Atlas Shrugged

I could not finish Atlas Shrugged.

To rabid fans of Ayn Rand: I'm willing to admit that I'm too stupid to understand her brilliant ideas. Fine, an obnoxious Objectivist or two might think I'm ignorant. I can live with that. I think of it as an intellectual equivalent of an obese person criticizing my relatively slow running pace.

This cartoon sums up some of my feelings quite nicely.

I loved this comment about the above mentioned cartoon:

"Rand never gets credit for her single greatest accomplishment... giving assholes an intellectual framework for being assholes."

Now, what to do with my copy of Atlas Shrugged, which I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents? I've thought about this a lot. I don't want to destroy the book because I don't believe ideas should be destroyed regardless of how bad. So burning, dunking, shooting, drawing and quartering are out.

A list of uses for Atlas Shrugged (that retains the readability of the copy)

1. Obvious: door stop and paper weight

2. Violent: blunt object that inflicts pain but no real damage

3. Liberal repellent

4. Yoga prop

5. Exercise equipment

6. When all you need is an extra 3 inches to reach something

7. Bug killer

8. Flower press

9. Furniture leveler

10. Lumbar support (paperback version)

11. Pot holder

12. Action figure scenery

13. Hot Wheels track support

14. Animation

Feel free to add others in the comments. I might get around to re-enacting some of these in photos and drawings.

I don't think I can do it.

I've completed 7 marathons, 5 half marathons and some shorter races but I cannot manage to finish reading "Atlas Shrugged"

I'm past the long John Galt speech. The only time I've yelled at a book character was while reading that speech. A guy blathers on for 3 hours and nobody thinks to cut the power.

I'm down to the last 300 or so pages. I've flipped ahead a few times. I know a bridge gets blown up, Cuffy Meigs and Dr. Statler die, Jim Taggart loses his mind, John Galt is tortured and rescued; and Hank, Francisco, Dagny, John, Ragnar and all the rest of the producers go to Galt's Gulch and live happily ever after doing their circle jerk while the rest of the world burns all around them blissfully unaware that unless they build a spaceship they too will get burned.

I could be mistaken about the above since I can only bring my self to skim at this point. Actually, I haven't picked up the book again since February, so my memory could be a bit sketchy.

In context of the BP oil gusher, I find my desire to finish decreasing ever more. I wonder in the context of this reality how any adult can take Objectivism seriously? Okay, Rand's dire vision is happening in North Korea but that is an aberration. Maybe Zimbabwe, too, with the white farmers.

Maybe I'm too old to read Atlas Shrugged. I tried to read The Fountainhead in high school but I couldn't stand it for very long. Enjoyed Anthem. Maybe "Objectivism/ Ayn Rand phase" should be incorporated into the American life cycle chart. An interesting question to study - why some people don't grow out of it?

I have a few of Rand's philosophical writings in my library. They are quaintly amusing. Stalinism sucked; thankfully no country has tried to fully implement Objectivism because that would suck just as hard. That won't happen because this world is populated by humans rather than the ideas with human-like characteristics that populate the world of Atlas Shrugged.

I should finish this book or at least get it off my nightstand. Maybe try composting it or using its pages to line the bird cage.

The idea for another project: documenting uses for a slightly worn copy of Atlas Shrugged.

Did learn that carrying a copy into a UU church will cause a greater reaction than carrying a Bible.

Atlas Farted

I came across a funny bit of headline on The Onion: Area Man Insufferable Jerk for Two Months after Reading Atlas Shrugged.

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged and afraid the same thing is happening to me. I'm halfway through and wish to extend a pre-emptive apology for any insufferable jerkiness that results when finished. I finished the part in chapter 6, part 2 where the directives (Directive 10-289) that will attempt to stop progress are read and discussed by Wesley Mouch (a bureaucrat - I guess naming him Rob Leach would have been too obvious) and his advisers.

I'm seeing parallels everywhere. Even in beer commercials. Francisco d'Aconias is the most interesting man in the world and he drinks Dos XX.

I bought the book at a garage sale along with Anthem and The Fountainhead. I read a bit of the Fountainhead in high school but got bored with it. I read enough to participate in the discussion and have been exposed to Objectivism. Received enough exposure to be repulsed by its extremity. Have libertarian leanings but I don't fully buy the rational self-interest stuff. It assumes humans are rational and does not address conflicts between individuals with equally rational self-interests.

I decided to give Atlas Shrugged a try and to be able to say that I read the book when disagreeing with the philosophy. At this point I have several thoughts and impressions I need to sort out. I tried sharing some with Walter but he has never been exposed to Ayn Rand and I love him too much to make him read this stuff. Then I remembered that I have a blog.

Rand could have made her point in half of the pages. My God, this woman is long-winded. I read the introduction by Leonard Peikoff and he included some development notes. Four paragraphs stating the same point: using Atlas Shrugged as a concrete way to explain abstract philosophy. Each of the four paragraphs has that thesis. I got the idea after one paragraph but maybe I process things a little faster.

I'm approaching this like a marathon. I have the map and elevation profile and have even ridden part of the route but I really don't know what it's like until I actually run the race. Having a general outline of the novel has lead to some frustration. I've often flipped a few pages ahead to see if any interesting bits are ahead or a break where I can put the book down. The image of the Monty Python knights screaming "Get On With It!" often go through my head while reading some parts.

I might enjoy the book a bit more if this was my first exposure to Ayn Rand. I know where this book is going and wish it would hurry up and get there.

Rand's greatest achievement so far with this novel is making sex boring. I try not imagine just how screwed up her sex life must have been. I'm glad she never wrote the screen play for an adult film. I imagine it would have been 3 hours long: 2 hours 50 minutes worth of speeches with cheesy music playing in the background, 10 minutes of sex with 7 and 1/2 minutes of that consisting of the actors jerking off. The conversations between Hank Reardon and Francisco d'Aconias are more sexual than the actual sex. A few of the scenes with Reardon and d'Aconias would be at home in Star Trek slash fiction.

Keeping in mind that Rand is trying to convey a philosophy helps me tolerate the one-dimensional characters and the absurd extremes between the heroes (brilliant, competent, high standards of morality) and the villains (stupid, incompetent, false standards of morality). 1,200 pages and she couldn't find time to flesh characters out to at least 1-1/2 dimensions. Many comic books do a better job.

Some people build straw-men in an attempt to bolster their arguments. Rand is building a straw-world. Easy to tear down.

I will finish this book, I will read the long-winded speeches, laugh at non-normal human behavior, tolerate long descriptions of emotions that characters cannot name, enjoy the absurdity and try not to draw too many analogies between the events in the real world and the events in Atlas Shrugged.

If a John Galt managed to organize a strike in our world, we would become deprived of achievements like Sham-Wow.