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Summary: The new Torah of a secular Messianic cult
Review: ATLAS SHRUGGED is Ayn Rand's new Torah, with John Galt in the role of liberator/lawgiver Moshe and Ayn Rand herself as the Moshiach ushering in Olam ha-Ba. Her 'G-d' is a Moloch named 'objective reality' - an objectivised version of her own tastes and whims which nevertheless announces itself as 'A is A' ('I am what I am'). The thirty-six (count them) inhabitants of 'Galt's Gulch' are her version of the Talmud's lamedvovniks: the 36 righteous people in each generation for whose sake the world is sustained.Rand herself is uncannily reminiscent of Shabbatai Tzvi, an earlier Messianic contender who was also insane and was popularised by an earlier Nathan (Nathan of Gaza rather than Nathan Blumenthal/Nathaniel Branden) who interpreted that insanity as a sign of divine inspiration. Like Shabbatai Tzvi, who claimed the authority to permit the forbidden, Rand engaged in an adulterous sexual relationship with the much younger Branden for many years and defended it on the Nietzschean ground that the usual rules of morality did not apply to 'giants' like her. These similarities are generally not mentioned because we are supposed to pretend we don't notice that her widest appeal is to disaffected, intellectual, secular Jews. Whether you believe in G-d or not, be wary of this secular cult and its new Torah. In either religious or secular terms, there is nothing liberating about mindless conformity to the drives and urges of a madwoman - no matter how well they are rationalised.
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Summary: Attempt To Justify Fanatical World-View With Cheesy Novel
Review: Rand has a lot of interesting ideas in this book--what she doesn't have is a novel. This story is NOT interesting, with its 2-D characters and 50pg philosophical diatribes interrupting, of all things, a RAILROAD DRAMA. She just has no idea how people--any people, including herself--operate and why. She seems to think that when people fail in business it's because they are stupid, lazy misanthropists. What makes it worth reading (regardless of your political beliefs) are the ideas and arguments about the nature of human greatness and government. Not that they are right, but that they get your mind zinging, focusing your own beliefs as you say to yourself "What the? But that's not true because..."
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Summary: The greatest novel ever written!
Review: I first read "Atlas Shrugged" as a college freshman in 1963, and have probably reread it a dozen times since. This book changed my life. As the ultimate champion of reason, logic and man's right to his own life, Rand defines a code of values that is consistent with everything that is beautiful and just in our world. I have tried my best to live as an Objectivist, and don't regret having chosen to do so. It is touching that so many young people are so attracted to Ayn Rand's book so many years after she first published it. Her philosophy is indeed idealistic. If all humans heeded Rand's axiom that no man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against another, there would be no such thing as war. If everyone accepted Rand's idea that each person has a right to their own life, America's relentless drift toward egalitarianism and socialism would cease. Even though people don't widely accept Rand's ideas in today's world, her Objectivist philosophy is by no means too idealistic to serve as a guide for practical living. Only through the use of reason and logic and a proper understanding of absolutes can truly complicated issues be resolved. By contrast, pragmatists and nihilists like James Taggert, Cuffy Meigs and their counterparts in America---liberals---have no clue about how to address complex societal issues.
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Summary: I love Ayn Rand, although she can be a bit wordy.
Review: I think Ayn Rand has a unique philosophy: one that should be counted among the most prominent of our century. She doesn't really get caught up in the polemics of academia: she approaches philosophy with the zest most of us reserve only for hardcore fucking. She's someone who said "bollocks to y'all" (in more than that many words) to the cult of caring means sharing and cheerful servitude. She is a consummate intellectual elitest, who cares not for the week minded subsentient, but rather opens her womb to the towering staff of human intellect, so that it can also penetrate the dark chasms of altruism and depravity. Rand shows us that the addle-brained and the meek deserve nothing, in that they are the piss-monkeys of the mighty and selfish geniuses that reign over the Earth and make her their bitch.
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Summary: Know Thyself
Review: I'm halfway through this book and I am spellbound. I frequently become caught up in philosophy. The fact that I wrote my college thesis on Transcendentalism, when I was neither a literature or philosophy major, should indicate something. At any rate, the book is dynamic. Don't let anyone tell you that anyone who enjoys this book must be stupid or a fool. After all, the greatest fool is one who does not recognize that other opinions exist in the world and have their own validity. If the critics of this book were truly confident in their own capabilities, they would lambast the OPINIONS of the book's supporters, not the supporters themselves. Resorting to name-calling is often the sign of a banal intellect. I say, even if you think that you're not likely to enjoy the book, read it anyway. In my opinion, it had more than enough sub-issues to keep anyone's mind busy puzzling them out for hours. I, for example, found myself most caught up in Rand's call to know yourself and to not let anyone co-opt you into their particular moral code. Rearden finally realizes that by allowing men to turn his life in a direction that he didn't want it to go, he was implicitly aiding them in their mission. In general terms, the book is about ACTION. Motive power, as Rand calls it. What motivates you for living? Whatever that is, look inside yourself and make certain that it is noble enough for you to stake your life on its precepts. No excuses, no doubts. Stand for something or you will fall for anything -- Rand has no love for those like Orren Boyle, whose loyalty swings in the wind, ready and willing to be bought or sold. Rand's theory, admittedly, works better in theory than practice. It's much easier to be Objectivist, I would imagine, if you're as wealthy and powerful as Rearden and Dagny. Nonetheless, that doesn't make it any less valid. Think really hard... what values does society reward when your taxes increase as a result of a hard-earned raise (i.e. your productive SUCCESS) or your marriage? Why should two people who pledge their mutual happiness to each other be fiscally punitive when other people get more AFDC money year after year for producing welfare babies? (And don't tell me it doesn't happen, that it's a Conservative myth. I've seen it.) More than anything else, think THINK THINK about the world you live in and what role you want to play in it. Why is it that when we aid someone's alcoholism we're considered an enabler but when we aid someone's utter dependence on the government, we're 'generous'?
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Summary: What are Atlas-haters afraid of? Losing my wealth, no doubt!
Review: Because most of the negative reviews of Atlas focus upon its length, they offer insight so shallow that one questions whether the reviewers actually read the book. Many others are also afraid of the primary question of the book, what produces wealth and prosperity, and who is entitled to it? Rand's answer, so chillingly and lengthily refined, is the Atlases of the world--the producers and the thinkers deserve the rewards of their work, not the moochers(bureaucrats must a priori dislike this book). Justice, not irrational mysticism, is the theme and overriding concern. No wonder Atlas stirs up such passions!
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Summary: not the best study of independence
Review: People who read and adore this books would be well advised to read "Independent People" by the great Icelandic author Halldor Laxness. Laxness' main character, the farmer Bjartur, is precisely the type of character Rand tries to create in John Galt. But, Laxness locates Bjartur in the real world (pre-World War I Iceland) and the results of Bjartur's independence are far different from the end of "Atlas Shrugged." The difference, of course, is that Bjartur is subject to the whims of the world around him, where John Galt's world is carefully constructed to allow him to come out on top after many "struggles." Rand's flaw is obvious. She reduces the world to its component parts and subjects them all to ruthless logic. She them assembles a world based on the logical conclusions. The real world, however, doesn't work that way. Scientists, for instance, have begun to understand that the world is a collection of complicated systems which have a life of their own independent of the actions of each component part. (Incidentally, economic activities are subject to the same idea, so those who see Rand's economics as logically correct fail to see that her theories are limited by the same boundary.) So read this (or any other Rand book) with a large grain of salt. Following her theories is just as likely to see one end up like Laxness' Bjartur as her John Galt.
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Summary: It will be well worth you time.
Review: As a novel, Atlas Shrugged has too much preaching; as an exposition, it lacks power because practically all of the characters are far too extreme for the readers to relate to the real world. It is a great work nonetheless. Ayn Rand used her tremendous writing skills to forcefully express her (somewhat extreme) social views in the form of a novel - perhaps the most effective way to touch the minds of a lot of people. Atlas Shrugged has a great plot, the characters are vivid and engaging. However, the last fifth of the book was not as well formed as the earlier part. Whether you agree with her views or not, you will find the book thought provoking and very entertaining. It is one of a kind. Don't miss it.
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Summary: An epic tale about mans will to survive
Review: This novel gives a sense of hope. It shows you that your ultimate goal in life is the pursuit of your own happiness and achievement. It guides you an a direction that will show you how you could really appreciate life and change your outlook on the world forever.
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Summary: Pulp Sci-Fi
Review: Readers who've been giving 4 or 5 stars to this book or others by Rand amaze me. No doubt a fair percentage of them watch the daytime soaps that run for 20+ years... Quantity doesn't mean quality. Another review stated that Rand kept going until she "ran out of ideas." NOT TRUE. A book should be as long as it needs to be without meandering. Lord of the Ring was three books (4 if you count The Hobbit) but every page meant something, served a purpose, moved the story forward. AS treads water. Was Rand paid by the page? Or by the word? Where ten words could suffice, Rand uses two hundred and fifty. I have just enough interest in these characters to keep me reading the book, but I don't need page-long descriptions of everyone's hair, breeches, chin, face, skirt, expression, cleavage, skin color, sweat, shoes, etc. NO ONE CARES. Perhaps Rand alone isn't to blame. We keep buying her books. And who the heck is the editor?
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