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0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 What happens when Atlas shrugs? Nov 22, 2009
This book will tell you what happens.
I started reading this because I was inspired by some of Rand's essays. I continued to read it because I was so excited by what she was writing. Never have I read a _novel_ with the kind of real world quality that this has. Not only does she keep everything realistic and believable, her language and ideas are very accessible.
In this book, Rand exposes so many of the things that rely on morality. Morality is like plumbing, we don't think about it until it's broken. What Rand is trying to do is show us that our plumbing (collectively) is broken.
As a whole, our moral code is not something that we consciously contemplate (well, not everyone), but we must. Following the plumbing analogy: Do you think about what you flush down the toilet? Pour down the kitchen sink drain? Why would it be any less important to ponder the results of choices in other aspects of our lives?
Writ large is what happens when we consciously decide to stop thinking about the "Why?", in regards to actions and motives. People live and die by the choices they make, and, as Rand illustrates, even more die by other people's choices. What's wrong with this picture? These people don't have to die! They're dying because the choices holding their lives in jeopardy are being relegated to the least competent people.
Rand may be labeled as "cold", "cruel", "vicious", and "in-human", but we would live in a truly dark world if that were the way we felt about all the people who give 100% with the expectation of a reward worth exactly as much, nothing more. Rand isn't telling us to revolt, she's telling us to demand what is rightfully ours: pride! Pride is the recognition that the products of your labor are valuable, that YOU are valuable. Anyone who tells you to work twice as hard so they can eat is taking food from your mouth. What Rand doesn't do is call this what it really is, slavery.
In the end, the biggest messages that Rand is sending is that selfishness IS NOT a crime, excellence IS NOT a crime, pride IS NOT a crime. The world relies on you, but the world doesn't care about you, YOU must. Rand doesn't hate the working class, she says that the greatest to be expected of anyone is for them to do the best that they can, nothing less will suffice, even if the best they can offer is their labor. BUT, only if you are furthering your own interests, anything else is coercion.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Needed now more than ever Nov 17, 2009
The idea that Rand divides society in to "heroes" and "losers" is incorrect. The idea is that all individuals have the ability to command their own destiny. We are not victims unless we choose to be.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Hard to express.... Nov 17, 2009
Firstly, this is a sturdy paperback that I am very rough with and have had no problems.
Secondly, this book is becoming more relevant every day. Her power of premonition is scary. There are also characters that remind us that the human ability to work and create still exists. These characters remind us of the struggle against nature that has occurred generically for thousands of years, and more recently in the United States.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
some riveting pages, some story Nov 17, 2009
after reading reviews here by others, I will stick to the book even though I abhor the enormity of the number of pages contained in this book. I cannot believe that it could not be condensed somewhat. Almost 1200 pages! Surely some of it is superflous and should have been excised. But the reviews on this book will insure that I finish it, even though I avoid books of this size. It is initially overwhelming but these reviews do encourage me to persevere and finish it. Onward! But the first few pages made me think I would not be able to continue, did not capture my attention. It may seem silly to complain about the size of the book but I doubt I am alone in this issue. It does ramble in places but I'm only on page 101.
2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Atlas Shrugged Nov 16, 2009
If Atlas Shrugged is made into a movie it should be shot in high contrast black and white. The use of shades, hues and texture would add an aura of reality to the scenes that would render them silly. The setting should be the Gotham City world of a 1950's comic book.
Atlas Shrugged seemed like a 1000 page comic book sans pictures. To bad that Ayn Rand couldn't draw since she could have reduced it to the thirty or so pages it deserves by doing it as a comic book. Like a comic book it is a Miracle and Mystery play for the 20th century, simplifying everything into a parable without conflict.
It would have been refreshing to have seen a real communist in the mist of one of the scenes. As I pointed out in the first paragraph adding a little bit of the color red would have made the scene look silly. All of the characters were Objectivists probably because Rand can not conceive of anybody except one. Whether a protagonist or an antagonist every character moved only in their self interests. True some of them voice clichés but only to provide cover for their selfishness.
The self that Ayn Rand understands is one dimensional. I don't think that she can conceive of a self that is more. Consider a self that is part of the human race with its nobility and frailties. Consider a self that is a citizen of a nation based on the values and struggles of its forefathers. Consider a self that is a believer of a religion which gives them answers for the questions that are unanswerable. Consider a self that is part of a family that gives them a continuity of purpose. Consider a self that is a parent which gives them their chance at immortality. All of these selves would be foreign to Any Rand.
I see all of those selves existing simultaneously in a person and it often leads to conflict. It is from those conflicts and their resolutions that great novels are born. No such conflict is present here. The characters all proceed in their narrow self interests without any comprehension, much less conflict, with the self as a whole.
So why did I subject myself to read it? The answer is that a book allows the reader a glimpse into the mind of the author. In her case so many people seem to be of a like mind that I wanted to understand how they view the world. To that end the book was of use.
In the book I found a perfect metaphor for Ayn Rand's philosophy. It was the oak tree that Eddie Willers remembered early in the book. It was the symbol of strength and stability. When it was laid open by a random bolt of lightening it was hollow at the core. That I believe describes Rand's philosophy; hollow at the core.
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