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A review by goodverbsonly
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
5.0
2/3/2021: as she says of aristotle, i most emphatically disagree with much of her philosophy. i’ve read we the living and some of her essays, and i think she puts too much stock into reason, and the characters are strawmen of villains, but this MARATHON of a novel is like, genuinely enjoyable (surprising) but also, she is right. lol.
i do have a broader problem with the philosophy of rand than thinking that maybe Communism Is Bad (which, for obvious reasons, she felt very strongly about), and it goes beyond her Objectivism, which very quickly fallls apart when you think about her, as a person, and it’s the SAME complaint i have about marxism. which i think is funny but a goodreads review while i’m still trying to collect my thoughts is probably not the place.
idk i just like dagney. i think she is very cool.
11/30/2021: i didn't reread it, obviously, but i think i can provide some clarification about my 5 star rating of this Marathon of a Book. one) a philosophy-turned-novel isn't going to read like a novel and it doesn't actually, except that in spite of everything there ARE characters here. my dad thinks we the living is the most, eh, novel-like, for the reason of it being more grounded in real life than in philosophy, but idk. i like dagny. is it ridiculous and not really the way real life works at all? i mean sure, but i think that's sort of the point. like if things were perfectly reciprocal the world might run smoother, but it's obviously a fantasy, and it's set up to be one, even within the book itself. i mean, you can't really escape to the libertarian paradise of free enterprise, not even in Atlas Shrugged. it's less of a book about how things Ought to Be but rather the dangers of collectivism and what happens to the people who actually do contribute to society under collectivism.
secondly, like, neitzsche didn't get me but rand effectively paraphrasing neitzsche for 25 pages did; the adrenaline rush while shoveling snow...there is nothing like it. i legitimately had a euphoric experience listening to that, even listening at 3x speed and catching MAYBE every fourth complete sentence. that's just how it is sometimes.
i do have a broader problem with the philosophy of rand than thinking that maybe Communism Is Bad (which, for obvious reasons, she felt very strongly about), and it goes beyond her Objectivism, which very quickly fallls apart when you think about her, as a person, and it’s the SAME complaint i have about marxism. which i think is funny but a goodreads review while i’m still trying to collect my thoughts is probably not the place.
idk i just like dagney. i think she is very cool.
11/30/2021: i didn't reread it, obviously, but i think i can provide some clarification about my 5 star rating of this Marathon of a Book. one) a philosophy-turned-novel isn't going to read like a novel and it doesn't actually, except that in spite of everything there ARE characters here. my dad thinks we the living is the most, eh, novel-like, for the reason of it being more grounded in real life than in philosophy, but idk. i like dagny. is it ridiculous and not really the way real life works at all? i mean sure, but i think that's sort of the point. like if things were perfectly reciprocal the world might run smoother, but it's obviously a fantasy, and it's set up to be one, even within the book itself. i mean, you can't really escape to the libertarian paradise of free enterprise, not even in Atlas Shrugged. it's less of a book about how things Ought to Be but rather the dangers of collectivism and what happens to the people who actually do contribute to society under collectivism.
secondly, like, neitzsche didn't get me but rand effectively paraphrasing neitzsche for 25 pages did; the adrenaline rush while shoveling snow...there is nothing like it. i legitimately had a euphoric experience listening to that, even listening at 3x speed and catching MAYBE every fourth complete sentence. that's just how it is sometimes.