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Summary: What a concept!
Review: Gee, the thought of having to actually work for your money and having to use your brain to advance in society. Unfortunately our society does not fully believe in this idea. Great book for those going into business for themselves or looking to advance in a major company. Enjoyable reading for such a big book. Minimal lag, mostly fast paced.
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Summary: Why does Atlas hold the world on his shoulders?
Review: Atlas holds the world on his shoulders because 1.)he is able to,and 2.)he sanctions the philosophy of altruism that preaches that it is the duty of men of ability to serve others less able even to the extent of holding the entire world on their shoulders if necessary.Ayn Rand successfully challenges altruism's age old strangle hold on morality and shows us its horrors in action. She show us the mystical witch doctors (religion) and the brutish atilla (the modern liberials) in action and shows us how to recognize them; their chants, their montras, their call to arms, their whinning, their bromides in as many forms as she could fit in a tiny book of only twelve hundred pages. Ayn Rand shows us that it is the men of the mind that are moral not the parasites, second handers,and hangers on trying to get something for nothing. She shows us how it is possible under altruism to damn a man like Bill Gates for his glorious achievments and praise a non entity like Mother Thresa begging her way through life and producing nothing. She shows us why the altruists want to show the business man as Scrooge every Christmas. Because they want to show the business man as evil, that is, the men of ability as evil, that is, ability as evil, that is, Life is evil. Ayn Rand turns over a few philosophical rocks and show us that we need not fear the vermin underneath. She identifies them for what they are, just common lice trying to hitch a free ride on a moral (productive) man's (Atlas's) back.
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Summary: A TRIBUTE TO THE HEROIC WITHIN MAN!
Review: A truly outstanding novel that will inspire all those who oppose dictatorship, slavery (service to others as the moral justification to one's existence), and all forms of collectivist ideology. Ayn Rand's unique philosophy Objectivism detailed within this novel, provides excellent ammunition against contemporary intellectual "mystics" who preach that an individual's life, work and identity are the property of the "group",( whether a "race", "class", "state" or "religion" etc.) and that self-sacrifice,(the surrender of that which one values in favour of that which one does not value), should be upheld as the moral "ideal". Objectivism provides a valid alternative to modern philosophy's attempts to enslave and destroy man's conceptual faculty and "Atlas shrugged" will offer you the chance to believe in the concept of man as an heroic, benevolent, independent being; with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life,(neither sacrificing himself to others nor others to himself), with productive acheivement as his noblest activity and reason his only absolute.
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Summary: One of the Few Enduring Classics
Review: It is a tribute to the power and influence of this book that it has generated so many reviews - and that the reviews look like a particularly vicious USENet thread. This is not to say that the nastiness becomes the book, but it points eloquently to the book's importance. There are perhaps five books I feel compelled to read again and again, every couple of years regardless of whatever else I'm doing. Atlas Shrugged is one such book. Reading it never fails to remind me of the potency of a single individual - in that way it's better than any drug. Further, detractors aside, there's something new in it every time. As each phase of my life passes on to the next, the themes explored in the book gain new relevance and poignancy. Granted the book is too long. Rand's chief fault as a novelist is that she often goes on making her case long after the point is clear. But this amounts to a quibble beside the sheer magnificence of the epic she's constructed. Whether or likes Rand or not one cannot ignore her, as the review thread makes clear. Her admirers need no persuasion - but her detractors must find a way to get 'round what she has to say. It's a pity most choose merely to hurl insults instead of engaging the text. Perhaps it strikes to close to home. It certainly does for me: One of the reasons I keep re-reading it is to improve my ability to live up to it, a difficult task indeed.
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Summary: Frightening prophesy coming true
Review: Amazing that Russian immigrant Ayn Rand could predict with such accuracy 50+ years ago where liberalisim and a morally bankrupt and failed federal government could take us. It's all coming true in spades with the decadent Bill Clinton being the "Fountainhead" of our demise.
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Summary: More Brilliance from Ayn!
Review: This book to me was not quite as good as the Fountainhead and a little too redundant, but Ayn Rand has created a fascinating storyline...the people who seem to get upset at her philosophy seem to be the people who don't understand. For one thing, this is a STORY people, intended to prove a point via exaggeration perhaps. Her philosophy is black and white because how else can you so specifically define your views? Nobody is forcing anyone into narcissism...maybe just trying to elicit a redefinition of your basic priorities. This was an inspiring and entertaining book.
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Summary: A book I was "redeemed" by...
Review: Having read voluminous amounts of literature considered the greatest in history. I have no need to list each tome (since I would then be forced in giving a comentary on them, because I can't help myself.) I, and a great deal of the Western Philosophical world place Atlas Shrugged among the great works of human history. If this sounds nutty, it was proclaimed the second most influential book of all time by the Library of Congress! It needs no defense from me, it is truly the peak of creative writing. Extremely complex, and far from the accusations made by some other reviewers who clearly haven't read the book. If someone idealogically disagrees with Ayn Rand, then their expectations would be imposed on her works. Thus causeing a callous disregard of the brilliance of the work. As Atlas Shrugged compares with other great novels of thought such as Orwell and his 1984, most people agree that 1984 is brilliant. In fact, some people who hold idealogies which bring about conditions like those in 1984, for example communists, also feel that 1984 is brilliant. I think that both Rand and Orwell were fighting a idealogical battle against the same people. Namely the socialists/communists, but Orwell never mentioned the soc/com by name. He merely showed the masses what it is like under a communist system (or rather a tyrannical oligarchy/despotism, which all communist governments in history have eventually became.[excepting a few short lived small scale expiriments where the people in the society had the ability to leave]) Rand, on the other hand, attacked the idealogy behind communism (and socialism), this is why Orwell is praised and Rand is despised. Because a person can read 1984 and remain a soc/com, but it is very hard for a soc/com to read Atlas Shrugged and to remain so. I would wager and can in fact claim, having had expirience that all of those people who give Atlas Shrugged a low score have not read it. All socialists whom I have talked with about it, blurted forth accusations against it. Yet ultimately admitted that they had not read it. Or had begun reading it only to get a few pages into it before quiting. This is because it is very hard for a liberal (socialist) to read it, because it is true. And it ultimately condemns the individual's belief system. As a person who was "redeemed" by this book, I strongly suggest it. Both as a good read and as an excellent philosophical work.
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Summary: Help me cast the miniseries.
Review: I just reread this book after I read that TNT was getting ready to make a miniseries and wanted casting suggestions. It was even better than I remembered. How about Antonio Banderas for Frisco? Harrison Ford for Reardon? Anthony Hopkins for Jim Taggert? Val Kilmer for the pirate? Susan Sarandon for Lillian Taggert? Nicole Kidman for Dagny? Dylan McDermott for Galt? (if only Redford and Newman were younger). Please offer some ideas.
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Summary: This book could have been written about the world today.
Review: Atlas shrugged is so profound that it is timeless. The characters and the beliefs that drive them can be applied to the world today with our current struggle between the looters and the producers. You will find yourself laughing out loud as you see similarities between the fictional looters of the book, and their flesh and blood incarnations that run many agencies and universities today. Not only is the book thought provoking, but it is beautifully written. Ayn Rand is so precise with her word usage that the book would suffer if any were changed. If you want a great story, powerful characters, and what has become a timeless theme, then Atlas Shrugged is for you. Those that hate this book probably see themselves or their ideas in it.
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Summary: A Great Libertarian Folktale for the Modern World
Review: Ayn Rand weaves a tale in which good and evil is based solely around the work ethic. In Rand's world, all of the great and powerful capitalists are self made men and women constantly being undermined by government regulations implemented only by those lethargic individuals that want an unfair advantage in the marketplace. There is no doubt Rand is a philosophic genius, and it is important to remember that she mentored (in some cases personally) some of the greatest financial minds of our day. However, Rand never looks at the other side of the equation. To read Rand, on would believe that great wealth automatically imbues one with a great morality - her capitalists never seek to pollute the environment for financial gain, they never deceive the consumer about product content, or possible injury form a products use, they never purposefully create monopolies, using financial muscle to drive up prices or bury competitors. If only that it were true that wealth induces such morality and self control, what a wonderful world it would be. But we live in a world that not so long ago produced robber barons bent on burying the very type of people Rand champions, and thus great capitalists require great scrutiny, and Rand's folktale remains but a pretty dream.
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