“The Abysmal Scum!”: On Not Reading Ayn Rand

A few months ago, as a result of the strange, hazy possession that occurs while sitting in front of the laptop screen, I “found myself”—a phrase I’ve disliked ever since I read a tweet by Elisa Gabbert pointing out its imprecision (although in this case it’s appropriate)—staring at Ayn Rand’s marginalia in C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man.