any rif-raf that may try to spam our site and tarnish our shiny new digs. So what does a user account get you? Glad you asked!

User Features

Registered users can rate and review any book they like, comment on the blog (that’s this part right here), submit books for inclusion in the site and more. All you need is a username and an email address. This ensures that you get credit for your contribution to New Height Books, and you’ll be able to use this same account on any future New Height projects.

Improved Navigation and Search

The first draft of New Height Books was made page for page from scratch, and as such was a hassle to keep up and difficult to get around. Now NHB is completely dynamic and database driven, meaning that any additions are instantaneous and all the books listed are searchable by author or title.

Other Stuff

RSS Feeds: We’ve got RSS Feeds for just about everything. Each book category has its own feed, or you can get just books or just movies, blog posts, or everything in one.

Monthly Newsletter: As if RSS Feeds didn’t make it easy enough to never visit the site, we also send out a monthly email update on new listings and featured content.

FAQ: New Height Books covers a very specific niche, and it’s important for all those who use the site to what we’re about, so use the FAQ to get to know the ins and outs of our operation, and feel free to post your own question for us.

What’s The Same

New Height Books is still dedicated to creating a comprehensive library of romantic realist literature and rational nonfiction, and neither our drive nor our standards have changed. We hope you enjoy the rebuild, and please let us know what else we can add for you.

Table For One is the first truly heroic comic book, because it’s hero, William Howland, is an individualist, a man whose only justification for being is himself. Surrounded by the gray and morally ambiguous, Will is unfailing is his commitment to truth and to himself. The story is dramatic and bold, exposing the scope of society in one night at an underground Manhattan restaurant. The aesthetic is crisp and sharp, lending straight lines and smooth planes to the protagonist, while portraying the villain in curves and globes.

I look forward to many great works from Bosch Fawstin. And I’m sure that once you experience his work, you will too.

Until then, I give my e-mail interview with Fawstin: on his work, his philosophy, and his future plans.

BF: I was born on July 31, 1970 in the Bronx, NY. I went to P.S. 46 Elementary School and that was when I first realized that I was pretty good at drawing. It gave me a confidence to take it a little more seriously than those around me, which made me better at it the more I did it. I continued to draw over the years, winning contests all through Middle School and High School. I always knew that my future would be in the arts, but after High School, I didn’t really know what exact course I wanted to follow. I had so many interests that I considered acting/singing/writing/illustration/painting and film directing. Then, after a few years of indecision, I decided that I would follow my first love and life long passion and create comic books for a living. But I didn’t want to simply start on a small job and work my way up among many other people where my contribution would be overlooked or even lost among them, since most of the mainstream comic books being produced today are the end result of at least half a dozen people. I wanted to do everything , to make every line mine, and create a story that would come out of who I am. It was important to me to start on my own terms, as an Individual artist with an Individual vision, since this was going to be what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I figured what better way to introduce myself to a medium that I loved. To that end, I studied writing and drawing to the point where I believed I was good enough to produce a graphic novel I would be proud of.

CD: When did you first become interested in comic book creation?

BF: When I was young my oldest brother Tony used to bring home super-hero comics and I just fell in love with them on a visual level. I began reading them on my own and started seeing them as something I’d like to be involved with in the future. But it wasn’t until my early to mid-twenties when I started seriously planning, step by step, my career in comic books.

CD: Are you professionally trained?

BF: I’m mostly self-taught, studying on my own at home with tons of books and making literally Thousands of drawings until they started to get to a level of quality where I was satisfied that I could draw a story. It’s been said that we have to get a thousand bad drawings out of our system before we start doing good ones, and I agree with that completely. As for professional training, I did take about half a dozen night classes that focused on the art of Comics within a few years in my mid to later twenties at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan. I made it a point to sit at the front of each class (unless it was a figure drawing class, where our seats are circled around the model), concentrating only on the teacher and the lesson, to the exclusion of all else, including interacting with my classmates, many of whom weren’t interested in being there in the first place. And the ones who were as interested as I was, were too engulfed to waste time in anything besides getting the work done. I learned many things about storytelling, techniques and tools that would have taken me years to come across on my own. But no matter what we were taught, the idea that we were storytellers trumped any other concern. ‘To tell a story in pictures’ was the one constant that brought most of us there. By that time, I had already been writing over the years about things that mattered to me, keeping journals and making sense of what was going on with myself and the world and writing ideas for stories that I’d like to do one day. I read Many books on writing, and the one I learned most from when it came to understanding what a story is was Robert McKee’s perfectly titled book Story . I read the book, reread it, took a notebook worth of notes, went to his 3 day seminar 3 different times and to this day, still hold it above any book when it comes to, again, Understanding Story. I plan on going to his next seminar in NY to saturate myself with what it means to tell a story again. I don’t believe I can learn too much when it comes to my craft. I can’t recommend the book or seminar enough.

CD: How would you describe your artistic style?

BF: My artistic style is a form of stylized realism, even though I do use caricature for certain characters that I think need to be drawn that way. In Table for One, each character is drawn in a way that defines their relationship to reality. To a degree, the most realistic characters are drawn realistically and the least realistic characters are drawn less so. I’d say I have a clean, direct style that gets to the point very clearly, with as little clutter as possible, which happens to be the style that I admire in others as well.

CD: What other artists and writers do you admire?

BF: Ayn Rand is my favorite writer of all, and I’d say my favorite, most realized Artist of all as well. No one has affected my life on the levels that her work has and I doubt, without being a pessimist, that any other artist ever will. I can personally attest to the life-changing power and passion of her writing. She was, and is through her work, a phenomenon and my love and appreciation for her work has only grown and deepened over the years.

Alex Toth, to me, is the greatest illustrator to ever work in comics. There’s not been a finer artist than him in this field and his work is the standard of that which I aspire to. You can imagine how I felt when I received a handwritten postcard from him, with an original sketch of his attached, where he praised my book and my talents. He was kind enough to allow me to use his quotes on my book which has gotten me interest that I wouldn’t have had without it.

Frank Miller, a writer/artist whose work is influenced by Rand, is my favorite storyteller in comics. His ‘Batman: Dark Knight Returns’, Daredevil: Born Again and ‘300′ are my favorites of his and ensure his place as being one of the few cartoonists whose work has transcended the medium. When it comes to other artists outside of comics, I appreciate a work or two here an there, but if I can’t appreciate a whole body of work, it’s almost not worth mentioning, though I love looking at Norman Rockwell’s work. The way he illustrated caricatures in a realistic way made them breath in a way I haven’t seen anyone else do before.

CD: Tell us about the concept for your first book, Table For One.

BF: What sparked the idea for me was simply wishful thinking, even daydreaming. I was working at a restaurant and I wasn’t too happy about it at the time. I thought about how I’d feel if my first love walked in to see me, since she was still heavily on my thoughts and feelings at that time. I began to build a story around that spark, and then I started thinking about the restaurant as a microcosm of society where I could place an Individualist into it that would cause instant conflict among the majority of the people who populate them. I wanted to place a morally ambitious, black and white individual, William Howland, among morally ambiguous, gray non-individualists and have them forced to deal with one another in an underground restaurant in Manhattan and see what happens. It’s a simple concept that became richer by the day. And I wanted it all to take place on one night, to bring Will’s predicament to a sharp focus where everything that Can happen Does happen. I wanted to push the limits of how far I could take a story with the limited boundaries I’ve given it, where a battle of values between three people finally come to a head on one night. My synopsis:

“I walk through the crowded room……not a soul in sight.”

Meet waiter (writer) William Howland, who’s accused of being a misanthrope by those he can’t stand and admired by those he respects. Counting on Will’s temperament to trump him, his boss bet against him lasting a year in his underground restaurant in Manhattan. It’s now pay day for Will, but on this night, Will’s code to treat All as they deserve to be treated doesn’t serve anyone well, especially him, and he might not even last the night. Then She walks in…….

The story takes place on one night in one location in the fall of 2001, as blocks away, ground zero still burns…….

CD: What is Ayn Rand’s influence in your life and work?

BF: She created the kind of work that I respond to more than any other. It’s a kind of work that makes sense of life and which was even an anchor to reality at a time when I needed it. I first came across her work through watching the Fountainhead movie in my late teens and really liking the idea behind the film, but being young, I couldn’t say exactly why, on a philosophical level. Then a few years later, in a conversation with a female restaurant customer about Great movies, I mentioned the Fountainhead film. She asked if I had read the book, to which I said no, and since I already saw the film, I felt there was no need to. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that I would Love the book and that she’d lend me her copy. I was intrigued at her comment that I would Love it, so I read it and it changed my life. I related to Roark in many ways, least of all in that I’m a red-headed artist who prides his individuality. So my own work will naturally be influenced by hers in very important ways. But by now, a decade after first reading her work and Individuating it, I feel I can write and draw stories that are clearly in my own, unique voice and style, that won’t be dominated by “The Rand Influence.” The idea of how a moral individual maintains his ideals while living in a corrupt society that rejects him is powerful and evocative to me on a very personal level, and I think that’s a theme that will naturally find its way into much of my work over the years.

CD: Has Table For One been received well?

BF: Yes, I’ve gotten some very positive feedback from people who’ve read and enjoyed the book, from fellow cartoonists to readers and to reviewers. Though two recent reviewers, who praised my talents and most of the book, felt a need to express that they had a desire to physically beat my main character, citing how unlikable they found him. After laughing out loud about it when I first read those comments, I realized that Will affected them in such a visceral way that it made them want to beat up a fictional character. I think that’s just Great, and very revealing, after finding out that at least one of them is a self-titled “Deep Liberal” which would explain his dislike of Will, but not his violent desire to do him bodily harm. Since in the first place, Will doesn’t exist in reality, but in the second place, aren’t Liberals supposed to be tolerant pacifists? Anyway, they feel about Will the same way that the villains of the story do, and as I wrote in an early synopsis: “….William Howland is hated by those he can’t stand.”

CD: What are your plans for future works?

BF: I’m organizing my notes on a story that I’ve had in mind for a long time. It’s a much bigger, deeper story than Table for One. I don’t want to say anything specific about it, but it will take up most of my time within the next year. Though at the moment, I’m flirting with doing a short story that I have an idea for, while I’m working on the larger project. If all goes according to plan, I will have another story out by fall of this year. As far as career plans, I plan to work on and release a graphic novel every year to every few years for as long as I’m around. I’ve always loved the marriage between words and pictures and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. I want to thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with other like-minded Individuals, Chris. I really appreciate it.

Bosch

And thank you Bosch, this was certainly a treat.

See Table for One on New Height Books. You can learn more about Bosch Fawstin and his upcoming works at boschfawstin.com.