atlas shrugged, or ayn rand in general Options

[brooklyneast05]

i just finished reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand last weekend. has anyone read it? what did you think?



i thought it was good. it's probably one of my favorite books now. it was long as hell (1,000+ pages) and wordy as hell. sometimes rand pisses me off with her writing style. she beats a point down into the dirt too often. i get sick of the characters preaching making speeches to me. prior to reading atlas, i read the fountainhead, so i somewhat expected it and was used to her writing style already.

if you haven't read it then i guess you should know that it's basically a philosophy within a story. the entire point of the story is to outline and explain her philosophy of objectivism. it does this way more thoroughly than the fountainhead did if any of you read that. the story if fiction. the situations and characters are often times extreme and unbelievable...but at the same time believable? i don't know how to explain it really. i think someone who didn't agree with her philosophy could still enjoy this book, maybe someone here who hates objectivism can say if they hated the book too.

this book has made me think a lot. it's made me rethink what i think about capitalism in general. i can't help but compare this story to what's going on in our country right now. there are a lot of parallels between current events and the events in this book. it makes you think and worry and in general feel like america is probably doomed.

whether or not i agree with objectivism is still up in the air i guess. i can't see myself ever agreeing with it 100%. however, there is more i like about it than dislike about it at this point in time.


anyway i'll stop there and we can discuss more if anyone has anything to say about it or has read it. if you haven't read atlas, but you've read something else by her then we can talk about that here too.

[Simba]

has anyone read it?

I think Pauline has, broYe

[brooklyneast05]

oh yeah, yeah i think so too. i think i said something about it in regards to her aim screen name before. which reminds me that i think melissa has and also hez. nate was the one who first warned me to beware of militant objectivism over a year ago, so i bet he has too.


well get on here kids

[JonHMChan]

I finished Atlas Shrugged about two years ago. This wasn't the first Rand book I read; I actually read The Fountainhead much earlier about four years ago. It's a good book, and a truly momentous feat on Rand's part -- but when it comes to the philosophy (I'm a philosophy student right now), Rand fails miserably. Granted, I thought I was in love with Objectivism, her ideas spoke to me like very few ever have, but when you finally look at it, get through its intricacies, you'll start to see holes.

Take a look at this article by Nathaniel Branden, someone who was very, very close to Rand when she was at the peak of her success: http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/ar...nd_hazards.html

[brooklyneast05]

yeah i've read that article about branden before. the way she turned around and shunned him basically boggles my mind. it's objectivists inability to accept anyone else that bugs the hell out of me. i don't know if you know who lenord peikoff is, but i want to punch him in the face on a regular basis..even though i still choose to listen to his podcast every time it comes out.


when i'm done with some other books i plan to read every book she's ever written. i'm also supposed to join and objectivism association at school, even though i've put off going to the meeting for like 4 weeks now cause i've been busy or sick.


i'm amazed by rand's ideas and novels, but no matter how hard i try, at the end of the day i know i'm not ever going to be an objectivist because there are too many details i can't get passed. there's still A LOT to take away from her philosophy that i think is great.

[JonHMChan]

I have heard of Nathaniel, and all the drama that's surrounded Rand. Like how they "excommunicated" Alan Greenspan. Crazy.

The thing about Rands "philosophy" is that it isn't a real philosophy to any accepted standard. Rand doesn't so much make arguments for the tenets of her philosophy, as much as she presents them as pseudo-epithets. It's as though Rand took the conclusions she wanted in a philosophy and extracted away the basis for the philosophy.

[Reidar]

Atlas Shrugged is one of the worst books I've ever read. Unlike Fitzgerald, author of another despised "classic" of mine The Great Gatsby, the problem with Atlas Shrugged is more than the book itself - she's just an awful writer.

As for Objectivism and its attack on altruism: it amazes me that someone could think the main problem with humanity is that we're not selfish enough.

"Lillian Hellman was once, in her declining years, talking at some campus and she would peer out over the crowd with her very thick glasses and there was a squawking question from somewhere in the back that said: 'Ms. Hellman, why haven't you endorsed gay rights?'

And Ms. Hellman, barely peering, drew herself up and said--I wonder what word I'm allowed to use in this August company?--I'll quote her directly then; she said: 'The forms of f*cking do not require my endorsement.'

So to have a book strenuously recommending that people be more self-centered seems to me, as the Anglican Church used to say in its critique of Catholocism, a work of super-arrogation. It's too strenuous." -Christopher Hitchens