Atlas shrugged

[Dr Jekyll]

What does everyone think of Ayn Rand's masterpiece? Personally I find it strangely compelling but not to be taken too seriously.

[AW111]

I picked barking mad, because you didn't give the option of

"A boring polemic thinly diguised as fiction"

[Sunnyone]

I reading it at the moment, I'm about 2 thirds in and at the moment I would say A bit loopy but with some valid points.

I may change my mind by the end

[Levin]

Tried reading it, got about 40 pages in and thought it was garbage. That said, I do want to give it another go. I might end up forcing myself through it.

[K12beano]

Mmmm - it's an "interesting" one that.

I found it quite difficult, mostly the difficulty in wading through treacle that some of the passages feel like. Although it has its entertaining moments. A few years ago someone had a pop at turning it into a film. They gave up after the "first episode" and probably that was the most interesting bit of the book - basically (without telling you the plot) things like the railroad system fall apart.....

I'm not sure I actually learned anything and it is difficult to see any "entertainment" in the process of reading it (maybe apart from the geeky smugness that comes with knowing who John Galt actually is !!!! )

With my mental dust settled for a few years I heard Michael Caine on Desert Island Discs say his favourite book was The Fountainhead and I was mug enough to think that might be a good read. I wish I hadn't.

But back to AS - if you've never read it, you have an open mind, you have time to kill or you just like plain old-fashioned literature (it's horribly dated) you might pop it on your reading list. It won't change your world, your fortune or the price of beans.... and it's mostly harmless. Just my tuppence.....

[Dr Jekyll]

K12beano said:

A few years ago someone had a pop at turning it into a film. They gave up after the "first episode" and probably that was the most interesting bit of the book - basically (without telling you the plot) things like the railroad system fall apart.....

No, they made three episodes, all with completely different casts and all flopped.

[brrapp]

When I first read it almost 40 years ago as a naive teenager it was life changing, I don't think it would be impressive if I read it again now.

[Dr Jekyll]

brrapp said:

When I first read it almost 40 years ago as a naive teenager it was life changing, I don't think it would be impressive if I read it again now.

Part of the difference though is that it's only in the last 40 years that Rand's basic message, that free market competition is what creates wealth and command economies lead eventually to economic collapse if not famine, has become generally accepted.

As late as the 1970s it was a commonly held view that the Soviet union was creating wealth just as effectively as the West. When Atlas shrugged was published in the 1950s it was the general view. After all the USSR had just put Sputnik up. I've got a copy of an Arthur C Clarke book published a few years later where he confidently predicts that the Soviets will beat the US to the moon simply because a command economy is bound to be more efficient.

It's the fact that Rand banged on about the benefits of free markets and the profit motive when so few people recognised them that makes the book fascinating.

[handpaper]

I read it about ten years ago, and a couple more times since.

While it didn't change much about my view of the world, it did show me that I wasn't alone in it.

I also enjoyed The Fountainhead, both the book and the film with Gary Cooper

[fridaypassion]

I read this book a few years ago. Goes on a bit but it's a good read.

Only slight problem is that it crows about the virtues of the free market and hard work etc but the main character inherited her wealth? Difficult to add more without spoiling but that was a bit of a one to think about. It would have made a lot more sense and been a lot more inspiring if Taggart was a self made gal.

[Dr Jekyll]

fridaypassion said:

I read this book a few years ago. Goes on a bit but it's a good read.

Only slight problem is that it crows about the virtues of the free market and hard work etc but the main character inherited her wealth? Difficult to add more without spoiling but that was a bit of a one to think about. It would have made a lot more sense and been a lot more inspiring if Taggart was a self made gal.

Rather depends on who you regard as the main character. Dagny inherited a share of the railway but does seem to have earned her senior position in it through ability, while her brother is in charge purely through inheritance. The main hero is lucky enough to be a genius of ludicrous proportions but I don't think he inherited anything.

[LordGrover]

Dr Jekyll said:

K12beano said:

A few years ago someone had a pop at turning it into a film. They gave up after the "first episode" and probably that was the most interesting bit of the book - basically (without telling you the plot) things like the railroad system fall apart.....

No, they made three episodes, all with completely different casts and all flopped.

I've never read the book but watched on Netflix/Prime. I vaguely remember enjoying the first, but being very disappointed with the next.

[AW111]

Dr Jekyll said:

Rather depends on who you regard as the main character. Dagny inherited a share of the railway but does seem to have earned her senior position in it through ability, while her brother is in charge purely through inheritance. The main hero is lucky enough to be a genius of ludicrous proportions but I don't think he inherited anything.

It's decades since I read (most of) it, but IIRC one of my major criticisms of the book was the cardboard cut-out characterisation - those mouthing views that Rand agreed with were all smart (and probably handsome ), while those she gave dissenting views to were feeble.
Which is why I called it a polemic.

[bloomen]

fridaypassion said:

Only slight problem is that it crows about the virtues of the free market and hard work etc but the main character inherited her wealth?

And Rand herself wound up on the dole in her final years. Damn that filthy collectivism for providing for her.