Ayn Rand book club
As MLK day draws to a close, I’d like to end all this hippie feel-good “I have a dream” flim-flammerie by reminding you of the harsh realities of the Objectivist universe we all inhabit. Actually, no, what I have in mind is this: when I asked for suggestions for new things to do on the blog, one of you suggested that I read all of Ayn Rand’s books and report back, while another suggested a book club.
What if we all read Atlas Shrugged, one chapter a week or so (maybe faster if there’s too many), and then I do a post describing my thoughts on it, then we continue the discussion in the comments. That would be fun, no?
The one catch is that you can’t get Atlas Shrugged that cheaply on Kindle (you can get Anthem for free, but it’s not the same). Has some ambitious young Galtian Eastern European or Indian scanned the thing in so we can all get free djvu copies?
Let’s make this happen.
Why do you hate the people who read this blog? I have tried to read that book before, but I can never get more than 20-30 pages in.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
You. Could. Not. Pay. Me. Enough.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Never read any of her stuff… In fact, until a couple years ago, I’d never heard of her (and I minored in English). But I’d be up for it if the rest of the group is
January 17th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Kindle? Dude, you can pick that piece of crap up at a used bookstore for a buck, tops.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Please…
I read Atlas Shrugged once, about 33 years ago, and that’s enough, thanks. Let me know if anyone can make it through The Speech (you’ll know it when you come upon it) without paging through it after about the first couple of pages.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
I read that in college, years ago. I decided destroying brain cells with alcohol was a better use of my time than reading any more of her crap. And I was a conservative republican.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:50 pm
I read one of her books in my college days, but I couldn’t tell you which one it was. The problem is that the mind just skates during the multi-page rants. I feel like I should read Atlas Shrugged because I’m writing a book that is related to it.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:50 pm
someone should ask Palin, what was the central message of Ayn Rand.
Just to see her say, “in what respect, charlie?”
January 17th, 2011 at 11:51 pm
I read The Fountainhead and that was enough punishment. But I wonder what fraction of Rand’s devotees realize that she was an atheist who condemned Christianity and thought that most of Christ’s teachings (pretty much anything in The Sermon on the Mount) were immoral.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:52 pm
I got as far as the bizarre scene where Dagny goes on national TV to announce that she is having an affair with Hank, when SUDDENLY, my own lower intestines burst through my chest, wrapped themselves around my neck, and threatened to strangle me if I read one more page of that insipid tome.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:53 pm
I read it 20 years ago and it’s on the shelf behind me next to The Fountainhead. they’re staying right where they are.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:53 pm
You know, it occurs to me that the readers of this blog are remarkably easy to troll.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:53 pm
Well, if I have to read it, at least I won’t be alone. Plus, it’s extra motivation to read Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine instead.
Count me in. I guess we need to pick a night to have a book thread.
Oh, and EDK can be the ombudsman of the book club, natch.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:53 pm
What if we just watched The Fountainhead movie like George did with Breakfast At Tiffany’s?
January 17th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
I approve of this.
Signed,
freelancer bin freelancer
January 17th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
If you want contemporary Right wing fiction, John Ringo comes to mind. He writes well and his politics do shine through.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
@Citizen Alan:
You make it sound intriguing.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
Some of us know when we’ve been dared to walk across the bridge.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
@DougJ DougJson:
With a family that we don’t know at all who rented the one copy at the video store? Sounds good to me.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
You haven’t read Atlas Shrugged until you’ve read it in the original Klingon.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
I have, which great and hard thought, developed an algorithm to help DougJ think through this thing:
1) go to real bookstore with real books on the shelves
2) find the Ayn Rand section
3) remove Atlas Shrugged
4) measure thickness
5) rethink
Wikipedia says that Atlas Shrugged is the tenth longest novel in Latin or Cyrillic script.
“Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged Published 1957. Approximately 540,000 words small font, thus saving pages. 1168 pages”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.....est_novels
Let’s start with the eleventh longest, War and Peace, and work our way up.
Tell you what, I’ll do the Cliff Notes:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/Wil......id-7.html
I am up for a Balloon-Juice Dr. Seuss Book Club, though.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:57 pm
No, no, a thousand times, no.
signed,
SgrAstar SgrAstarsdottir.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
Amen, all. I could maybe follow along if we play it for the snarktastic opportunity that only BJ’ers can bring to such a sucktacular piece of literature, but reading it again?? I’ll have to go with Barbara Bush “why would I waste my beautiful mind on such things?”
I’m thinking of a site my teens found, called “Blogging Twilight”, on a high school study-type site. It brings me to tears of laughter every time I go there.
Come to think of it, there may be some stylistic similarities between Twilight and Atlas Shrugged. Both deeply needed an editor with several red pens & lots of coffee. Two of the absolutely worst books I’ve ever suffered through. And I read A LOT.
Ok, dammit, I put a link in there. Trying again: http://community.sparknotes.co.....ndex-page/
January 17th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
The original Ferengi, more like.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
“You know, it occurs to me that the readers of this blog are remarkably easy to troll.”
DougJ is going mad. Mathematicians do that with unsettling frequency. So never be too sure.
Who’s doing the welfare check this week?
January 17th, 2011 at 11:59 pm
@Martin: Win.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:00 am
@DougJ DougJson:
I felt the Gary Cooper sex scene to be a little forced.
“Uhh, that was a rape scene, George.”
January 18th, 2011 at 12:00 am
@Scott P.: definitely Ferengi. I think Atlas was the prototype for the Rules of Acquisition.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Scott beat me to it
January 18th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Is it April 1st already? Time flies, I guess. It feels like it’s still january, to me, but spring is good. I like spring.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:02 am
Are you really doing this or are you trolling?
Well, in case anyone does want to read it, there’s a copy at 4shared. It’s 891 pages though, in pretty small font.
http://www.4shared.com/documen.....rugged.htm
(Umm, is this legal? Can I get in trouble for piracy?)
I can’t believe this is the suggestion you decided to pick up. What about the one where the front pagers post about why they are liberals and what liberalism means to them? I like that one better, since it’s mine.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:03 am
It amuses me that my initial thought was called out in the very early comments (i.e. “not the speech!”). I’m both compelled and repelled by the idea, so I say “why not!” I’m in.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:03 am
Tell: “Let’s make this happen.”
If a an OG Balloon-Juice front pager really wanted the readership to do something, they would berate us first, use the phrase ‘losers and big bags o’ fail’, and inform us that we are too sad and pathetic for it to happen.
Only exception I’ve seen is when Cole is trolling for info on some type of gadget he thinks he needs.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:04 am
Fair point, jl.
I nominate Illuminatus! instead. Hell, it even has a subplot mocking
Telemachus SneezedAtlas Shrugged .January 18th, 2011 at 12:06 am
@EmanG:
What if we started with “the speech” to kick start things? That’s online for free, right?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:06 am
Does that say 1,168 pages?
Good lord. She just overwhelms your capacity for logic with nonstop garbage, like some kind of intellectual DDoS attack.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:07 am
Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer
“One reason most countries don’t find the time to embrace Ayn Rand’s thinking is that she is a textbook sociopath. In her notebooks Ayn Rand worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of “ideal man” she promoted in her more famous books. These ideas were later picked up on and put into play by major right-wing figures of the past half decade, including the key architects of America’s most recent economic catastrophe—former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox—along with other notable right-wing Republicans such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.”
January 18th, 2011 at 12:08 am
I’ve read both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in the past year. Both are awful.
I second the used bookstore idea since that’s where I got my original copies and replacements.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:09 am
No.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:10 am
You know, five years ago Fred Clark thought it sounded like a great idea to read and critique the “Left Behind” books. Now he’s barely halfway through the second on in the series with no end in sight.
If you’re prepared to spend 10 years on this project then, sure, why not?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:10 am
Why don’t you pick 5 or 6 books and run a poll on the front page?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:11 am
I vote for the film version as acted by the Little Rascals. O-tay?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:11 am
The Read It and Weep people listened to the audiobook and did a four-part podcast review of the “fucked up piece of shit”:
http://read-weep.com/#/episode.....gged-part1
I’m entirely content to take their word for it and leave this book the hell alone.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:13 am
@DougJ DougJson:
Um…how many pages into Atlas Shrugged does “the speech” start? If it’s over 200, I say we skip straight to the speech so we don’t go completely mad or give up before we ever get anywhere close to there.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:13 am
DougJ:
No. Fucking. Way.
I already subjected myself once to The Fountainhead , which was plenty long enough. I am not going to voluntarily subject myself to Atlas Shrugged, which is about twice as long as the Bible, and only has half the laughs.
How fucking masochistic do you think we are?
.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:13 am
Sorry. I’m washing my hair that night.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:14 am
DougJ, son of DougJ, why on earth would I read anything by Ayn Rand when I have at least a hundred other books I WANT to read on my reading list? Just—no.
@jl: Oooh, spooky mind-meld. I’m referencing Dr. Seuss in my current blog post. How you be.
@Yutsano: Hi, hon. You made it home safely! How’s Lexie?
signed, asianotterMN (I’ve retired from the human race).
January 18th, 2011 at 12:15 am
@DougJ DougJson:
I think my irony meter just exploded.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:15 am
Instead of reading it, how about just carrying it around for a few days and report back with all the fucked-up shit hippies say to you.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:17 am
I will kill a kitten for every chapter you subject us to.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:20 am
In spite of its length I believe an inbred dog could read (and comprehend) Atlas Shrugged. A chapter a week might be a worthy goal for lower mammals, but seriously I challenge you NOT to finish this book in a week tops.
I’m willing to bet McMegan read it in 3 days, and you of all people know how little she’s capable of.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:20 am
Remember, every time a front pager writes about libertarianism, a kitten dies. Don’t make Cole post that suicidal kitten picture again.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:23 am
@jl:
Holy moly. 540k words. Wow. Just… wow. For those who haven’t tried to arm-wrestle the publishing industry yet, 100k words is where ‘your novel is kind of long’ starts.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:23 am
In all seriousness, should I read this if I haven’t already? I’d like to know why all the conservatives loons love it so much, but it’s so fucking long and everyone talks so badly about it I’m not sure it’s worth it.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:23 am
DougJ:
Well, it’s definitely available via bittorent, if you know where to look. Apparently, there’s also an Audio version available. It’s the subject of one of my favoritest torrent titles ever: Atlas.Shrugged [Discs 1-10 out of 50].X0.
It’s the out of 50 that really sells it.
Free Market, Bitchez!
.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:23 am
How about reading “Life” by Keith Richards instead.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:24 am
Let’s all watch Sarah Palin’s Alaska instead and chat
January 18th, 2011 at 12:26 am
I can’t believe they want $19 for this piece of shit on Kindle. Ayn Rand’s estate would have to pay me for clogging up precious Kindle memory.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:26 am
@Comrade Luke:
Because one of their gurus told them to love it. You don’t think most of them have actually read it, do you?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:27 am
Some towns have places called “libraries” where the looters can “borrow” reading material. I’m told it’s free!
Fucking parasites…
January 18th, 2011 at 12:28 am
The book is barely readable. I am confident that most of those who claim that it is a masterpiece either skimmed it or did not read it at all.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:29 am
Has anyone noticed that the new GOP talking point about how they don’t run the government is taking hold?
It must be quite the slap in the face to all of those tea-partiers who thought they had just elected a new Imperial Council in November.
It’s so dumb. They are already claiming that they have no power whatsoever.
Idjits.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:29 am
You’re asking us this the same day Cole put up the Sarah Palin Battle Hymn?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:29 am
Oh go blow a herd of goats while Mickey Kaus finds bliss in the scaly arms of California. You may read what you wish, but motherfucker, really?
Here, read Underground City instead. I suspect I picked up that title in these here new-fangled comment saloons.
Read motherfucking Rand ….
January 18th, 2011 at 12:31 am
@Ija:
I think of it more as a teatard book, if that changes things.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am
@Tim Ellis: Does that say 1,168 pages?
150 used (paperback) from $2.80 at Amazon … for some reason, one of the “used – acceptable” copies is posted at $1,979.95. It’s a really interesting price—I wonder if it’s just the bookseller (Stanford Specialty Books) trying to see if it can get some crypto-objectivist to bite on it?
I remember getting this in hard back as part of some “6 books for 99 cents” book club about 15 years ago. I am hoping some day to sell it used and make back the 16 cents (plus shipping) that I originally paid for it. Although I admit it makes a great doorstop.
Who is John Galt?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am
@Andy K:
Then I don’t think she’d have a leg to stand on bitching about certain things. DougJson, check your email.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am
I have an old copy which has made it’s way around the house as a makeshift furniture leg. I could pull it out to read it, but I like sitting on my old couch. I think I’ll channel my inner Randian and just continue to go Galt on my couch, thank you very much.
If my son ever asks about it, I’ll implore him to stay away from it, for it more evil than the Necronomicon, Darth Revan’s Holocron and Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue combined.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am
Do you really want to encourage theft like this, even from wealthy and thoroughly reprehensible scum like (the estate of) Ayn Rand? Would you do this to the estates of Philip K Dick or John Cheever, both of whom also died in 1982?
If you want to argue that 28 years after the author’s death is really too long for copyright on books, do so. Or encourage people to visit their libraries, because the libraries need the patrons to help them make the case for continued funding (although sending a signal to the libraries to stock more Rand may not be desirable). But I’m not really enthusiastic about this suggestion.
ETA Or encourage people to buy it used; this supports booksellers and doesn’t give a dime to the estate of Ms. Rand.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am
@Comrade Luke:
It’s kind of interesting at times, and I think most people aren’t aware of just how much of it is a creepy romance/bodice ripper (our “hero” John Galt actually rapes the heroine, Dagny Taggart, who for some strange reason is OK with it?) As far as being a window into the mind of your average corporate sociopath, there’s really no better introduction.
To me reading this book was like watching one of those cultural touchstone movies like “Star Wars” or whatever, in that suddenly you know what the last book every half-smart libertarian you’d ever met in your life read by the unattributed quotes they drop over beers alone.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 am
@Omnes Omnibus: Remarkably easy? I think one defining characteristic of all of us around here (including myself) is that we can be found under a nearby interstate overpass with a cardboard sign reading WILL BE TROLLED FOR FOOD.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:33 am
Comrade Luke:
If you must read something by Rand, start with something shorter, like Anthem; We, The Living; or The Fountainhead. And only if you can get it for free.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:33 am
Having read almost all of it before, I would not recommend this. I like the idea of book discussions, but Atlas Shrugged is a towering inferno of ego and sermon. On the bright side, you could read about the first 10 pages and come up with the same critiques of the book as if you read the whole thing.
Then again, the whole thing seems to be a philosophical effort to justify unbridled greed and selfishness. Such efforts will never go unrewarded, yet they are incredibly painful to try to slog through
January 18th, 2011 at 12:34 am
Not sure too many of us will read along with you, but you can always do to Atlas Shrugged what Slacktivist does to the Left Behind books – posting weekly exegesis of a few pages at a time, where he summarizes, quotes where necessary, and otherwise demolishes it with a tidal wave of logic and humanity.
On the topic of Slacktivist, this recent summary of what to do with violent right wing jerk-off fantasy type people is also most impressive.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:34 am
I like the book club idea. I second all the seconds that it be fun an not torture. If you want a realistic and modern take on American culture I nominate Savages: A Novel by Don Winslow, a rippin’ good yarn.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:35 am
@scarshapedstar: Atlas Shrugged and Illuminatus! are both books that I have picked up and started to read twice. I even used a running start on the retries, and I still ran out of momentum less than halfway through. (Less than a third of the way for Rand’s doorstop.)
I have no intention of ever picking either of them up again, for any purpose. I have three furry, four-legged Objectivists in the house who I can watch if I need case studies. (The three-legged one actually has a rudimentary sense of empathy, so he doesn’t qualify.)
January 18th, 2011 at 12:35 am
@Nellcote:
Keith Richards is a lively writer.
Totally looking forward to reading “Life.”
January 18th, 2011 at 12:35 am
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t link to Scalzi’s review. I like his assessment: nerd revenge porn.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:36 am
How about this. (Doug, I tried to email you directly via the Contact links, but they no work.)
It’s called the Atlas Spieled Project.
Every person who wants to participate is given a randomly selected page to read. That person will record that line as professionally/creatively/artistically as they choose. They can read it straight into their Mac/PC microphone. They can find a recording studio. They can record into their iPhone while riding the 7 train. And most important of all, they can interpret the text however they damn please.
I will then assemble the pieces into one mighty sonic piece of wikiaudio. (I produce audiobooks. This would be a gas to put together.)
There are some copyright issues. But since no one is making a dime off it those issues hopefully won’t be a problem.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:36 am
How about this: Instead of the same old boring book club sorta thing where we read and discuss a book, why don’t we do a collaborative autobiography of DougJ. Doug, you come up with the basic outline of your life, and we’ll, uhm, spice it up from there.
For instance, did you know that you were born 6 months premature, left in a trash can and adopted and raised by a family of Virginia Opossum?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:37 am
I have never actually read Ayn Rand, partly because as a teenager I thought a woman whose first name was Dagny was threatening in some way. I have, however, watched the film version of The Fountainhead several times (it’s a great bad movie). The scene where the excellent Patricia Neal swoons “Take me, Howard Roark” is a legendary cinema moment.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:38 am
Sounds like a swell time, but as someone who already went through his Ayn Rand phase, I will pass. I started with Fountainhead, read Anthem and a few other short stories and then on to Atlas Shrugged.
There were bits in Fountainhead that made me tilt my head. Like when Roark designed a building for the poor immigrants with cramped quarters because the poor like to live like that and only Roark could understand. When I read Atlas Shrugged and found all the protagonist to be selfish assholes and cardboard caricatures of humans, Ayn’s spell was broken.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:39 am
@scarshapedstar: Illuminatus, FTW!
Beware the man who’s rich in flax
His morals may be sadly lax
January 18th, 2011 at 12:39 am
@eastriver: Seriously, if you need readers for your gig, let me know. I’ll send you a sample if you accept them. If you’re up to your eyes in readers, don’t worry about it. :D
January 18th, 2011 at 12:40 am
I read AS (sans about 85 pages of ‘the speech’) back in the 60s, at which time I was also a subscriber to the Objectivist Newsletter. I ceased to be an admirer when someone in the Objectivist criticized Bertrand Russell for admitting he had made a mistake about something. As young as I was, I knew that was enough reason to stop reading such tripe. And I can’t imagine what torture would ever make me take it up again.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:42 am
@Warren Terra:
Umm, yes?
Okay, seriously, Warren does raise a valid ethical dilemma — no one should read Rand unless they’re getting paid extremely well to do so, and even then we have to ask ourselves.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:43 am
@Joseph Nobles:
If this thing happens, everyone will be invited. It will be one, huge Galt-in.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 am
Isn’t there a new-ish movie version of The Fountainhead by Darren Aronofsky? Can’t we watch that instead?
Edit: Opps, no, apparently I’ve been falsely maligning Aronofsky as a Rand acolyte all these years. His film is The Fountain, and has no relation to Ayn Rand. Sorry Darren. Black Swan still sucks though.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 am
I’ve read most of Ayn Rand’s stuff. I hope you’re trolling with this suggestion, DougJ. Can we read another book instead. Maybe Dr. Seuss?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 am
@eastriver:
I like this idea.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 am
No.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 am
Fuck to the no.
There are so many great books that I won’t live long enough to read that I’m not going to waste my time.
Life is too short for crap.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Well, yeah. Duh. Who are the pissants of the Rand estate to object to the rational egoism of the clearly superior Juicers?
January 18th, 2011 at 12:49 am
@scarshapedstar:
That one was a fun read. I’d be willing to go there again.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:49 am
I love the idea, but the length seems like a prohibitive issue. Is there a clffs notes or abridged version. Jeebus tap dancing Christ, how could such a stupid book be so long. Galt would not appreciate the inefficiency of such an enterprise.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:49 am
I can’t join in, sorry. I’ll be washing all my hairs this year. Individually. With nano-brushes.
You’d probably be better off re-reading Lord of the Rings.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:49 am
Ugh, no thanks on the Ayn Rand thing. I remember discussions in my AP English Lit course in high school by classmates who had read it. I never saw more knock down, drag out, throw down debates than those ones. I skipped quite merrily around those books and found better things to read.
I’m glad i never did, they sound god awful.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:50 am
I read all of Ayn Rand’s books back during the time I inhaled books. I had a job that allowed me to read 4-5 hours per day at work and then I’d go home and read for another 4 hours or more. It’s amazing how many books you can read in 40-50 hours per week at a fairly high speed-reading level. I often reread books, because I’d run out of reading material. As much as I love to read, you couldn’t pay me to read Rand again. I complain about Greenwald being repetitious. If Rand didn’t repeat herself, her books would be a fraction of their length.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:51 am
@Chad N Freude:
An older female relative of mine was named Dagny. I think it was a popular name for girls a long time ago.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:53 am
I wonder what the blogger formerly known as Jane Galt would think of this idea. Maybe she’ll even join us in the comments. You’ve trolled her comment section often enough DougJ, maybe it’s time for payback.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Illuminatis is hilarious. Telemachus Sneezed.
Fnord!
January 18th, 2011 at 12:59 am
@Ija:
It’s called The Fountain, and it has nothing to do with Ayn Rand.
Which is, of course, an argument in its favor.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:02 am
When I was an undergrad in the 80’s someone would go into the lecture halls and write “Read Atlas Shrugged” in the upper corner of the blackboards. Made me feel kind of guilty, like I wasn’t fully educated, but I just didn’t have time to read something like that if it wasn’t required. Many years later I realize how lucky I was to have not gotten sucked in. So I’ll pass.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:03 am
When I was a kid I used to browse Goodwill and Salvation Army stores for used paperbacks. I could always tell the real dogs by how many copies they had on the shelves. The two with the highest counts that I remember were Dianetics and Atlas Shrugged.
The suggestion about John Ringo has possibilities. Sometimes he beats the liberals stupid, conservitives smart thing to death though. Avoid the war porn that is the Ghost series.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:03 am
How about we listen to 2112 instead? It’ll be just as painful, but it’ll be over in 22 minutes.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:04 am
Edited to Add: Ija, I see you’ve already figured that out. You hadn’t when I started.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:05 am
Honestly, I would rather read Glenn Beck’s novel.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:05 am
Okay, I’m going to stop posting for tonight, because I keep hitting the wrong buttons too early and ending up with incoherent unfinished crap.
And I haven’t even been drinking. Just a low dexterity day, I guess.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:08 am
I’m young and naive. Plus I can be prone to doing masochistic things. I could be persuaded to do this if given a free copy.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:09 am
@asiangrrlMN: She haz made me bleed twice as punishment for abandoning her. Now she’s laying next to me dozing off. I can’t wait until it’s time to spay her!
On topic: Read ten pages of The Fountainhead, thought it was total crap, set it down, never tried again. So I refer back to my earlier statement.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:10 am
@Aaron:
Right. Above and beyond the ridiculous ego and the immoral morality, there’s the problem that it’s just a bad novel. I mean, really, really bad. Not in the sense that Moby Dick is bad, but can be dramatically improved if you tear the digressive chapters out. Not in the sense that James Joyce is bad because you haven’t read the 178 other novels you need to have memorized in order to understand what he’s saying. Not bad in the sense of Tropic of Cancer, which will be fine once you drop some acid. Not bad in the sense of The Stand, which is bad only because it has one of the two lamest endings to a book ever. Not bad in the sense of Thomas Pynchon, since I have Asperger’s and have no idea which parts, if any, should be read literally.
Just bad. Irredeemably bad. The heroes are towering geniuses who have nothing but brilliant ideas, are rock-jawed and devilishly charismatic (I guess) and heroically strive for success, while the villains are not only morons, but also lazy, weak and have all of the leadership abilities of a sack of potatoes, leaving one to wonder how the villains came to be in charge of everything in the first place. The dialogue is pathetic, and the characters make Keanu Reeves seem lifelike.
Avoid it at all costs.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:10 am
@eastriver:
Um, wouldn’t we be looting the productivity from the very people that care about nothing but having others loot their productivity?
January 18th, 2011 at 1:10 am
Tim Ellis:
Yes. Rand is the model for the GOP’s relationship to the media.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:11 am
@JGabriel: And yet, what you write is a million times better than Ayn Rand’s shit. So, you have that going for you.
@Yutsano: Oooh, yeah. Lexie was NOT pleased. I actually read Fountainhead in its entirety because I thought it was a classic or some such shit. I can’t remember a word of it, so that tells you something about the quality of said book. Ebil gubmint worker, you’re back to work tomorrow, yes?
January 18th, 2011 at 1:12 am
@jeff:
I think the abridged version is:
“Greed is good. IGMFY. The end.”
January 18th, 2011 at 1:13 am
I’d do it, but it looks like it’s a bad idea. Whoever suggested Illuminatus! is wrong; that’s the stupidest eight million pages I’ve ever read.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:14 am
@JGabriel:
But that’s the way you should write in a Rand thread.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:14 am
I admit the idea of snarking at Ayn Rand is an attractive one, but I can see the whole thing being called off at about chapter 3 when we universally decide enough is enough.
I liked this take on it from the Australian ABC’s Book Club:
JASON STEGER: It was one of the most loathsome reading experiences I have ever had.
So, while Balloon Juice bookclub is a great idea, maybe not a one note joke like Atlas Shrugged.
(Note: Video may not work if you aren’t in Australia, but there is a transcript).
January 18th, 2011 at 1:14 am
@Joey Maloney: Not as painful. The Overture is pretty damned good, and Temples of Syrinx is all right. That’s seven minutes of it. It’s only after that that it becomes ridiculously painful.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:17 am
@Tattoosydney: Hi, hon! Good to see you NOT on the weekend! How’s leisure life suiting ya?
To the crowd in general, my piece over at ABL’s place on Michelle Obama’s birthday. It’s just a fun little piece I wrote this afternoon.
And, some musings from a cluttered mind. Posted at both my place and ABL’s place.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:19 am
@asiangrrlMN:
Hiya, FIW, that is nice quote. Do you know where it is from in the Dr. Seuss canon? Let me know if you are still here. It is very late for me here on the Left Coast, so I will check tomorrow.
Hope the cold is holding up for you in MN.
” the framed Dr. Seuss quote…
“ Be who you are…
Say what you feel…
Those who mind don’t
matter… and those who
matter don’t mind.
It’s a directive I need to repeat to myself over and over again. ”
January 18th, 2011 at 1:22 am
@freelancer: FTW.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:25 am
@Ija: i applaud the sentiment, but the notion of having to write such a post gives me high school flashbacks—and not the good ones.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:26 am
Wouldn’t the real catch be that we’d have to read Atlas Shrugged?
January 18th, 2011 at 1:32 am
The epub files are out there for those who wish to deny money to a woman who has been dead for 40 years.
Australian copyright used to be different from the US until we threatened to ship them tom Cruise. Is it in or out there? I mean the book, not Mr. Cruise.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:32 am
@asiangrrlMN: U haz a hanging parenthetical here:
Pedantic, I know, but it’s high on my pet peeve list. Otherwise me likey muchas!
January 18th, 2011 at 1:33 am
@asiangrrlMN: I’m not sure if a million times better than Ayn Rand works out to a compliment or just barely competent, but thank you, sweetie. You’re very kind.
@J. Michael Neal: LOL’d, but it’s not quite accurate. In a Rand thread, the comments shouldn’t be incoherent unfinished crap, but incoherent crap that’s way too fucking long.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:34 am
I don’t post much and I agree with the others.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:35 am
PS: If you don’t do something about the horrible lack of visual separation between comments I will kill you. Not kill you in the sense of actually kill you, or make you feel as though I might actually kill you, but… just kinda C-I-L-L you.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:35 am
@jl: I have no idea where it came from. I will Google it for you. Hm. From my cursory search, it appears to just be a quote from him and not from a book. I can tell you the last line is mine and not his. The quote ends after “...matter don’t mind”.
@Angry Black Lady: “I hate whitey. Therefore, I am a liberal so I can stick it to the man through ACORN, Jeremiah Wright, and the Black Panthers.” There. I wrote yours for you.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:35 am
@eastriver: My fault, I wasn’t clear. I mean for any old thing, not just this.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:36 am
I’m watching Zardoz as I type.
Somehow, I find it more relevant to our current predicament than Atlas Shrugged.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:36 am
@Yutsano: Gah. I hate hanging parentheticals! I will fix. Thanks for proofing me and for the compliment.
@JGabriel: Definitely a compliment. If I meant you were merely competent, I would have written that you write a hundred-thousand times better than does Ayn Rand.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:38 am
@Teri:
@Drouse:
Or we could just read the classic Oh John Ringo No! critique and call it a day.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:39 am
@Paula:
You can change userid to Paula – Zen Master now.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:39 am
@Seanly: I read the Fountainhead in high school as well. The ideas appealed to me at that age, but not enough to make me read Atlas Shrugged. In college, the Objectivism club invited Ayn Rand to speak and I was one of the handful in the audience. (Yes I’m that old.) Listening to her answer questions after her talk finally convinced me she had nothing to offer but meanspiritedness.
So. DougSonOfDoug, I respectfully decline your invitation, even if it is indeed sincere.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:40 am
Technically by sharing her “philosophy”, Ayn Rand violated it.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:40 am
Let’s make this happen.
Let’s all get crayons shoved up our noses. It would take less time.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:42 am
@MikeJ:
I just emailed DougJ ibn DougJ PDF and Kindle format versions of the book, so he’s free to distribute those to whomwever.
ABL, I’m glad that you find my sense of humor to be right in your wheelhouse, FWIW, I attended the Arrested Development/MST3K/alt standup school of comedy.
My standup heroes are Louis CK, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Louis Black, Eddie Izzard, Stewart Lee, Doug Stanhope, David Cross, Eddie Pepitone, and most of all, most recently, Marc Maron.
and if you haven’t checked out Rifftrax, you are missing out on weeks and years of hilarious (and I don’t use that term lightly) entertainment.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:43 am
I’m in mothafuckas. The spousal unit has wanted me to read this thing for years so I guess if I can share the horror with the friendlies…
Ah, it’ll still suck. Whatever. I’m in.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:43 am
@asiangrrlMN: Wasn’t sure if it was a typo or just an oversight. But again, pet peeve = jumped out at me and said BOO!!
I have an eye appointment AND work tomorrow. I hope they’ll let me drive as far as the bus station at least.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:44 am
@Tattoosydney: Video works just fine in KL.
I really hope DougJ DougJovich is kidding us about this Ayn Rand book club thing. There are so many authors much more deserving of our study, like Judith Krantz and Dan Brown.
ETA: ... and Stephenie Meyer, to name a few.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:52 am
@Yutsano: Motherfucking oversight. It happens when I nest parenthetical observations (as is my wont (as you can tell right here, right now)). Really chaps my ass. You have an eye appointment before work? That could be interesting.
@Amir_Khalid: Heh. You funny.
ETA: Oh, HELL NO on the sparkly vampires.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:54 am
@Angry Black Lady:
Yeah, it does have the potential of turning into twee high school debate society thing. I guess I just wanted an antidote to all the focus on libertarianism. I swear, libertarians are like the cool kidz in high school, they represent probably 0.001% of the population, but everyone talks about them, if only to bash them. I have a theory that many liberals (especially the white male variety), either in high school or college, had brief flirtations with libertarianism. Hence the continuing obsession with the ideology.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:55 am
@Amir_Khalid:
Stephanie Meyer has been covered, FWIW. (PS, this site is a timesuck because it’s so thorough and funny.)
January 18th, 2011 at 1:59 am
Ohhhh….This is too good: A righteously indignant rant from Jets LB Bart Scott.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:01 am
@Mnemosyne: Well now I know there was a good reason not to finish the book. I didn’t make it more than a couple of pages into part two. And to think I quit RAH because of a rather tame bit of incest.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:02 am
Constantly mocking Rand may be the only bearable way to read her. I’m in!
January 18th, 2011 at 2:03 am
This has the potential of going very, very wrong. One of my favorite book bloggers decided that he was going to read and blog about a James Patterson book to prove what a bad writer Patterson is. The problem is, that book has 117! chapters. It took him so long to finish, and he posted almost nothing about other things in the meantime, I pretty much stopped reading him. There’s only so many times you can read analysis after analysis about how bad James Patterson’s prose is. This could take over your life, DougJ. Don’t do it.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:04 am
@Drouse: Oh my! Did I trip the filters?
January 18th, 2011 at 2:05 am
I’m a college graduate dammit. That means that nobody can make me read anything.
@asiangrrlMN: As a computer programmer, mismatched parenthesis and/or brackets are the bane of my existence.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:06 am
@Drouse: In cest tripped the old filter, so it might be that.
@Ija: This has been a PSA brought to you by Ija.
ETA: I tried to read a Patterson book once. Tried and once being the operative words in that sentence.
@MattR: Oh, man. Yeah. I can see how that would be a nightmare. It’s just a matter of pride for me as a writer.
ETA: On the other hand, mismatched parentheticals is apropos because my mind pretty much works in that fashion.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:08 am
I have read Atlas Shrugged. It does not say what the Galtians think it says. Most of them would be absolutely incensed if they actually read it. Of course, they haven’t. Read it, that is. It’s much too long.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:11 am
I tried to read Atlas Shrugged back in the late 70’s and gave up because it was about as interesting as watching a turd dry and shrivel up on a hot sidewalk. Luckily it wasn’t my book so it didn’t cost me anything but a few brain cells.
I would rather perform a lobotomy on myself with an axe before attempting that again.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:11 am
You guys can all read Ayn Rand. I’m going to play Oblivion (upgraded with a bunch of mods) in anticipation of Skyrim coming out.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:11 am
@Yutsano:
Your assignment for next summer is to charter a sailboat with GPS, and trace a gigantic capital letter “D” over the Pacific ocean so that you can redraw the wingnut roadtrip map to say “Dread AYN RAND“.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:12 am
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Hey, did you ever post that vid of your wife playing Metallica (I believe it was) on the violin?
ETA: For clarity. Pervs.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:13 am
@Citizen Alan:
I think I started to read this drivel about 45 years ago and said what a piece of crap, or my intestines did choke me till I passed out, one of the two, don’t want to remember which.
@Yutsano:
Same for me, there isn’t enough money. Or I’m not a big enough whore, one of the two. Your choice.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:15 am
Wow. I’m wiped. I’m out. Night!
January 18th, 2011 at 2:19 am
Torrent sites will have them for sure, likely in PDF format. I don’t care how cheap you can buy it, that book isn’t worth a dime.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:20 am
I uploaded it to my main system and will be posting it late tonight or sometime tomorrow. I’m buried up to my neck in work right now but should get caught up soon. Money before pleasure! I’ll post here to let you know when it’s up. It’s 3:49 long but not the whole song since I had to sneak up behind her after she started playing.
The ending is memorable though since she rarely ever calls me an asshole…lol!
ETA: Working now recovering a laptop that has the computer equivalent of cancer; 254 various trojans, viruses, worms and such. Poor thing…
January 18th, 2011 at 2:21 am
I am actually kinda surprised I never read any Ayn Rand in high school given that I listened to Rush and read a shit ton of sci-fi/fantasy novels. And now I am way too smart to be fooled into that. I think the only way it might happen is if I lost my job and it was a requirement to get health insurance, but in that case I would probably move to Canada instead.
@ronin122:
But is it worth the bits on your hard drive?
January 18th, 2011 at 2:22 am
@ronin122:
Been there, problem solved. Email DougJibnDJ if the spirit moves you.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:29 am
@Short Bus Bully:
And you’re still married?
.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:30 am
@freelancer: I bet I could charter a catamaran that would serve a similar purpose. Of course the temptation would be there to cruise to my birthplace then on to Oz and such, but gotta keep eyes focused on the prize no?
@Ruckus: Oh there’s enough money. I’m just not convinced DougJbenDougJ has enough to make it worth my while. I ain’t cheap but I can be bought.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:32 am
@Arclite:
Dude, that’s eleven months away. Do you really think they’re gonna finish Atlas Shrugged before you finish Skyrim?
.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:35 am
Let’s not, and say we did.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:35 am
@Yutsano:
Where were you born? Are you sure? I’ll need to see some long-form shit with verifiable kerning.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:36 am
@ronin122: See here and here.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:39 am
@freelancer: You’d be questioning the integrity of the communication service of the United States Navy, since they sent the cable to my father from Hawai’i. But as I don’t remember for sure…I could have been hatched on Ceti Alpha VI.
EDIT: This would of course not stop the wingnuts. And I am the grandson of an anchor baby from Canada. So you have every right to be at least somewhat suspicious. The Canuckistanis will rule the world with their passive ways!
January 18th, 2011 at 2:41 am
@J. Michael Neal:
Bravo.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:41 am
@Beej: This. Of course they haven’t read it. I’d bet 90+% of those that claim to have read it never finished it. I’m being generous with that 90+%. It’s probably more like 98%.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:44 am
@asiangrrlMN:
Hello there… My first day off today. Did very little. Had a haircut, washed the dog, bought some more pastel chalks, made cassata icecream. All in all, a very worthwhile day.
How you? I like your cluttered mind musings.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:48 am
@Yutsano:
I’m a white guy borne of Roman Catholics on both sides, as far as ethnic heritage, it goes English, Irish, German, and Polish. Great, all of them, White Cultures that have a history of oppressing each other. Plus, I have jet black hair from toe to scalp, so you know some secrets have been well-kept for eons. Honestly, I could give a shit, I’m a human first, an American second, and as far as “white” is concerned, that shit is waaaaaay down on the list. Good times.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:56 am
@Nellcote:
oooh, I second this motion!
January 18th, 2011 at 2:57 am
A teacher gave me Atlas Shrugged to me as a high school sophomore. It was the first book I ever read with fucking in it (hey, I grew up in Alabama), and despite its size, it was easy to bash through the whole thing in a few days.
And even as a very un-worldly, utterly apolitical virgin, it soon became crystal clear that, despite all the sweaty coupling, this hefty tome was complete bullshit. I was astonished by the way Rand stacked the deck with her characters, so that them as buys into her philosophy are lusty, zesty human dynamos; while them as don’t are sniveling whiners. And the endless preaching and pontificating had my eyes a-rolling.
My teacher was quite disappointed when I invoked the word “propaganda” upon returning the book to him. Guess he was hoping to make a convert.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:57 am
@Tattoosydney: I need to get my fur trimmed as well, although that will most likely have to wait for the weekend. And wifey’s brain detritus is a thousand times better than anything Rand could ever have conceived of writing.
Does Pedro take to washings well or does it take Vegemite bribes?
@freelancer: My genealogy is about the mishegas you would expect it to be coming from a long family tradition of purchasing wives. It’s how both the Native American and the Jewish snuck in there.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:57 am
@Yutsano:
I didn’t say I couldn’t be brought. Just not for this.
My brain cells are old, they’ve been abused some in an earlier life and I like to have some working ones left when the senility sets in real deep. I’m already having senior moments once or twice a month, up from the bi-monthly ones I’ve had for about 25 years and keeping the count down to a minimum is, shit what’s that word, oh yea important.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:58 am
Funky formatting, but for those who want it:
http://www.4shared.com/file/79.....ugged.html
I was going to read it, myself, but I’ve decided to hit myself repeatedly with a hammer, instead. It’s less painful.
I watched the movie version of The Fountainhead some years back, and I think that was enough Ayn Rand for a lifetime.
If you take Team America, remove all of the humor, dumb it down a bit, and make the characters all seem more wooden, you pretty much have your average Ayn Rand story right there.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:04 am
@Yutsano:
The only Judaism in my lineage that I’ve come across has been from my own study in film and fiction. That said, I’ve learned a lot from Maron, Aaron Sorkin, Woody Allen, the Coen Brothers (A Serious Man is a Master’s course), Hitchens (of all people), and Chaim Potok. What an education. I’ve been so moved culturally by the faith, that I tend to identify and sympathize with it above most others.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:09 am
@freelancer: If you haven’t stuck Harry Kemelman on that list yet, you should. Conversations with Rabbi Small is the most amazing detective story ever…in that it involves no murder or even any crime whatsoever.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:19 am
@Yutsano:
He doesn’t like them but always behaves perfectly. Token gifts of meat substitute are nevertheless accepted with good grace.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:25 am
@freelancer:
Is it because the faith is about life, not death? About living right just because it’s right not because of what may happen. And understanding when one doesn’t because we are all human.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:29 am
@Yutsano:
That’s some high praise. Just bought and loaded it onto my Kindle. You better be right, I’ll hold you to it.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:35 am
Ayn Rand? Really? I’d rather pull my own teeth.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:38 am
@freelancer:
@Yutsano:
Agh. The “This item is not available for customers in Australia” sign is the bane of my life.
I’m looking at you, Mr Levenson.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:43 am
@Ruckus:
This athiest/agnostic/casual Deist thinks you’ve nailed my point quite succinctly. For those that are gone, we mourn and remember, there is nothing else that can be done for them. For now, while I’m alive on the planet, the focus for me remains on other people, regardless of creed, to prioritize those that are humans, alive, right now. Nevermind metaphysical promises of a hereafter we may or may never see; I feel very strongly that in order to remain relevant, faiths throughout the world have to embrace empirical reality and celebrate the innate humanism that is written into their philosophies.
Christopher Hitchens, in a rejoinder to Tony Blair, echoed my point that religion would be able to do a world of good without the primitive stigma of deluding individuals if it only gave up its province of divinity, and renounced all supernatural claims. The argument sounds contradictory, but how about that, if modern day faiths accepted science and it’s conclusions on its face and gave up any far-reaching statements of truth with regard to the prehistoric covenants of the metaphysical, the world would be infinitely better off.
I agree with that completely.
@Tattoosydney:
Arrgh! I be piratin’ Rand and emailin’ wut they be to DougJ. Sad I be thwarted from findin’ a better writer of the words and cannai’ send a link to ya!
That said, I am enjoying ESPN3’s coverage of the Aussie Open.
PS Why ye put tha blame on that scallywag TOM?!
January 18th, 2011 at 3:54 am
@freelancer:
Heh. I meant that at the Kindle store I can’t buy the Rabbi Small book, although I can see its listing, presumably because its not licensed for sale here. I run up against the same issue with the lovely Mr Levenson’s books – want to buy them electronically but can’t.
Eta: I would never pay a cent for anything Ms Rand wrote, in any format. Urgh.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:05 am
@Tattoosydney:
lol, I got that part, I was just curious as to why you were mad at TL because you couldn’t get Kemelman’s book from amazon.au? Asked and answered! Shit, I’m doing Charlie as a lawyer from Always Sunny, again. Dammit. Over-ruled. The defense rests. Fuck.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:13 am
@freelancer: Loved the Rabbi Small series. I’ve read all but a couple of the later ones. I also enjoyed the Emma Lathen mysteries. They were similar, except that the protagonist was a London banker. To round this list out try the mystery novels of William X. Kienzle. The protagonist in that series is a Detroit parish priest. The first novel in the series was The Rosary Murders and was made into a movie starring Donald Sutherland. I’ve read most of the books in all three of those series and heartily enjoyed every one of them.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:14 am
John – A Motley Moose:
I can suspend disbelief enough to enjoy Improbability Drives, Orcs & Hobbits, Wizards, Vampire Slayers, imaginary countries like Prydain, and spaceships like Serenity, but I don’t think I’d be able to suspend disbelief so much as to buy a banker as a protagonist anymore.
That’s just too unreal.
.
January 18th, 2011 at 5:03 am
@John – A Motley Moose: Emma Lathen’s John Putnam Thatcher was a Wall Street banker, actually. Imagine Louis Auchincloss writing genre novels. I love those books myself, but they are very very much “of their time”(even contemporaneously, Rose Corsa tended to stick in my craw). On the other hand, now that the earlier books in the series are approaching ‘vintage’ status, someone like PBS / BBC could probably make a decent profit filming them for Mad Men enthusiasts!
January 18th, 2011 at 5:54 am
Jeebus, DougJ, you’re going to wake up with a hell of a hangover this morning.
January 18th, 2011 at 5:58 am
@freelancer: again, FTW.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:09 am
@asiangrrlMN: can we change “hate” to “grave misgivings”? i don’t want to make my mom feel too othered.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:11 am
I wouldn’t read that chunk of rancid fuck with your eyes.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:30 am
Put me in the NO column too. There is a band of morans that give out AS for free. They like to target teens (creepy, I know) and I got mine that way. It was dreadful reading and I will not do it again.
If you want libertarian SciFi porn I would recommend Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”. Its as long, much better written, the protagonist has consensual sex with his mother as opposed to rape, covers a 2000 year span of time and shows signs of humanity.
If you want something that could enlighten us for todays political environment I would look for books on antebellum America. The first book of Shelby Foote’s 3 parter on the ACW is outstanding (and similar length) or even “Battle Cry Of Freedom” which is much more about the war itself. You will instantly recognize every player in our modern drama as reflections of those from the 1850’s.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:53 am
1. Why not just drive skewers through your head?
2. If you insist on this madness your local used bookstore is sure to have tons of copies going cheap.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:09 am
I’ll do it only on the condition that instead of discussing it, we translate it into Lolcat.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:14 am
how about we all read a different span of 10 pages, then summarize in 100 words. we’ll combine the summaries and call it Atlas Delegated.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:26 am
@J. Michael Neal: For my money, Rush’s best album, far and away, is their first one before Neal Peart joined. “Working Man” is a minor hard rock classic, and there’s plenty else to like on that disc as well.
Never mind his politics. It’s nice that Peart can play flawlessly in 23/5 time but more often than not it’s a distraction. He should be playing jazz or composing for the modern symphony, not cluttering up some otherwise-decent prog rock.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:47 am
@cleek: Or we could read different spans of 100 pages, summarize them in 10 words, and call it Atlas Farted.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:47 am
Oh God no.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:49 am
Do I really need to humiliate myself by checking out a copy at the local library? I am not spending a single Amero on Matoko Rand’s doorstopper.
Seriously, this is the year I finally gave the Proust Project the green light. Madeleines before madness, say I.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:51 am
I had a friend in college who gave me a copy of Fountainhead. I never read it. Funny thing is now he’s pretty much moved to the liberal camp. I did my time reading a ridiculously long novel by a crazy person when I read Battlefield Earth so I think I will pass on this idea.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:55 am
If you DO decide to read that turd dump called ‘Atlas Shrugged’, make sure you first read Chris Whalen’s Inflated, just published. He provides a financial history of the United States and explains how all those railroads got built and why those guys felt the need to fuck EVERYONE over during the first 150 years of the nation.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:10 am
...coming in way late to EPU territory here.
A group effort to read, analyze, discuss, and eviscerate this craptacular mess of a book would need a blog of its own. Once finished the blog could stand as a permanent damnation of ‘Shrugs’ and its author, with links to popular articles, scholarly treatments, screeds and anti-objectivist polemics.
But a work of hate is a lot more effort than a labor of love. A free, easily available fisking of that junk is a tremendous mitsvah, though. As a group project the suffering could be reduced and the effort eased.
Sign me up!
(Oh man, I know I am going to regret this!)
January 18th, 2011 at 8:19 am
For JSF, heh.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:29 am
Not just no, but hell no.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Galt’s major speech in the book is supposed to be 75 pages of incomprehensible nonsense (per Taibbi in Griftopia). Why not just read that?
January 18th, 2011 at 8:48 am
I have a list of Infinity Things I’d Like To Do Before I Die, and a backup list of Infinity Things I Might Consider Doing if I Get Through The First List. The words “read Ayn Rand” do not appear.
Time is precious. Squander it at your peril.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:51 am
I’ve never read any of it, after hearing Rand interviewed on the radio years ago (her voice still sticks in my mind, like an out-of-tune buzz-saw) I’ve had this nagging question: who picks up John Galt’s garbage, so that he doesn’t die of cholera or plague?
January 18th, 2011 at 9:05 am
No. That would be many things, but fun is not one of them. Unless, by fun, you mean a complete waste of time with no hope of any meaningful reward for the time lost.
I read Atlas Shrugged many years ago. I regret doing so and won’t repeat that mistake.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:16 am
I finally figured out that the “J” in “DougJ” stands for “Jonah”:
“Hi guys, I’m doing some research on the book Atlas Shrugged. Have any of you heard of it? Has anyone read it? I don’t really have the time at the moment to read it, so can you send me any information you have on it?
Thanks!”
January 18th, 2011 at 9:23 am
In Comic Book Store Guy’s voice: Worst bookclub ever!
January 18th, 2011 at 9:32 am
Read it once in college. Wish I could get that wasted time back, though I was probably wasted when I read it. Regardless the writing is for shit, which is why conservatives get a hard on reading it.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:49 am
No. Not unless we saw a leg off a few inches at a time. Then it would be fun.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:55 am
A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly.—The New York Times
This was Amazon’s excerpt of the NYT review of Atlas. Just a casual deconstruction of the above suggests that the key word is capacity. She is capable of writing well, but doesn’t bother with this giant lumbering novel that may as well be page after page of descriptions of glorious capitalist tractors laying open the fertile fields for reaping and raping.
I read the first 100 or so pages of some Rand book, probably this one, in 10th grade, because my friend liked it and it was in my parents book case. I got totally bored and moved on to Catch 22 or something equally inappropriate for a 14 year old.
January 18th, 2011 at 10:02 am
Critique the Survivalist series. It’s better written.
January 18th, 2011 at 10:03 am
cliff notes
January 18th, 2011 at 10:17 am
@RalfW:
Rand used to appear regularly on the Tonight Show back in the day. I saw these appearances, and decided that she was a complete lunatic. I also concluded that anyone who listened to her and took her assertions at face value would also have to be a lunatic.
That was around 40+ years ago. Nothing I have seen, heard or read of her since has changed my mind. She was a lunatic. If she were on Fox News today as a commenter like Sarah Palin, she would be instantly identifiable as a lunatic.
January 18th, 2011 at 10:21 am
I’m in. I’ve been wanting to read the book for a while just to get a clear idea of what this is all about.
Don’t worry over scarring my soul forever , I have a high tolerance level…I once read Battlefield Earth.
January 18th, 2011 at 11:02 am
I would suggest something fun, like Lawrence Block’s “Burgler” books, not everyday when your protagonist is a theif who’s best friend is a Lesbian dog groomer. Either that or Chesbro’s Mongo series if we’re gonna do crime fiction.
January 18th, 2011 at 11:08 am
I think this exercise would be more instructive if it was a comparative literature project. Some brave souls have recently read Snooki’s literary masterpiece side-by-side with Flaubert. Maybe the same approach would work with Atlas Shrugged?
January 18th, 2011 at 11:16 am
I suggest reading Atlas Shrugged for Lent (because physical mortification for Lent isn’t enough).
January 18th, 2011 at 11:29 am
@piratedan:
A thief is fine – but is he a looter? How does one groom lesbian dogs?
January 18th, 2011 at 11:30 am
So Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book club reads Battle Cry of Freedom, and you want us to read Atlas Shrugged? Looks like I’m on the wrong blog.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Perhaps we could translate it into modern English, like the Conservative Bible Project? Surely that would make it a fun exercise.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
You need to start with leaner fare for your Crazy Conservative Novel Club. I’d have started with ‘Ender’s Game’, of course spending special time in mocking how bloggers somehow ended up ruling the world, then moved on to Beck and the Wonders of Transferrence.
Starting with this? The Super Bowl isn’t the first game of the season.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
@freelancer:
I like to keep things simple. It’s why I don’t follow any religion. Or believe in sky pilots. Or magic fairies. Or that more than a small percent of the people who do follow any religion adhere to or even understand the basic principles/concepts of said religion. I find that most people who have figured out the concept, don’t need the trappings anymore. That some have figured it out and enjoy the trappings baffles me but I enjoy knowing that there are those who belong without being sheep.
It’s like reading this stupid,vapid book. If you have to read the entire thing and still don’t get that it is bad writing, a bad novel, and a complete waste of ink and neurons, then there is no hope for you.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Without reading any of the comments yet, I’ll just have to politely decline. I read it when I was 14 and once was enough.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
About 2 years ago, I grabbed a copy from the library’s used book bag sale and decided I’d give it a try.
Awful cannot BEGIN to describe the experience. I mean, there’s a sort of an interesting society-falls-apart railroad story underneath there somewhere, but the horrible dialog, awful plots, unbelievable characters, and hackneyed strawmen were too much to bear by page 50, let alone page 1050.
If you really want to read it (and you don’t!) go about 700 pages in and find a chapter called “John Galt Speaks”—it’s the text of his address to the nation after hijacking the airwaves. It’s about 80 pages long, and far too long and repetitive in itself, but it’s MUCH better than reading the whole thing, and you’ll get the full “philosophy” straight from the horse’s mouth without subjecting yourself from the awful transgressions of Rand’s attempted fiction.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
@Gustopher:
How about creating Randopedia? We could probably fit in some kangaroos floating to Australia on huge vegetation mats.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Read all of Ayn Rand’s books?
I thought we were all against torture.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
I worked as a computer programmer and ran into a lot of libertarians. Many were enthusiastic about Rand. Atlas Shrugged was considered some sort of masterpiece. I decided to give it a whirl, despite my distaste for the libertarian emphasis on property rights uber alles.
I made it through the entire wretched thing. It’s a long tedious polemic. Up there with the worst books I’ve ever read. The Galt speech towards the end of the book is just awful…even more tedious than the book as a whole.
Rand is a cult leader who wanted to be viewed as an intellectual. In her mind, she was the greatest thinker in the the history of the human race, though it must be said that she does graciously include Aristotle as possibly one other great thinker. Like L. Ron Hubbard, she and her followers are crackpots.
If you want to get to the nut of this nut’s ‘philosophy’ do what Rorgg suggested in his comment. Skip to Galt’s speech and it’s only 80 pages of pain to glean what Rand takes somewhere around 1000 pages to say.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
@Citizen Alan:
you win the thread for quoting Douglas Adams.
NO.FUCKING.WAY. As a good friend used to say, “I’d rather shove a 2B pencil in my eye” and “I’d rather eat a bowl of tacks”.
I thought it was impossible when I was in grade school (yes, I got all the way through). I only read it because of an unnatural intellectual competitive streak I had going on with my older sister. She still re-reads it constantly but I have gotten over my childish obsession with upstaging her. So no thanks.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
@freelancer: If you check back in, I’m a splinter. I couldn’t make it through one of his books. Try Reginald Hill or Carol O’Connell if you like dark.
@Tattoosydney: Sounds like a nice day for you! My mind, it still is cluttered. And, ta.
@Yutsano: A thousand? Did you not see by my mathematics earlier that being a hundred-thousand times better than Ayn Rand only makes one competent? Harrumph.
Odie, I’m waaaaiting).
ABL, Oh, OK. Wouldn’t want to make your mom feel bad.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Haha! Hilariously, I’m already reading Atlas Shrugged. I’m almost halfway, but have slowed considerably now that I’m not sitting in a hut in the wilderness waiting for the snow to stop.
I’ll let you catch up.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
@mclaren:
It’s not torture if you do it to yourself. Then it’s a kink.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
As a reminder to those who don’t want to read even part of her musings (Anthem, the one good one) here’s what I have to say: know your enemy.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
@Apathy:
oxymoron alert: the words “clear idea” being used in a sentence about Atlas Shrugged. Fail.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
@gmknobl:
Always a good idea. But the enemy is not Rand or her writings, it is the morons who believe her crap is a manifesto. Knowing the manifesto and that it is crap doesn’t explain why someone would believe it. Or how to wake them up to the fact that their belief system is crap.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
But will you be able to improve on Scalzi’s take on this book?
January 18th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
@Scott P.:
FTW
January 18th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
@Ija: Noooooooo!
Sadly, you are right – my river has run down to a trickle due to JPatt, but I have returned, I swear! Come back! :)
January 21st, 2011 at 4:45 pm