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Reindog
| | Posted on Friday, January 08, 2010 - 11:05 am: | 
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I've slogged it to page 393 and I feel like I'm reading headlines out of today's newspapers at times. Obama's "the buck stops here" speech yesterday could have easily been in the novel. "No one was at fault" for failing to catch the underwear bomber is one of Rand's credos of governmental abrogation of responsibility. She achieves her viewpoints using hyperbole which makes the belief systems of her characters stand out. I love the "Anti dog-eat-dog rule" and the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill" and wonder why our present Congress hasn't adopted them yet.
Rand was badly in need of an editor as AS could easily be a shorter novel. |
Moxnix
| | Posted on Friday, January 08, 2010 - 12:17 pm: |
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She was a Russian. Long dreary novels, moods as gray as a Moscow winter sky, characters perfect for psychoanalysis, yadda, yadda. Anything shorter than 1000 pages is a novella.
Existence exists,
and
Existence is Identity. |
Reindog
| | Posted on Friday, January 08, 2010 - 12:23 pm: |
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At least there are sex scenes even if rather ho-hum. The reader is treated to the word "breast" but apparently not "nipple".
I love the "novella" comment.
"It was a dark and stormy life". |
Bomber
| | Posted on Friday, January 08, 2010 - 01:52 pm: |
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Rand's works are a tough slog -- they really (and I mean really) grabbed my attention as a yout . . . . today, not so much (a bit simplistic, IMO).
Catch-22, now there's a book that still reads as well now as it did when first published -- Heller was a great author.
(Message edited by bomber on January 08, 2010) |
Fireboltwillie
| | Posted on Friday, January 08, 2010 - 04:46 pm: |
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i read AS years ago (early 90's) after reading the Fountainhead. i almost think it was a mistake to read in that order. after the Fountainhead, you know where AS is heading, but it takes forever to get there. a great read, and long overdue for a re-read. |
Strato9r
| | Posted on Saturday, January 09, 2010 - 12:50 pm: |
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The interviews on You Tube are an awesome resource for those who did not get to see them originally; the Mike Wallace interview from 1959 is also a good one, and the Playboy magazine interview from 1964 is one of her best. One of the points she made in many of her interviews was the growing trend of men made to feel reluctant to be proud of their accomplishments. She made a point of letting the world know that a woman is attracted to a man who lives up to, or beyond his potential, without reservation or guilt.
As far as "How do we get there from here?", science fiction is a good model to follow; what inspires the mind to achieve is often what it actually accomplishes. I have an outdated cell phone that bears a remarkable resemblance to the one carried by Captain James T. Kirk (Buell rider), to prove that fact. |
Dwardo
| | Posted on Monday, January 11, 2010 - 02:05 pm: |
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Another Heller novel, "Something Happened", has stuck in my mind for years. As did James Jones' "Some Came Running", which I read about the same time. |
Reindog
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 11:24 pm: |
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I'm halfway there!
lemonchili_x1: How could you have stopped at the halfway point? The story is getting good with the Unification Board mandating wage hikes while forbidding price hikes. I can't wait to find out what happens as America spirals into economic anarchy.
I sure hope our Obama and his people aren't getting ideas from this book as he seems to be using the looters philosophy as his playbook. |
Strato9r
| | Posted on Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 01:07 am: |
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No, modern "Intellectuals" view Ayn Rand as literary trash; my daughter brought up Atlas Shrugged in philosophy class and was quickly slammed by the prof. However, Alex kept her cool and waited for him to slip up, which he did a few minutes later by using the analogy of rebuilding an engine to attempt to explain some principal to the class. Having worked with me in the machine shop for nearly three years (rebuilding engines), she waited until he proved his remarkable ignorance of things mechanical, at which time she stood up and shredded him with the facts, destroying his argument and his credibility with one well aimed shot. (she is also an amazing shot with a rifle, BTW, and was advanced to Rifle Coach at only 14 when she was an Air Cadet) If the current administration IS using Atlas Shrugged as a playbook, it's only because they know that people are too f*cking busy watching mindless television and trying to live the lifestyles of talentless celebrities to know what is actually going on around them. Get yourself a comfy chair, Tom, that book is going to be REALLY tough to put down right about now.............. |
Nik
| | Posted on Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 03:01 am: |
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I had similar experiences in philosophy and political science classes. As an engineering major it both amused and frightened me to see how people who produce nothing tangible (not to say that the abstract is without value) understand the world... |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 06:49 pm: |
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Obama's book is "Rules for Radicals" by Alinsky. It's also the subject for Hillary's senior thesis. Atlas Shrugged is of course simplified. Has to be. I have issues with her conclusions, but an not articulate enough to voice them. |
Pso
| | Posted on Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 02:37 pm: |
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Nik-How about the effects of Platos's "The New Republic"? Seems like our country was founded on many of these precepts. |
Niceguyeddy
| | Posted on Sunday, January 17, 2010 - 03:10 pm: |
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Both are a good read imo. Take some time off and read King's The Shining. Try to put this one down...the movie absolutely sucks in comparison. |
Strato9r
| | Posted on Monday, January 18, 2010 - 01:13 am: |
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+1 on "The Shining". I love Steven King's work; "The Stand" scared the sh*t out of me the first time I read it, and was even creepier in the unedited version.... |
Reindog
| | Posted on Thursday, January 21, 2010 - 09:48 pm: |
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Finished it in three weeks!
What a great read and helps define Conservative and free thought. It shows how "well intentioned" government legislation that imposes fairness is doomed to failure.
This should be required reading in high school and all do-gooder leftists/socialists will benefit from thinking about Rand's philosophy.
AS is part science fiction, part comic book, part philosophy textbook. This could easily have been accomplished in 500 pages.
Who is Court Canfield? |
Pso
| | Posted on Friday, January 22, 2010 - 09:01 am: |
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I read alot of Kings stuff, but started to realize that lots of childern and innocent folks got killed or whatever gruesme thing he could think up. I also liked his Bachman series, particularly the one about the runners-was one of the best descriptions of fatigue that I think I had read in a long time. |
Bigdaddy
| | Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 11:10 am: |
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Reindog,
Your next reading assignment is The Fountainhead. Actually, all fans of Buell should read it...bucking conventional wisdom is always interesting  |
Reindog
| | Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 02:13 pm: |
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I'll give "The Fountainhead" a go but I need a Rand rest for a little while. I am reading "The World is Flat", by Thomas Freidman and "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose.
I strongly recommend "Atlas Shrugged" for well meaning Liberals and Socialists. It is no accident that it made Amazon #1 in fiction last April after the Looters in Washington assumed control of two branches of the Government. That is an amazing fact considering the book was written in 1957. |
Niceguyeddy
| | Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 05:29 pm: |
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Anyone else here make it through Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)? Now that was a slow go... |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 05:44 pm: |
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Heart of Darkness... vivid descriptions, deep look into a man's soul... Not, I admit, a bubblegum read.
I very much enjoyed Victor Davis Hanson's "A war like no other" about the peloponnesian war...but it's textbook slow with lots of page turning to read footnotes. One of those 2 bookmark texts. His "Carnage and Culture", on the other hand, is a fun to read book that pumps data and opinion at you like a hose.
http://www.amazon.com/Carnage-Culture-Landmark-Bat tles-Western/dp/0385720386/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=bo oks&qid=1264372988&sr=1-7 |
Pso
| | Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010 - 07:01 pm: |
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Read"Heart of Darkness" also saw the moern cinama version of it "apocolyps now" Not even the names were changed. |
Moxnix
| | Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 - 01:59 am: |
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http://isil.org/resources/introduction.swf |
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