Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
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Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged
Book Review: Atlas may have shrugged, but I really cringed
Summary: 2 Stars
** Spoiler Warning ***
Oh, boy, where do I start? First, let me say this: that hero of hers may have stopped the motor of the world, he certainly could not slow down Ayn Rand's FURIOUS typewriter. This edition has 1,168 pages in tiny fonts. It should have been, and easily could have been, condensed to 300-400 pages. At most.
As a literary work it is flawed. There is not much I want to add to what other reviewers have already commented: it is long, the characters are two-dimensional, the dialogs long and repetitive, etc.
The only good thing I can say about this book is that it exposes the hypocrisy of those "benevolent social planners". Read in light of our current times of government bailouts and "wealth spreading", it is eerily familiar (for this I give it more than the minimum 1 star).
But it is not a novel in the traditional sense, it is a vehicle for Ayn Rand to expound her philosophy. And expound she did, with a vengeance.
Maybe one day I will write a full review of her philosophy, which I think is also flawed (though it has some good elements). Why is it called "objectivism" anyway? It sounds more like "subjectivism" or "absolutism" to me: she views everything as black-or-white, there is no middle ground, and those who do not agree with her are branded "irrational".
Since this is a review of the book, let me focus on it now. It being a vehicle for her philosophy which presumably she wants the user to apply in real life, then the fictional world she constructs must be at least somewhat realistic. But it is not. It is populated with three types of people only: 1. the industrialists whose only goal is to maximize his or her profit; 2. hypocrites who pay lip service to the abstract concepts of "social justice", "equalization of opportunity", but whose real purpose is to restrict the freedom of the industrialists and 3. the gullible "public", waiting to be rescued by their heroes. Aside from the fact that there are more types of people in the real world, even the ones in the book are not believable. The villains are singlemindedly against the heroes, to the point of absurdity (and Ayn Rand thinks herself as the champion of reason). For example, why is Jim Taggart so against his sister's success when he is the president of the same company? He stands to profit from it! Yet he persistently tries to run his own company to the ground. All the villains are absurd caricatures in her book.
Even the "good guys" are not believable, and their relationships are just bizarre. Consider the following conversation between Rearden and Dagny, after they had sex for the first time (Keep in mind these are two main characters and heroes of the book, they went on to have a long relationship, which is fraught with contempt, despisement and violence).
Rearden: I want to you know this. What I feel for you is contempt. But it's nothing, compared to the contempt I feel for myself. I don't love you. I never loved anyone... I wanted you as one wants a whore .. You're as vile an animal as I am. .. I held it as my honor that I would never need anyone. I need you. ...
Dagny: I want you, Hank. I'm much of an animal than you think. .. You'll have me any time you wish, anywhere, on any terms. .. If I'm asked to name my proudest achievement, I will say: I have slept with Hand Rearden. I had earned it.
Yet this is supposed to be a model relationship between the good guys. Now ask yourself if you would speak like this and have a relationship on such grounds. And Dagny is supposed to be a driven, shrewd and rational businesswoman. Give me a break. With heroes like these, who needs villains?
Book Review: Galt Shuffled His Feet
Summary: 3 Stars
Admittedly, it has been a long time since I read this book. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho in 1989, and had a lot of time on my hands on those cold evenings, so I slogged my way through this book, John Galt speeches and all. As far as the story goes, it actually was quite fun to read, but as to her philosophy that the rich will inherit the world, all I could do was shrug my shoulders.
Her book was largely in response to FDR's New Deal and the growing burden of federal regulations and taxes on industrialists. It seemed America was flirting too much with Socialism for Ayn Rand's taste. Oddly enough, it was during the time of Eisenhower that the book was published, 1957, so it seemed a bit dated, even then. I guess at over 1200 pages, it took her some time to get all her thoughts down and shape them into a coherent novel. Supposedly, the germ of the novel came in 1943. Not surprisingly, her book was savaged by critics at the time, but then she was writing mostly with her core readers in mind. She had developed quite a following by this point.
Much of her philosophy prefigures the Libertarians, which is why I suppose many thought Ron Paul may have named his son after Rand. Essentially, the smaller the government the better. Who needs pesky regulations and taxes that only serve to eviscerate industry! So, she created a world where the leading industrialists walked out, leaving poor Dagny Taggart to try to figure out what the hell was going on when a rich steel baron, Henry Rearden, decided to cash in on his industry and flee to the mountains of Colorado, leaving only a few cryptic clues for young Dagny to go on.
America was in the throws of Depression, and things just seemed to be getting worse and worse, as industry slowly ground to a halt. This odd name kept popping everywhere. Who is John Galt? It takes about 600 pages or so for Dagny to piece things together and eventually she too makes her way out West hoping to come to terms with this mysterious figure.
Unfortunately, it is also at this point that a compelling story gives way to inordinately long speeches, essentially spelling out Rand's philosophy through the voice of John Galt. Not much suspense after this, just a question of whether America is ready to accept industry on its own terms, not those set by government. It takes a lot of patience to make it to the end. Whatever flirtation I might have had with her philosophy after reading The Fountainhead was gone. This was clearly a woman who spent too much time extolling The Virtue of Selfishness. She probably would have been long forgotten had it not been for the rise of Reagan and the return of "supply side economics" fomented by Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer. Ayn Rand had been vindicated, many felt, after the great recession of the 1970s. So there I was in Lesotho on the eve of Reagan leaving office, wondering what was going to happen next.
This year, Paul Johansson has the audacity to bring Atlas Shrugged to the big screen. This appears to be his directorial debut, known more as Dan Scott from One Tree Hill. Seems he had to keep his budget tight ($15 million) which explains why there are so few recognizable names in the movie cast. This is only the first part, so it has to make a relatively strong showing at the box office to warrant a conclusion. If not, you can just read the book.
Book Review: A Primer on How to Destroy the World
Summary: 4 Stars
My title does not refer to the world's destruction through selfishness and greed; rather, it refers to what happens when those who keep the world running are obstructed by the less talented and envious.
Atlas Shrugged takes place in a future or alternate world where industrialization has stagnated, most of the world has turned to socialism and America is the only free and productive nation left on earth. As the novel progresses, America increasingly becomes more like the failed "People's States" throughout the world.
There are too many fascinating aspects of this book to list in full. Firstly, in not one single place does Rand use the terms Marxism, socialism or communism yet it is plainly obvious what she refers to. She clearly dispels fundamental tenets of Marxist ideology such as the notion that uneducated, unskilled workers are capable of maintaining industries collectively, let alone developing new technologies.
On the flip side, Rand succinctly refutes the old axiom that capitalists are exploiters. Rand points out that the capitalist provides benefits to the workers in terms of developing new products and industries which result in employment. The worker simply completes tasks which the industrialist could also do for themselves (and, in fact, many of the main characters serve as non-thinking workers later in the book). The underlying point is that the worker relies on the mind of the capitalist for survival. The capitalist gains nothing from the worker that he or she could not do for themselves.
As revolutionary as this novel is, it contains some extremely serious flaws. First, the book is overly long. There are simply too many passages where little of importance is written. Some major narrative arcs take far too long to develop (Dagny's pet railroad project for instance). Much of the dialog is repetitive though, to some degree, this is intended to drive home certain points. Finally, there are serious problems in terms of characters speaking for FAR too long (and I am not solely referring to the 50 page lecture at the end of the book). Rand makes her philosophical points most effectively in the sections where dialogue consists of short exchanges between characters; the pages long monologues by single characters are not only unnatural but are irritating.
Secondly, the characters of Atlas Shrugged have been accused of being one dimensional. This is absolutely true. The protagonists are also completely faultless. Among the heroes, only Hank Rearden exhibits imperfection during the course of the novel; however, even he becomes "perfect" by the novel's conclusion.
My final criticism of the novel stems from the second: as there are no perfect humans in the real world, objectivism cannot work exactly as Rand would have us believe. Just as Marxism cannot function in its purest form because of human nature, human beings seem incapable of adhering to strict objectivism for any length of time. I found myself wondering how long it would take for society to revert back to looters and moochers if the heroes had there way.
Despite these problems, everyone should read this book. Like all philosophical works, not everyone will like it nor is it in any way an easy or fast read. It is, however, a potentially life-changing read. I suspect that those who cannot muster more than a one star review for Atlas Shrugged have either never read the book for themselves or perhaps witnessed a little too much of themselves in James Taggart, Wesley Mooch and Dr. Stadler for their own comfort.
Book Review: Nunkey Publishing Review
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd been recommended by my mentors in the self development field a million times to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged before I finally got round to getting it: Christmas 2006 - some six years after I'd first heard of it. And even then, it lay dormant on the bookshelf for another few months. Before I continue, let me point out that there will be spoilers of form in this review.
Being an avid reader of anything self development, its one thousand plus pages put me off reading it, since I was expecting a much shorter, non fiction book of true self help style and not some monster of fiction; I didn't want to spend a few weeks or months plowing through a book, hoping it would measure up, only to discover I'd wasted my time on rubbish when it could've been spent on a decent read, such is the value I place on my time.
Eventually, on reading the synopsis one day, which resonated heavily with the philosophy I'd been furiously honing for a while, I decided it was time to delve in, reasoning that it was now or never. And was I pleasantly surprised. The more I read, the more I couldn't believe what I was reading! Every chapter, every scene, every interaction, left me reeling and exclaiming, "Yes! That is how to live!"
To say that this book, which is the fictional representation of Ayn's 'Objectivist' philosophy, fit with my own, new, growing philosophy - is an understatement. Rather, at a time when I was just building the foundation for my site, I was suddenly given fresh purpose and impetus.
The book itself is very well written. The plots are racy, the characters - deep, the backdrops - massive and the moral - right. Ayn Rand leaves no stone unturned in giving a detailed background on all major characters - and even some of the smaller, less important ones.
The book's events are broken down from every relevant viewpoint, allowing you to form your own alliances with the teams and characters of your own, calculated choice. Although you won't have gone too far in Atlas Shrugged before taking the right side.
Indeed, for anyone that has a flicker of, at the very least, 'suppressed' anger at the seemingly unrelenting, merciless, surreptitious journey toward a totalitarian state - worldwide, I challenge you to not get riled and fired-up at the evil in the book - because it is this evil which is represented in our media today.
The antics of the enemy in the book will fill you with fight, passion, cause and ambition and you will duly feel inspired to become your own version of a Hank Rearden, John Galt, Dagny Taggart, to step out your door and face our own Dr. Robert Stadlers, Mr. Thompsons and Jim Taggarts. And you wouldn't be alone: A poll carried out in 1991, by The Library Of Congress and The Book Of The Month Club reported Atlas Shrugged to be the second most influential book behind the Bible.
And if a survey of 1,239 American adults - conducted by Freestar Media/Zogby between October 10 and October 14, 2007 - asking the question, "Have you ever read the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand?" is anything to go by, its 8.1% affirmative would seem to suggest that I'm not a member of an exclusive club in being a reader myself.
Quite simply, if you're reading this review, there's a good chance that this book will do something to you. Something good. I strongly recommend you make it the very next book you read. And when you have, come and tell me what you think. I could use someone like you...
To freedom,
Scotty Stevens
Book Review: Enduring, Influential and Provocative, But Don't Drink the Kool-Aid
Summary: 4 Stars
I won't go into much depth. Others have covered this novel more completely than I could ever hope to.
ATLAS SHRUGGED is perhaps the most controversial novel ever written. No other novel has ever inspired such spirited defense and admiration nor such scorching and nigh hysterical criticism and hatred. Its central question about the nature of economy and politics is central to the survival of the American Republic in these alarming times. It is not A message book, but THE message book. Ayn Rand is supremely confident in her viewpoint and she presents it with such hardy gusto that it is next to impossible to not get swept up by this startling and often beautiful novel if you are at all sympathetic to her viewpoint. If you aren't, well, it probably won't be long before you feed its pages to the nearest paper-shredder. It is that kind of book.
While I can't sympathize entirely with her viewpoint, the depictions of human greatness and passion in this book are so inspiring that I have read it at least three times in the past five years, and plan on re-reading it again soon.
Nevertheless, I have to stress that it is easy for weaker-willed individuals to be swept up entirely by Rand's almighty persona. This can be dangerous. It is doubtful whether the Objectivist cult would have become anywhere near as enormous as it presently is if this novel hadn't been written. All I can say is this: the novel stresses independent judgment and rationality. Heed these virtues and don't treat this book like some kind of secular Gospel.
Now, onto the criticism!
The characters are stick figures with little complexity to them. Gone is the complex psychologies of the characters in The Fountainhead. This is largely due to the novel's scope: The Fountainhead followed a small group of people around, while ATLAS SHRUGGED is about the fall and rebirth of Western civilization. So don't expect to be especially moved by the plights of the characters. These people exist only to embody individual aspects of Rand's philosophy.
The dialogue is so stylized as to be completely unbelievable. But, again, this must be expected given the type of novel this is.
Several small speeches dot the book's pages, but one especially famous speech near the end of the book, which comes in around a whopping 60 pages, brings the flow of the novel to a screeching halt. This is the novel's largest flaw dramatically: interrupting the flow of the narrative to deliver an essay. Even the most ardent fan of ATLAS SHRUGGED will usually skip this speech on a first reading. I didn't, as I can't bring myself to leave parts of a book unread on any reading, but there is no harm in it, as it only explicates what has already been demonstrated throughout the rest of the novel.
Rand's ideology drowns the humanity in many of the characters throughout the novel, and human life is devalued in a couple of extremely controversial scenes as a result.
The novel is far inferior on a literary level to The Fountainhead, my favorite Ayn Rand novel, but this is still a great, ponderous, controversial, compelling behemoth of a classic that should be read at least once by everyone.
*Just a note: Shell out the extra money and get this either as a trade paperback or a hardcover. The girth of this novel just destroys the puny binding on mass market paperback editions. I went through three MMP editions before just caving in and purchasing the hardcover edition. Best choice I ever made.*