Atlas Shrugged: 50 years
The WSJ pays tribute on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”
Robert Tracinski writes on “The Historic Significance of Atlas Shrugged:”
The most radical aspect of Atlas Shrugged is that Ayn Rand found suspense, heroism, and profound philosophical meaning in the achievements of the entrepreneurs and industrialists who were reshaping the world.
Atlas Shrugged was written in an age of creeping global socialism. Extrapolating from the trends of the day, Ayn Rand projected a future in which most of the world’s nations are collapsing into the poverty and oppression of socialist “people’s states,” while America itself is collapsing under the weight of an increasing government takeover of the economy.
She saw the dramatic potential in asking a single question: what would happen if the innovative entrepreneurs and businessmen–after decades of being vilified and regulated–started to disappear? The disappearance of the world’s productive geniuses provides the novel’s central mystery, both factually and intellectually.
Factually, the story follows Dagny Taggart, a woman in the then-unconventional role of operating vice-president of a transcontinental railroad, as she struggles to keep her railroad running under the burden of strangling government regulations, while trying to solve a series of mysteries: a promising young railroad worker refuses a promotion and takes up a menial job instead; a spectacularly talented heir to a multinational copper company abandons his work to become a flamboyant playboy; a genius who invented a revolutionary new motor abandons his creation in the ruins of a derelict factory.
The factual question is: where did all of these people go? Why did they give up their work? Is there someone or something that is causing them to disappear?
The philosophical question raised by this plot is: what is the role of the entrepreneurs and innovators in a society? What motivates them, what are the conditions they need in order to work, and what happens to the world when they disappear? The factual mystery is integrated with the novel’s deepest philosophical question: what is the moral status of the businessman and industrialist?
Capitalism unleashed an extraordinary burst of scientific and technological innovation and of human creativity–yet this had largely gone unrecognized as a phenomenon with any moral or intellectual significance. Ayn Rand was the first to celebrate the accomplishments of the James Watts and Andrew Carnegies and Thomas Edisons and to recognize in their productive energies an example of moral heroism.
Robert Bidinotto blogs about an “Atlas Shrugged” celebration in Washington. The producers of the upcoming movie were there. I’m still not sold on Angelina Jolie. And I’m not sure Ayn Rand would be, either. Guess we’ll really see, given her Hollywood politics, how good of an actress she is.
The Ayn Rand Institute is here.
***
Exit question: Did you read the book? Share your thoughts. I read it my senior year of high school, memorized parts of Galt’s lengthy monologue at the end of the book, and re-read it in college as solace from the crazy, anti-capitalist atmosphere on campus. No, it’s not the greatest piece of literature ever written, but it’s the kind of polemical fiction that’s missing these days on the right.
Who is John Galt?
Who is the next Ayn Rand?
See what others have said
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- Ace of Spades HQ
- Captain's Quarters
- Atlas Shrugged At 50 at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source.
- Awaken Me
- The 50th Anniversary of Atlas Shrugged - Liberal Values - Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought
- Wake up America-Even crazier than Malkin-Thanks
- Legislating to the fringe « Bookworm Room
- Atlas Shrugged–50 Years « Love, Mom (Notes from the fridge)
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Atlas Shrugged. Hmm, never read it (shrugs); but if I could go back in time to high school and swap reading it for the life moments I squandered subjecting myself to The Catcher in the Rye, I surely would.
I loved the book but I doubt it will be required reading these days.
Yes, I read and enjoyed Atlas Shrugged. I thought Ayn did a wonderful job in capturing exactly what would happen should we become overrun with socialists… The very question she posed was answered by the end of book.
You remind me of Dagny.
As far as Galt and Rand are concerned, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
Atlas Shrugged is one of those books that I occasionally pull off my shelf….and use for a door stop.
Too long to bother.
I’ve already read a few of Rand’s books of philosophy, I know what she’s about.
My time would be better spent playing with my daughter…or ready 5 other books.
Unless you enjoy self inflicted torture, I’d skip Atlas Shrugged and either read the Fountainhead or some of her non-fiction work. Without discussing the merits of the underlying philosophy, you are beat over the head with it over and over and over and over again and then !surprise! You get treated to a 50 page monologue/diatribe that flogs you once more for good measure.
It took me a year to finish that book.
As for Jolie, I think the fact that she is tall, rail thin and can, when done up right, look relatively severe, makes her, physically at least, a fine choice.
Should say “reading 5 other books”
Oy
I read Atlas Shrugged. Good book, although I skipped most of the long Galt monologue because I was trying to finish the book before I ran out of days off. That and the font size was about 4 point in the paperback and I was going blind. I like the central question of what would happen to an economy if government regulation became too onerous on the entrepreneurs and industrialists and they quit or disappeared. All socialists and communists should be made to read the book and write a report on it.
(As with Regulus, Catcher in the Rye did nothing for me, although I like some of Salinger’s short stories.)
I read a great tribute to the 50th on the Atlasshrugged.com site. Pamela Geller compiled a great tribute to the book.
I don’t share the cynicism of others about Rand. But then again, I labor through the works of Aristotle, Plato, Freud, James, Melville, the Founding Fathers, Socrates, Ptolemy, Galileo, Copernicus, St. Thomas Augustine, Johnson, Joyce, Homer, and other boring texts looking for answers and for new questions that the “popular” claptrap authors of today fail to recognize in their own approaches to the vital matters of the day.
I love to read and I love to turn around and walk forward into the past (something turtles are good at since they can’t “look” backward).
Glad to see you put up a salute to Rand.
We’d only miss her if the Socialists tear the country apart and get their way.
Rand was a decent writer in search of a sharp editor who could have cut several hundred pages out of her turgid books.
Her philosophy, basically sound, has more holes than a Swiss cheese when she presents it relentlessly. The characters are cartoonish and not particularly admirable in their behavior.
I first read both Rand “epics” in high school, and was attracted to them. Over the years, they have lost much of their charm. For me, they espouse a dangerous kind of selfish behavior that appeals most to people who are short on principles and long on greed.
While I despise socialism, I also hope people can be thoughtful enough to realize that no political/philosophical “system” can operate solely on Rand’s black-or-white absolutism.
Do you mean Thomas Aquinas? I am glad you are so well read, but there is a big difference between being “cynical” of her work and offering honest criticism that maybe, just maybe, the book is a bit flabby.
Well said, Mr. Scribbler.
You either “get it” or you don’t with Atlas Shrugged (and Rand’s philosophy in general).
Myself, I know an econometrician who carries Francisco D’Anconia’s “meaning of money” speech in his briefcase. He’s not alone.
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas-gee it’s been a long time since I read anything by them. I read “Atlas Shrugged” in high school and frankly it was just one of those books I trudged through because I had to and I haven’t read it in 26 years. I liked “Fountainhead” much better though.
I always viewed The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as comic book versions of a serious philosophy; they both have extreme, but two-dimensional characters in extreme situations. Like most philosophies the specifics can be debated, but I can’t deny the impact they both had on me personally. I remember reading them thinking that I couldn’t believe somebody could articulate things I’ve always felt but never expressed. Too bad the extreme points in the books seem to overshadow the legitimate merits of the narrative and philosophy.
I love Atlas Shrugged. Marx for the right – but with you know, logic and stuff.
I squeezed the important parts of the Galt speech into a two-minute bit and posted it on you-tube, you can find the link here.
I think Jolie would work as a Dagny – but Brad Pitt as John Galt? I don’t know… maybe as the pirate…
I red some of her other works instead of Atlas Shrugged; We the Living and Anthem
Of course individualistic literature was not spoken of highly in classes but I enjoyed reading them both in college.
I found “Anthem” an easier read. Well at least for a thirteen year old when I read it for the first time. Also having read Orwell’s “1984″ and “Animal Farm” around the same time it was an interesting time.
I read Atlas Shrugged when I was a teenager in the mid 60’s. I was very impressed and was sent into deep thought.
Ann wrote with a sort of ‘vividness’ I had not seen, or atleast noticed in any previous books I had read.
Since it tells us not only what America is about, it also tells us why we are, and how we came to be.
It should be mandatory reading for all HS students (it was not required of me). But, because of its subject matter it is more likely to be banned from schools today.
The left, socialists, would despise this book, and would have it burned if they could. Who knows maybe, in a few years, they will have it and others eradicated from “their” fantasy histroy.
2008 is a very serious year!
chapoutier, I could agree more. Ditch Atlas and move to Fountainhead.
Better yet, dump Rand and read Nietzsche, who basically said what she so frustratingly was unable to ever say.
Nietzsche also doesn’t fall into the Randian contradictions that makes practical interpretation impossible. I’m not going to lie, like many of you I was a Rand follower and still admire key themes, but as you live life (and dissect hers), you can begin to see how seriously flawed and twisted it is.
A read for all Dems that is for sure. Read the book when I was 12 years old……35 years ago and I still find it to be one of the best ever.
Loved both “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”. I think the thing that I found most interesting was the fact that they were written by someone who’s family lost everything in the Bolshevik Revolution and who knew first hand the evils and perils of Communism.
Interesting also that her book “We The Living” went unpublished for a long time. It is (debatedly) a semi-autobiographical book about a young girl living through the Bolshevik Revolution and how it changed her life and the lives of her family. Once written, Ayn went from publisher to publisher to try to sell it. They all refused, giving her basically the same answer: “It isn’t believable. It didn’t really happen that way in Russia/the Soviet Union. Quit trying to sell us this pack of lies.”
Sound like any group of people we know today?
“…philosophy cannot be discussed while standing on one foot—nor while standing on two feet on both sides of every fence. This last is the predominant philosophical position today, particularly in the field of politics.”
– Ayn Rand
Loved “Atlas”! Didn’t read it until grad school when my boyfriend suggested it. However I must say that I found the initial chapters so depressing I didn’t want to continue. With his encouragement, I finished it and it has become one of our favorites. Pull it out every few years to skim over again. I’ve tried to get lib friends to read it, but to no avail. Willful blindness.
bear1909, see MrScribbler (#9) and chapoutier (#10). Great post MrScribbler…couldn’t agree more.
Who and Where is John Galt, and does he need any help?
While a bit “heavy” on repetitive capitalist defense speeches, one has to appreciate the time it was written in. Of course it seems a bit redundant if you’ve always been hanging out with right-wing types and spent your childhood reading Friedman and Hayek. I doubt that was the case back then when everyone thought socialism was the future.
As for not being subtle and nuanced, go join a John F’ing Kerry fanclub. It takes a lot more intellect to wittle things down to black and white, rather than always avoiding making a conclusion or decision by wallowing in the gray zone.
Okay, I can’t resist posting a link:
The Meaning of Money
If you never read anything else Rand wrote, read that.
That is a lovely attitude. Guess what, buddy, the world is FULL of subtlety and nuance, like it or not. Which is why Atlas Shrugged may be a (debatably) fine work of fiction in that it presents an exaggerated world view to make a point (see also Farenheit 451, Animal Farm, Brave New World), but is a lousy basis for a political/economic/aesthetic philosophy.
I read ‘Atlas’ in high school and was enthralled with its tireless hero fueled by his rugged, self-righteous ‘triumph of the will’ energy to defeat the forces of evil.
20 years later, I attempted the digest Rand’s tome again, but found it cold, clinical & brutal with its rampant, unrelenting, one dimensional ‘rational atheist’ philosophy. But, the world is up side down now, and I am no longer an idealistic adolescent.
So, who is John Galt?
Or maybe it’s this guy:
I don’t know who John Galt is anymore, but I’m pretty sure hillary is his evil twin.
Or Jules Winnfield, apparently.
Rand, in developing and trying to live her philosophy, virtually invented ‘objectivism’, arguably the antithesis of all ‘collectivist’ systems. Still in my opinion the purest solution and antidote to the hysterical mania of the collectivists, utopian socialism, Marxism, communism, and the various names they hide behind as their debunked sociopathy gains new layers of lipstick.
As no philosophy is perfect in application, objectivism is one that depends on thought, reasoned debate and personal responsibility.
In the spirit of debate we could discuss the true nature of ‘The Soviet Experiment’ and Ayn Rand’s ‘The Virtue of Selfishness’.
I’m not sure how to take
when it begins with an incorrect quote.
The root of all evil isn’t money.
The root of all evil is the love of money.
It’s true enough that money is a tool but it’s the unquenchable craving of that tool which leads to times when
Indeed, 2008 will be a very serious year. I often point out to my 21 year old son what interesting times we are in.
I wonder, does Atlas Shrugged come in books on tape? I find the only books I can actually sit down and be captivated enough to read are military type shoot em ups like lone survivor.
Atlas Shrugged is one of the few books that I don’t donate or sell to the used book store. I like having a copy to remind me of its effect on me.
I enjoyed the heck out Anthem, too – very short, and I read it in the hospital waiting for a great-nephew to arrive. I told his dad to give it to him.
Rand is well worth the time and effort to read, as far as I am concerned. I liked Fountainhead too.
Money motivates them. You can correlate the decline and moribund condition of U.S. industry with “hired to invent” policies that make U.S. inventors work under wage slavery instead of under the patent system.
I read it in High School and remember that I really liked it. Unfortunately, I later fried my brain and can’t remember much about it. Oh well, I’m back now. Think I’ll read it again.
Here Ya go. Great for a long drive.
Atlas Shrugged
As opposed to SanFranNan’s Auto Bio
‘Atlas Hurled’
I’ve got the book sitting on the shelf taunting me, but I don’t know when or if I’ll ever be able to slog through it. What it needs is a solid film adaptation that pulls the IDEAS out and presents them in a concise manner. I tried to read Lord of the Rings ahead of the films and just couldn’t stand it. One guy at the bar saw me reading it and told me, “It’s better the second time through because you know when you can skip over stuff.”
She’s an excellent actress and has the Oscar and Emmy to show for it. What is it with some women that they get so snippy about Jolie. (Seriously, I wanted to get Michelle a saucer of milk when I read that.) Yes, her politics are crap and she needs to eat more, but there are few other actresses working today who can project the strength and intensity the role would require. (Other candidates: Jodie Foster, Cate Blanchett.)
Oh, yeah, she’s hotter than the surface of the sun in August, too.
“Atlas Shrugged” is the only work of Rand I have ever read. Admittedly, it is a tough read during some parts but overall it remains one of my favorite books of all time.
I read Atlas Shrugged about 25 years ago and it literally changed my way of thinking. Even though it’s a weighty tome it only took me 3 days to read.
Fountainhead is much shorter and echoes the same ideology on an individual rather than societal level so I’d recommend reading it first.
If We The Living is really autobiographical it’s quite frightening what went on after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Read the speech, you’ll be glad you did. She does begin with the incorrect quote– purposefully. She gets to the correct one later.
Funny that I’ve been teaching my kids the theme of the speech basically from birth; I didn’t realize where I had “mooched” it from. Maybe it’s time to read Atlas Shrugged again.
I much prefer Fountainhead. Shrugged could stand a 300 page trim. But a fine work as far as its message.
After living through the revolutions, there were actually a series of them – the winner writes the history, and witnessing the rise of communist tyranny in Russia, in 1925 Rand gained a visa to visit ‘Relatives’ in The United States. Her intention was to never return. While ‘We The Living’ is not quite biographical, based on her own experiences it represented her view of the future for those who could not escaped as she had.
The years following Stalin’s rise proved to be beyond even her imagination.
I loved Altas Shrugged. As a teenager, I thought it was really cool that she inspired songs by Rush (one of my favorite bands). I always loved this idea: if you come to a contradiction, check your premises.
Interesting to read others comments on Rand.
A couple of her quotes:
Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
~Ayn Rand
Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.
~Ayn Rand
Also see: “About The Atlas Society and its Objectivist Center” http://www.objectivistcenter.org/
Their Mission: “Challenge both the cultural left and cultural right with Objectivism, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of rational, principled individualism.”
I don’t understand the hatred of Atlas; well, maybe I do. It’s too wordy, apparently, for those in the MTV quick edit Stewart/Colbert smartass frame of mind. I read it for the first time last year, and was stunned that not only was it written 50 years ago, but also how it perfectly summed up the direction we are heading in this country and around the world. The second-handers are all democrat congressmen…it’s just amazing to see the liberal mentality so perfectly illustrated and then shown to its ultimate desolate end, and how it could have been written today, given how Hillary and her socialist revolution is imminent.
And The Fountainhead is as good or better.
Read “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” when I was 18. Embraced it with a passion that only an 18yr. old can muster. The intensity cooled over the years, but not the underlying philosophy. When I read Nathaniel Branden’s “My Years With Ayn Rand”…was glad for the cooling off. Ayn was guilty of some of the things she accused others. Still, though, in moments of frustration I think….”Who Is John Galt?”
It might be of interest to recall the context of when Atlas Shrugged appeared. Just one week before Sputnik had gone into orbit, and it had a huge impact on this country. The intellectuals were in a tizzy — here was proof positive of the superiority of socialism. Conservatives, who had never recovered from the Great Depression, could offer nothing other than the “bathtub” argument: sure socialism is technologically and scientifically superior, really, but capitalism makes better bathtubs for the consumers. Unsurprisingly, the 1958 elections were a disaster for the Republicans.
The initial reviews of Atlas were simply horrendous, but Americans began buying the book — despite the strong admonitions of left and right. Buckley hates it and Rand to this day. Considering the novel’s size, complexity, and the controversy surrounding its arguments, it is astonishing it went on to do as well as it has. For myself, the book taught me the power of ideas and the need to think for oneself.
I miss the 50’s. They were a time of great intellectual ferment in this country, and Atlas showed just how far we could go with something bold and original. Sadly, we may never see a time like it again.
I have read it and re-read it every few years. I have to admit that the Fountainhead leaves me cold.
Robert Mugabe seems determined to test out the situation described in Atlas Shrugged. With the predicted results.
Ayn Rand gave words to thoughts I had.
Oddly enough a socialist mailman that I enjoyed debating gave me my first copy of Atlas Shrugged. Told me that I would probably enjoy reading her. Found out much later on that my father was a big admirer of Rand.
I parted ways with Ayn over religion and abortion. I am a Christian who believes that abortion is wrong. But she was one of the most eloquent defenders of capitalism that I have come across.
Strangely enough my faith came from my father who was an atheist. But when I became interested in Archeology he gave me a book about biblical archeology that drove me to read the bible as a historical document…it was a compelling read to say the least and my soul is much comforted by my faith.
Fineous Reese said:
I’m not sure how to take The Meaning of Money when it begins with an incorrect quote.
The root of all evil isn’t money.
You miss the point. It is not a critique of the bible but a critique of the person Francisco is addressing. Notice he prefaces the quote with this:
“So you think that money is the root of all evil?”
It was not until about age 33 or 34 when I first read Atlas Shrugged. It was a pivotal moment in the transformation of my political conciousness at the time (I’m 47 now). Up until then I was fairly left-wing. Atlas put an end to that, for good. I still pick it up and read passages from the John Galt speech from time to time.
I’m amazed that 50 people commented on this! It shows the quality of thought going on around here.
I recently picked up Atlas Shrugged because my wife was reading it and screaming at the book. (She gets interactive with good books). Its just too bad that the philosophy couldn’t be more artfully presented. This should be on the reading list of every high school student.
You get the point in the first 100 pages . After that, slogging through the relentless melancholy was unbearable. It was made even worse because we are seeing her predictions coming true. So, while my wife was thrilled to see the ideas in print, reading the dire warning was painful to me.
I read it as a teen and liked it, though I prefer the book Anthem. And while a previous comment described the charecters as “cartoonish”, I think you just have to put in the context of the times. I do agree with the description by the way. The same can be said of the charecters in Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath and I suppose alot of other books of the era. Still, Atlas Shrugged was prophetic. Everytime I read or see a news story that has a lib complaining how people or specific persons are not “compassionate” or simply “do not care” about the plight of others, I cannot fail to recall the book.
I first read Atlas Shrugged in Junior High School. Far from “trudging through it”, as others have commented, I couldn’t put it down. It was the most exciting, intriguing and intelligent book I had ever encountered. Since that time, I have reread it probably a dozen times. My respect has only grown. I especially love “Galt’s speech”, which is an amazingly brilliant, clear and succinct expression of an entire philosophy. How anyone could want to “skip” that part is beyond my comprehension.
Ayn Rand’s achievements are unmatched. She wrote exciting novels about fundamental ideas from a totally new moral perspective. In the process, she identified and systematized a new and unprecedented philosophy. She redefined the science of epistemology. She provided, for the first time, a moral defense of Capitalism. She has stimulated an interest in philosophy in millions of readers. She wrote novels that remain bestsellers decades after their initial publication. She did all this and yet so many dismiss her and her work – all I can say is that those who make such comments are immune to the power of ideas.
“Two dimensional characters”? “Turgid writing”? And the most embarrassing comment of all– “too long”!? By what standard? What do you people read, anyway?
There are many writers who I love for one quality or another – but no one in history has so successfully melded exciting plots to characters defined by essentials in the service of (rational) philosophical themes. By that standard, I say that the works of Ayn Rand, and especially Atlas Shrugged, are the greatest literary achievements of Western Civilization.
One more thing: Beyond her merits as a novelist, if our civilization is to prevail against the savage primitivism of Islam or a revised communist threat, it will be the ideas of Ayn Rand that will provide the moral and intellectual bulwark of our defense.
Bravo Roghaz. Ayn Rand was a genius. The only thing that will save us from the continuing cancer of collectivism is Rand’s ideas. I first read the book at 21 and couldn’t put it down. Rand correctly noted the fact that both liberals and conservatives are wrong. The correct answers to any given problem cannot be neatly summed up by being on the right or the left. That said, the Progressives with their embrace of Marxism and Socialism are far worse.
At least with the right, we can have a meaningful debate without degrading into an unhinged morass.
Thanks for recognizing this important golden anniversary Michelle.
Haven’t read Atlas Shrugged. Anthem was good, though.
Wait just a minute. Hold on there folks. Everyone knows that Republicans/Conservatives don’t read!! Just who do you think you are fooling?!
/spitting, pea-flinging liberal rant
This is my favorite book, I made my debute into the world same year, coincidence? BIG GRIN
Ayn Rand was a clear, brilliant thinker.
As a Christian, I do not agree with everything contained in her “Objectivist” philosophy.
She was right on so many points, and mistaken on a few. Her writings should be taken seriously by everyone.
May I please make some recommendations to your library?
The following
books are very helpful and knowledgable about Ayn Rand’s thinking.
These Christian authors provide a fair and accurate assessment of Ayn Rand, while at the same time, respecting her free market, pro-freedom views.
I read (on tape from the library) Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead. Liked both and agree that Atlas would have benefitted from an edit. I was enthralled by Atlas and the tale of Dagney and Francisco and John Galt. I see so many parallels to today that it is actually scary.
Fountainhead’s Rourke is the antethesis of everything the dhimmie mindset foists on the earth – namely that we are the owner of our own work and that we are responsible for our own life and its outcome. When I saw how many times Rourke was slammed to the canvas and came back for more I really felt sorry for the poor guy.
I look forward to Atlas Shrugged in movie form but Jolie as Dagney – she ain’t got it in her. It will be a total sham if her politics come through in the least.
I listened to it on tape while at work here a few weeks ago. I still have it sitting on my desk.
Excellent stuff. I’ll admit that it wasn’t an edge of my seat book, but it did a great job of illustrating her philosophy and I enjoyed listening to it. Going to make my kids listen to it/read it when they get old enough to really get something out of it.
I was pretty amazed that what was written at that time can be so relevant in today’s society.
It is an excellent view on what happens when a government or society relegates itself to the least common denominator.
Though I’d agree that an editor could’ve trimmed 100 pages pretty easily, this book really moved me.
The sad thing is that the pathetic caricatures like James Taggart, Wesley Mouch, and Cuffy Meigs could actually give some of the quotes that looters today do.
If there was something that doesn’t click for me or is missing from objectivist philosophy, it’s Rand’s view of love and sacrifice (or at least as I perceived it). It’s tragic if one goes through life not feeling true love.
I remember being moved by the book politically but a little uncomfortable with the transactional nature of Dagny and Hank’s relationship. (friends with benefits?)
But even when you truly love someone (be it a child, spouse, etc), selflessness has its limits. When someone tries to play the emotions of love and sacrifice in the name of government taxation to filter money to charity (inc. “faith-based” initiatives), it cheapens the concept of charity, and breeds more “Cuffy Meigs”-type people.
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but if you’re daunted by the amount of pages, learn to speed read or stick to comics.
I hope you liked my book report??
Before I was actually a Republican/Conservative (was way more centrist in my younger years), back when I couldn’t have voted yet, I thoroughly enjoyed Atlas Shrugged…and then The Fountainhead because I thought Ayn Rand was so cool. So glad this came up, as my oldest son is 14 and much smarter than I ever was — he’s due to read them too! Thanks all for reminding me of the impact these books had on my formative years.
I’ve read Atlas Shrugged and I loved it! The whole philosophy is so fresh and unlike anything else I hear or read today…
Her philosophy resonates with me:
“The greatest and most moral thing a man can do is to create things of value out of self-interest.”
I started reading the book not entirely in agreement w/ Rand on issues like charity. However, her arguments were so eloquent and based on reason, I am now convinced that investing $100 helps more people than giving it to charity…
Btw… I am John Galt and so is every person with a moral principle!
Just stumbled across this. Wish I had been more timely. Just like I wish I had been more timely with reading Ayn’s work.
Atlas Shrugged had been recommended to me by a beloved high school teacher and it went on my to-do list, but I was far more interested in getting wasted and becoming a teenage father at the time.
By my early 20s the incomprehensible madness of the world had pushed me to the brink, then one day I read in the paper that Ayn Rand had died in an editorial that was uncharacteristically sympathetic in such a left-wing rag.
Purely to keep my promise to that teacher, I walked down to the bookstore and prepared to buy Atlas Shrugged. I was aghast at the size of the novel and purchased her smallest, Anthem, instead.
Taking the slim volume home, I sat down and read it in less than two hours. I returned to the bookstore immediately and bought, “The Virtue of Selfishness” which I spent the rest of the day and that night reading.
The following morning I returned to the bookstore and bought everything they had. Ayn saved my life–literally. What joy I’ve had in my life is a direct result of the world-view she gave me.
In an ideal world Atlas Shrugged would be required reading and crap like “To Kill a Mockingbird” (which I was assigned as required reading three times in four years) would be optional–at best.
I’ll conclude with the final line from that sympathetic article that started it all, “May the God she denied bless her feisty soul.”