Kushiel's Objectivism, or, Melisande as a Randian Protagonist
Upon a rereading of my favorite parts of the Kushiel series earlier this week, I came across wise words from Melisande that seemed familiar to me:
"You seek to hold a prize given you by accident of birth, Ysandre de la Courcel. I seek to claim it by right of the wits with which I was born. Even the Doges of La Serenissima can point to the mandate of popular election to justify their power. Do not tell me you do not play my game" (Melisande Shahrizai, Kushiel's Chosen, Chapter 77, by Jacqueline Carey).
On further reflection, I recalled where the similarity came from:
“Everything that is possible is fair,” Harry reminded him gently. “If he is able to purchase better equipment, that is his right as an individual. How is Draco’s superior purchasing ability qualitatively different from my superior Snitch-catching ability?” (http://the-toast.net/2014/05/27/ayn-rands-harry-potter-sorcerers-stone/)
Which lead me to a soul-searching question: Is Melisande an Objectivist? To which, I feel the answer must be yes.
Recall, if you would, Rand's famous statement: "the fact that a living entity is, determines what it ought to do", and contrast it with Melisande's words in Kushiel's Avatar (Chapter 28): "I have only done what I was born to do. If the gods did not want it, they should not have made me."
One might think, that essence of Objectivist ethics, as stated by John Galt in Atlas Shrugged ("I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine") is in direct opposition with Melisande's modus operandi; until we recall, of course, that all those who played Melisande's game played it willingly, with their own interests in mind, from Anafiel to Baudoin to Isidore to Waldemar to Benedicte. Even Phedre; as Melisande says to her accusation of having always played her game with the blood of innocents: "You have always offered yours willingly, Phedre. And that, my dear, is the difference." (Kushiel's Avatar, Chapter 28).
There is much and more to discuss in this; Melisande's politics (which dovetail nicely with rand's own Objectivist views), the concept of Faith is such a divinity heavy world as the Kushiel series versus Rand's own rather more secular views, but this is not the place; I will end with a quote from Atlas Shrugged, in which I feel a certain essence of Melisande was described:
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
