In this radio interview, students question Ayn Rand on Romantic literature. Rand gives her definition of art and explains the fiction writer’s role on presenting things “not as they are but as they might be or ought to be.” She discusses fantasy as a genre of fiction, categorizes a number of famous authors such as Shakespeare, Kafka, Huxley, Nabokov and Dostoyevsky, and explains why she considers herself a Romantic Realist. Discussing Victor Hugo, Rand contrasts the view of man expressed in his novels with that contained in his explicit philosophy, and she explains why she admired his fiction generally. She also touches on depravity in literature and addresses whether fiction should be didactic.
