Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged
Book Review: A Must-Read for the Obama Generation
Summary: 5 Stars
This book provides realistic examples of how socialistic "fairness" principles, government nationalization of industries, and a one-sided mainstream media have a toxic effect on liberty and the free market. This is a must-read for those caught-up in Obama mania and will provide you with food for thought on the new direction for America -- is this really what you want?!Book Review: A Noble attempt by a Confused and Frustrated Author
Summary: 2 Stars
Ayn Rand lived a tough life, there's no doubt about that. She suffered through the Russian Revolution and somehow survived in America and managed to make a semi-successful career as a writer. All of that aside, her writing reaches average at best. Her dialogue and character descriptions are so out-right and blatant and the philosophy she bases around reason and creative thought contradicts itself with her dogmatic forcefulness. She herself scolded any of her followers for questioning her. This book has a place and a time, appropriate for teenagers finding their way through adolescence. Otherwise, it is a drawn-out work of average merit.Book Review: A Novel For the Culturally Illiterate
Summary: 1 Stars
Having read virtually all of Rand's works as a youth during the 1970's--and dismissed her fiction as wooden and philosophy as sociopathic--it is alarming that a substantial number of impressionable youngsters, not having the advantage of being exposed to the classics, have found in the dogmatic Atlas Shrugged a new Bible, and a prophet (albiet with feet of clay) in the philosophy of the novel, "Objectivism." (A knowledgeable reader may want to gag at the title of this cult-philosophy, since Objectivism is anything but objective.) I will not go into the aridity of Rand's prose, the artificial characters, the veiled sadomasochism of her "heroes", the insane nature of the philosophy that drives these characters. I advise only this: explore the great vault of literature through the ages just a bit, then read the many excerpts of Rand's fiction available on numerous websites. Decide then if this is really the kind of fiction you want to waste your precious time on. (This review is listed with one star only because there was no option for a "0.")Book Review: A PARABLE OF THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY
Summary: 5 Stars
ATLAS SHRUGGED reads like science fiction. There were Randians in the conservative movement, and they were opposed by the Whittaker Chambers wing: Christians. Rand did not hold to the Christian ethos, but her economic views were dead on. Written in 1957, it seemed to portray an America of around 1970. Although never revealed, the feel of the book is that America avoided World War II and other nations rose to power while we waffled. Lacking great history or much to be proud of, we relied on government. This resembles the current Democrats. Unimpressive, on the sidelines, not doing the hard work of history. The result, as in ATLAS SHRUGGED, was bloated, bad government. The conservatives, led by John Galt, tired of making all the things that run the world, and getting taxed like crazy for it while being blamed for every problem, "go on strike," so to speak. Without their entrepreneurial spirit, America and the world grind to a halt. Thus, the title. The world, the "atlas," is being carried on the backs of conservative winners. When they "shrug" the world falls apart and the Left-wing losers are forced to scatter about. We are seeing it in America today.
Generations of books, some thought to be paranoid, have for centuries described precisely what Obama is doing: The Art of War by Sun Tzu; The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli; The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau; The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith; Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville; Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; these and other books are either cautionary tales prophesying the rise of Barack Obama, or manifestos, handbooks guiding his strategy.
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.