Cons: Long, boring, badly written, fascist overtones, and intellect insulting.
The Bottom Line: A book about a bunch of rich people pushed around by 'looters' and parasites strike and the world comes to an end. Ayn Rand's so-called 'masterpiece'.
harley_w's Full Review: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: A Philosophical and Lit...
Many people find Ayn Rand to be one of the most important philosophers and writers in the 20th century. I find her to be boring and pretentious.
I will more discuss the ideas and themes rather than the plot. It has been a while since I read this piece of dung, so I may make some mistakes. I have divided this reviews into two categories the short reviews and the long one.
The short review:
'Atlas Shrugged' is about a bunch of rich people who are angry about some socialist laws that are passed and decided to live in the mountains while the world comes to an end.
The long review:
I dislike this book greatly. It is perhaps the most successful horrible book ever written. The book's only positive qualities are it has some touching tributes to hard work and the joy of achieving something you worked very hard to accomplish. That's it...
The book is mostly about Dagny who is a railroad owner who is trying to save her company from the socialist government. Her lover is Francisco a 'playboy' who actually only slept with Dagney and he is the mastermind of the 'prime movers' plan to go on strike. Hank Reardon: a boring steel baron who has invents a super metal which can be used for anything. John Galt: a scientist who invented a motor that never runs out of fuel and never shuts up.
This book is supposed to be a moral fable. Too bad this book has very little to do with the real world. The socialist reforms are so ridiculous and excessive that there has been nothing like them that have ever existed (that includes in the Soviet Union). Some of the laws include laws that force banks to lend money to the most irresponsible people, a law the forces supplies of a super metal to be used on tea pots instead of industry, and a law that limits the number of books sold by authors. Nothing like the laws and events that I mentioned have EVER taken place Ayn Rand tries to compare liberal and social democratic economic theory with laws are so over-the-top that not even Stalin would have implemented them. Also there is a philosopher who calls for 'the end of reason', considering to my knowledge no such moral theorist with similar views has ever existed and this also reinforces my point.
For a woman whose philosophy was supposedly based on reason, reality, possibility, and science she seems to know nothing about science and limitations that exist in the real world. The book taught me that you can get an unlimited amount of oil from oil shale deposits, that by using tin and steel you can create a super metal that violates the laws of physics, and it is possible for one man with the help of nobody to build a motor that is able to take static electricity from the air. The idea of about 30 or so people being so powerful and such savants that the world would come to an end simply because of their absence is laughable. One of the characters (Hank Reardon) is 14 when he starts working in a mine, at the age of 18 he owns the company and expanded it to double its previous size. 'Nuff said.
Ayn Rand also knew nothing of how humans interact with one another. Maybe since Ayn Rand was very anti-social and the fact that she was also a bit of a recluse at times prevented her from writing about how people actually interact. In her world individualists all act the same, it is possible for three men to pursue the exact same woman and still remain good friends. People don't speak to each other they make speeches to each other. Several speeches go on for dozens of pages. People don't simply talk they either 'rage' it or they 'coldly and rationally assessing the situation in a calm objective manner'. The characters live only for money and when they make it they use the money to make more money and so on, nothing else (okay, those kind of people exist).
The opposition in the book are all whiny, stupid, unimaginative, and evil. Not one of the 'looters' is anything above a straw man who spouts off poorly presented arguments such as, "money is evil and all the rich are exploiting the poor people and wealthy don't deserve it." The protagonists’ sheer intellect and superior ability destroy their arguments in just a few hour long speeches.
The book's anti-collectivist rhetoric condones the deaths of most of the world (I think over 99% if I remember correctly). For all the talk of how "non-initiated force" is evil the whole world being wiped out is a cause for celebration. This is rationalized (not rational) by effectively saying that they are collective so an attack by one of the 'looters' or 'parasites' should let to the death of all of them.
The book ends with about 35 of the 'prime movers' living in the mountains after the world has been destroyed. Okay. Let me see these 35 silver spooners are able to farm, drill wells, build structures, and pursue their experiments? I smell BS. In real life most people are specialize in aptitude skills and hobbies. Are you seriously telling me that these people are experts in everything?
Fascist over tones. Ayn Rand was a fascist, not in the Nazi or Italian 'Black shirt' sense of the word, but in the 'might makes right' mentality, the total intolerance for dissent, the view of "the world would be a better place if X were killed off", and the concept that all problems can be solved with violence. Ayn was a social Darwinist, a 'if the poor die that's their problem' attitude if you will. She worshipped the already strong or powerful, you were either a 'superman' or sub-human at best.
Some random complaints about this book: It is long, in some editions over 1200 pages. It rambles more than this review. I have never heard of smog being 'beautiful' before until I read this book. The odd sex scenes in the book (they remind me more of rape than just rough sex). Ayn Rand's view of women in her book (I'm no fan of feminists, but I found it sexist), she felt that a woman must obey men and shouldn’t be in a position of power (except over parasites). Despite 'not' being a racist, none of the prime movers are black or Asian (which would mean that all non-whites would be killed off in the 'mind strike'). Despite all the freedom and individualism talk Ayn Rand had a very fascist view of life (similar to 'Fight Club' when Tyler Durden's followers after all the talk of individualism they become basically robots). The whole 'all altruism is evil' thing made me very uneasy at times. The constant complaining of collectivism is odd to say the least.
Finally I'd to comment on Ayn Rand. She called herself the perfect woman. When I think of the perfect woman I think of a drunken, rude, arrogant, antisocial, humourless, drug addicted, sociopathic, narcissist, adulteress too. Some people have said that the heroes in 'Atlas Shrugged' are about how people should be, not how they are. Okay. If your philosophy is grounded in a bunch of fictional characters who have abilities that would are in impossible to achieve, as an example on how you moral theories work, not real people, then it fiction and nothing more. For a woman who supposedly believed in reason, logic, individuality, and rationality she did not follow any of her own teachings. Miss Rand took much of her philosophy from philosophers such as Hume, Mises, Kant, Sartre, and Nietzsche, but she hated them all and often called their ideas (and them) evil. Ayn Rand often talked a lot about people taking responsibility for their actions and not to make excuses, but she blamed everyone, but herself for all her downfalls and failures. She demanded full obedience of her followers, she demeaned her closest friends divorce their spouse if the spouse was religious, she refused to befriend anyone who liked Mozart, demeaned her husband in public by carrying on a 'rational affair' with suck-up Nate Brandon, and would either start crying or would scream profanity and insults at anyone who dared question her books or her philosophy.
Objectivism is the school of thought for Monty Burns (The Simpsons), Patrick Bateman (American Psych), Uncle Duke (Doonesbury), and Scrooge (A Christmas Carol).
This book is mostly rambling tripe. Its only purpose is for rich kids to reinforce their superiority complex and to get some insight into the twisted mind of Ayn Rand.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.