Rating: 
Summary: The gateway to your imagination
Review: I've just finished Anthem for maybe the 100th time. Over the past 27 years at various stages in my young life I've picked up this book. I can so clearly remember the first time I read it. It was eyesight to the blind. The first time a book actually made me feel a character. Now...well Ms. Rand's credo is as simple to understand today as it was for me 27 years ago. A must for any reader over 10 years old. After Anthem, I gobbled up each of her books and even got to participate in "Night of January 16th, off, off broadway, a high mark for me. To personal a review you say ? Read it first, then try to argue
Rating:
Summary: Unknown gem
Review: Having read THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED many, many years ago, and having both those books completely change my life, I wanted to see what ANTHEM was all about. One often fears that a great writer has "used up" their energy and creativity in their major opus, and this was my hesitation in coming to this book. But my fears were unfounded, for ANTEHM is just as good as anything else Rand has written. The characters are as deep and complex as they are in her other works, and as usual, she has a powerful message. While I tend to stick with a good page-turner like THE DA VINCI CODE or THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, I do occasionally go back to what I term "classical" writers. ANTHEM is one book that Rand fans must read. Shorter and less heavy than FOUNTAINHEAD or ATLAS, this makes for a great summer read.
Rating:
Summary: I am. I Think. I will..... I AM A MAN!
Review: Be positively uplifted by the power, glory and beauty in this fantasic book written by Ayn Rand. In the society of today, man is treaten like a slave more and more everyday. This book shows you just the way out. Dare to be yourself! You have your mind! -Dave-
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but...
Review: Rand's "philosophy" and it's obvious contradictions and circular reasonings aside, this is an interesting little book that can be read in an afternoon. The plural speech used throughout most of the book ("we", "us") reminds me a bit of Gollum's style of speech in J.R.R. Tolkien's books and makes me wonder if _Anthem_ might have been an influence on Tolkien in that respect. The dystopian setting of the novel resembles that of Orwell's _1984_. This book was also allegedly the inspiration for Rush's album, "2112". Now for the bad news. Rand intended this to be an indictment of "collectivism", but she makes no effort to differentiate between statist and libertarian forms of collectivism; to her, all collectivism is a simplistic caricature of _1984_-style totalitarianism. Also, this book could just as easily read as an indictment of the herd/sheep mentality that capitalism is based on (and requires in order to keep functioning), but this obviously was not Rand's intent and this fact is ignored by her followers. There are other contradictions as well: For example, Rand seems here to be bashing environmentalism (or at least bashing the question-technology wing of it) yet at the same time promoting a "flee the cities and get back to nature" viewpoint of the sort that was advocated by the environmental movement in the late 1960's and the 1970's. The effect being that a radical ecologist and a radical anti-ecologist could both read this book and get the impression that it supports their position. I hope the obvious contradictions and problems with the philosophy will not prevent you from enjoying what is, on it's own level, a good and satisfying book. Read this book, yes, but after you have read it I would recommend you skip the rest of Rand's work and instead pick up _The Right to Be Greedy_, written by the pseudonymous "For Ourselves" and published by Loompanics, which presents a convincing argument that egoism, reason, and individual liberty, if they are to be fully realized, will of necessity require voluntary, libertarian forms of collectivism, and that capitalism violates some of Rand's own principles of egoism. After that I would point you in the direction of the writings of Noam Chomsky, Peter Kropotkin, and Rudolph Rocker.
Rating:
Summary: Look beyond the facade
Review: Anthem may very well be one of the finest examples of literature to grace our intellectual periphery. It is a bold statement coming from a tough critic, I assure you.
Anthem is one of the few books that reaps its true power from its lenth, and contrary to "Atlas Shrugged", it is barely over one hundred pages.
However, bear in mind that the message is revolutionary, but fragile. If handled incorrectly it is but a cliche. As a reader I advese you to look beyond what would seem the potent message to the philisophical nuances. If read with camparison to "Brave New World" or "1984", this book is a failure.
Consider the message and the book as something entirely different, and entirely new.
If you can follow the author, you'll absolutely love it.
Rating:
Summary: Simple: not great, not bad.
Review: 'Anthem' is a very easy read and can be done in an hour. However its simplicity made the storyline very predictable. I recommend this book toward philosophical/religious people. The ending wasn't that great but the theme is a very interesting topic that can be easily discussed with others.
Rating:
Summary: Reactionary narcissism camouflaged by freedom principles
Review: Ayn Rand migrated from the Communist U.S.S.R. with a righteous anger. Not only was she as an individual demeaned by lack of a personal identity -- as far as worth and contribution to society, but her gender incurred unjust persecution as well.
It seems a trend that Americans enjoy literature that reveals the philosophical or political depravity of our own or other countries, and appropriately so. Art, whether visual or written, has always been a powerful form of critique on society and collective human morality.
However, In Anthem, Rand makes a critical mistake.
Rand, being from an oppressively communist country, has equal or greater right in relation to any other voice of her time, to critique and illuminate problems with totalitarian uniformity disguised as commonwealth. Unfortunately, her attempts to reconstruct or provide answers to the above mentioned problems of individualism, peppered throughout this book, aren't only flawed logically and rationally, but are also dangerous. Allow me to explain.
Very little in History has a firebrand or flagrant reactionist radically accomplished mass change in a culture or people.
Take some of History's most prolific examples of men and women who caused change. Gandhi, for instance changed an entire people's way of thinking through peaceful, conscientious objection and demonstration. He didn't take a polar opposite view to that of his oppressive opponent, but reasoned and demonstrated with logic and grace.
Ask yourself who was more successful in erasing the disgusting presence of racism in this country? Malcolm X? Or Martin Luther King Jr.?
I shouldn't even need to bring the character of Jesus into this critique. Whether or not you believe in he existed, believe he was a prophet, or believe his story was the apex of the anthropic myth, it matters not. The impact his teachings and followers made and still make on this world is epic.
My point? If you look at the end of the book, the sacred word inscribed in stone to set the people free? Ego. That's right. Vanitos. Concentration on your own achievements, self awareness and successes. Communist pre-Russia was a prison camp where individuality, human rights, and personal talents were choked and stomped. This was something that we as Americans needed to be reminded of. However, even though Rand poetically reveals the creative and personal starvation of the Anvil & Hammer, the revelation of what a specific Country or government lacks is not the key to all future government success and human development. (For those of you who have read FountainHead and Atlas Shrugged, you know this theme reverberates through her allegorical fiction.) The Ego builds empires that fall. The consideration of other people, not yourself, and the knowledge of the little we all actually know, builds theory and desire for observation that lasts eons.
Reactionary philosophy, especially in a sneaky, preachy, wrapper has never lasted the time test.
My question is this. Why is this book required reading in High Schools? The last thing Americans need is to be more self-focused. For the Education and World awareness scope that our Country has at it's fingertips, our world view is so freaking small that veiled narcissism is the last thing our children should be reading.
I'm not some secular humanist, I'm not some pacifist altruist, I'm not even an evangelical love and peace or fundamentalist Christian. I just don't think it's healthy for our culture to be praising and assigning a series of books so highly, when their core message is achievement based vanity, self focus, and dwelling on how you can succeed in a capitalist culture. That's what Ego is.
I seriously don't recommend this book unless you view it as it actually is: a full-polar reaction to communism, a philosophically flailing attempt at sociologic reconstruction through self-focus. For the solutions this book offers it is a step back in society. For the critiques it poses creatively, a step forward.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic multi-tiered parable.
Review: This story is amazing for its many levels. There is the literal and then there is the philosophical. Although this book is only 100 pages long--it takes one sitting to read--you will find yourself thinking of it far longer.
Rating:
Summary: unbelievable
Review: this book changed my life. Rand's soft yet harsh representation of the future world hit me where it hurts. i makes you realize the true importance of the word 'I' and what it means to others as well as yourself. this morose portrayal of world without 'I' will get in your head and will refuse to leave. i read this book in one sitting and it was the single most enlightening sitting of my life. a quick read, this book will grab you and at the end you will feel yourself grabbing back. Equality 7-2521 is representative of almost all of us, wondering is we think what the others think, but never having the initiative to discover exactly what it is we are thinking. the only recomendation i have about this book is to read it in one sitting. it will change your life forever.
Rating:
Summary: Struggle for the Self
Review: The story of a government with absolute control over the people is captured in numerous books. The unique twist portrayed in "Anthem" is the loss of the sense of self. Though a very short read without a plot in the usual sense, it is a read that makes a person think.
"Equality 7-2521" is the main character, guilty of crimes against his brothers. The word "I" and the sense of self are abolished, being replaced by the word we as a symbol of the collective good. The individual is of no importance, the "we" is all that matters. Equality 7-2521 has possessed thoughts that are unique to himself, which is a crime in this world. These thoughts stay largely hidden until the day he discovers and underground tunnel which seems to have been a subway in an earlier era. This leads him to further thought and the discovery of lightbulbs or capturing the power of the sky as he calls it. Thinking the discovery and its mastery would gain him immunity for his crimes, he takes his discovery to the Council of Scholars. The Scholars reject his invention and suggest he should receive the worst punishments possible. Equality 7-2521 escapes with his invention into the Uncharted Forest. He is followed by a woman he labels "The Golden One". Together they find a cabin and discover more of the Unmentionable Times. They vow to start a new civilization with the sense of self importance and other ideas of enlightened times. In effect, the hero of the story seeks to the dark ages described in the story as a conclusion.
When I reached the end of the story, I found there was so much more I wanted to know. Although we never learn what becomes of Equality 7-2521, I found myself wishing for a sequel to the book describing his revolution. But perhaps this part of the story is best left to develop in my own mind as unlike most of the people described in this world created by Ayn Rand, I can think independently and have thoughts of my own.
|
