A Libertarian reads "Atlas Shrugged"--Part 2--DKos

[Louisiana1976]

snip

In case you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged, here’s the plot. Except for America, every country in the world has been taken over by Commies. America is teetering on the edge, about to go Commie itself. Suddenly all the smart men start disappearing. Since these are the men who know how to build and operate the systems that make modern life possible, the world quickly falls apart.

For reasons that aren’t clear until 600 or 700 pages in, people moan "Who is John Galt?" every time something goes wrong.

Railroad executive Dagny Taggart suspects that a conspiracy is behind the disappearances. With her lover, steel magnate Hank Rearden, and her ex-lover, copper magnate Francisco d'Anconia, she tries to uncover the plot by sitting in offices listening to people talk on and on about the virtues of greed. Along the way loathsome slime balls with names like Balph, Tinky and Mouch heap power and prestige on themselves while hastening America’s

snip

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/8/811778/-A-Libertarian-Reads-Atlas-ShruggedPart-2

[WCGreen]

1. As I've said time and time again....

After you have your first non self inflicted orgasm, Ayn Rand looks really childish. She writes in archetype down to the most minor character. It's embarrassing, really.

[nashville_brook]

2. that's hilarious...and so true.

[regnaD kciN]

4. You know, that got me thinking...

I'm trying to remember every Rand zealot I've known, and trying to figure out if any of them didn't have their Objectivist epiphany while they were still virgins.

Can't think of a singe one...

[silverweb]

3. This reviewer and I read the same book.

So many other readers, both the scornful and the enamored, and I did not.

I especially appreciate the context of Rand's experiences in Soviet Russia specifically, and the style of Russian literature in general.

Of course, it's obviously much better that I read AS as a stand-alone experience and never tried to get into her other books, especially her nonfiction. That probably would have killed any value I took away from AS.

[regnaD kciN]

5. As I pointed out on DKos...

Isn't it ironic that Rand, the supposed champion of individual thinking and original thought, the sworn enemy of "moochers" who took other people's creative work for their own benefit, essentially plagiarized the plot of Atlas Shrugged (people fleeing a crumbling world crash-land an airplane deep in the mountains, only to discover a hidden utopian civilization waiting to emerge and rescue humanity when the corrupt, violent social system finally collapses) directly from James Hilton's Lost Horizon, a work touting Christian altruism (which was, of course, the essence of evil according to Rand)?

[tigereye]

6. yeah, that's about it!

:rofl:


I'm always stunned by people who take this book beyond their high school or college years as a moribund and morally bankrupt life philosophy.

[white_wolf]

7. Your so wrong!

About Dean Koontz he is a really good author, at least as far as pure entertainment goes. But from what i've heard of Rand your right about her.