Atlas Shrugged

[jth_ttu]

I was thinking about reading Atlas Shrugged, but Ive never read any of Rands novels and know little about her. Can some of you who are familiar with this book let me know if there is anything I need to read to understand Atlas Shrugged or can I just jump into it?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by jth_ttu

I was thinking about reading Atlas Shrugged, but Ive never read any of Rands novels and know little about her. Can some of you who are familiar with this book let me know if there is anything I need to read to understand Atlas Shrugged or can I just jump into it?

Dive right in! Its all there for you. Long read, but very interesting and applicable to today's events.

[jth_ttu]

Do you know what it is about her ideology that Ron Paul so stronly disagrees with? He suggests the book in "The Revolution" but says he disagrees with her on many points.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by jth_ttu

Do you know what it is about her ideology that Ron Paul so stronly disagrees with? He suggests the book in "The Revolution" but says he disagrees with her on many points.

One thing I believe they disagree on is religious views.

[Kludge]

Originally Posted by Bruno

One thing I believe they disagree on is religious views.

Objectivist foreign policy, too, I imagine (there are no unjust killings of a people whose government aggresses, all citizens, women and children, included).


Atlas Shrugged was fascinating for the first 500 pages or so............. Then the amount of dialogue becomes very tedious and irritating. I gave up somewhere around page 750. I liked Rand's earlier We The Living much better, even if there were a few typos over half a century after first written. It doesn't deal with philosophy nearly as much, and the characters actually have some semblance of optimism and brightness. Objectivists are rare for a reason, and I don't think it'd be worth your time to explore it too deeply: I regret the time I spent reading biographies, novels, and writings of her "heir" of and by her.

[jth_ttu]

Originally Posted by Kludge

Objectivist foreign policy, too, I imagine (there are no unjust killings of a people whose government aggresses, all citizens, women and children, included).


Atlas Shrugged was fascinating for the first 500 pages or so............. Then the amount of dialogue becomes very tedious and irritating. I gave up somewhere around page 750. I liked Rand's earlier We The Living much better, even if there were a few typos over half a century after first written. It doesn't deal with philosophy nearly as much, and the characters actually have some semblance of optimism and brightness. Objectivists are rare for a reason, and I don't think it'd be worth your time to explore it too deeply: I regret the time I spent reading biographies, novels, and writings of her "heir" of and by her.

Getting tired of it was a great fear of mine. It looks complicated and I am debating whether or not reading it will benefit me. Would I be better off reading several less complex books?

[ScoutsHonor]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Dive right in! Its all there for you. Long read, but very interesting and applicable to today's events.

Agreed.

Very long, and very interesting.

[malkusm]

Originally Posted by jth_ttu

Getting tired of it was a great fear of mine. It looks complicated and I am debating whether or not reading it will benefit me. Would I be better off reading several less complex books?

I read the book in a month - 1 chapter per day (about an hour per day). I found it engaging, though long-winded in spots. I didn't have as much of a foundation in liberty then as I do now, and I didn't have trouble with it - it actually might help if you're unfamiliar with some of the concepts that she espouses in the novel, rather than reading things you already know and getting bored with it quickly.

I'm not sure how well-read you are on economics, but I'd suggest Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" and Rothbard's "What Has Government Done To Our Money?" if you're a beginner and want a primer on the basics, before jumping into Atlas Shrugged.

I'm currently working on Ayn Rand's collection of essays on capitalism (non-fiction), and find them to be very powerful arguments for capitalism with many in-depth examples. (FWIW)

[Kludge]

Originally Posted by jth_ttu

Getting tired of it was a great fear of mine. It looks complicated and I am debating whether or not reading it will benefit me. Would I be better off reading several less complex books?

Well, though I couldn't get through Atlas Shrugged, I was able to make it to the end of The Fountainhead. It isn't so much the complexity as it is providing a LOT of unnecessary information on the characters and settings, and honestly, I learned much more information on Rand and her influence on libertarianism as we know it by reading "Radicals for Capitalism" by Brian Doherty.

Briefly summed up, Objectivism differs from "libertarianism" (Rand critiqued libertarians as all being anarchists) in that it is not open to anarchy (Objectivism requires minimal state interference existing for the sole purpose of defending natural human rights), objects to noninterventionism (Objectivists were anti-communist war hawks), and pities the religious. Objectivists claim that by excluding a core set of philosophical beliefs all individuals in the collective must believe in, libertarians are naturally nihilists and are anti-values. Libertarians, from an Objectivist standpoint, do not love liberty, but hate the government. They lack the Objectivists' passion, and because of it, the Communist system of government will eventually replace the libertarian utopia of anarchy because libertarians will never group together under common principles and fight for their rights.

[jth_ttu]

Originally Posted by malkusm

I read the book in a month - 1 chapter per day (about an hour per day). I found it engaging, though long-winded in spots. I didn't have as much of a foundation in liberty then as I do now, and I didn't have trouble with it - it actually might help if you're unfamiliar with some of the concepts that she espouses in the novel, rather than reading things you already know and getting bored with it quickly.

I'm not sure how well-read you are on economics, but I'd suggest Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" and Rothbard's "What Has Government Done To Our Money?" if you're a beginner and want a primer on the basics, before jumping into Atlas Shrugged.

I'm currently working on Ayn Rand's collection of essays on capitalism (non-fiction), and find them to be very powerful arguments for capitalism with many in-depth examples. (FWIW)

"What Has the Government Done to Our Money?" taught me alot, I plan on reading "Economics in One Lesson".