....probably actually almost as well as some of my "real life" friends know me.
So I have a question for you. I've been seeing lots 'o' folks referring to the novel "Atlas Shrugged," and apparently, it's going to be a new cultural wave (if what I'm reading is correct), and perhaps it would be good to know more about it. (I understand the basic idea: John Galt gets pissed off at the "parasites" and goes counter-culture).
So here's the question: Should I read "Atlas Shrugged"? Is it something I really need in my knowledge store? Or is it something, like Gulliver's Travels, that I will get depressed by and give up on when bad stuff goes on in my life concomitant with reading the novel?
Also, is it really really dense? Like, fruitcake-dense? I can hack 1000 pages, but not easily if it's a really dense read - I read right before bed and if it's a slow slog, I probably won't stick with it.
I'm curious, because I finished the current mystery novel, I'm getting close to the end of Pickwick Papers (which I love and which makes me chuckle on a regular basis. I so would like to inhabit that world. Well, maybe that world but with better hygiene and antibiotics, but you know what I mean...) So I'm kind of looking around and contemplating which book to read next. I have several lined up*, but could always buy a copy of Atlas Shrugged** and read that first.
So, comments: yes/no? Will I hate it? Will it be "good for me"? Is there something better I should read instead?
(* The Red and the Black, Slammerkin, Georges (a novel by Dumas that I had never heard of but which sounds interesting), the rest of the Thursday Next books...)
(**And if I'm buying it, it will have to be before any rumored "credit card bailout" comes. 'Cause if that happens, I am still, as I said, going Laura Ingalls and stopping my consumption of other than the bare necessities. Just as a little protest. And I might cut up my Kohl's credit card and send it back to them as well).
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
y'all know me
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4 comments:
I've tried on numerous occasions to read "Atlas Shrugged", and can't seem to get into it. Ayn Rand could have used a good editor. (I realize that's either heresy or blasphemy, but that's how I see it.) You might have better luck with it, but I think you have the general idea of the story.
I'm commenting too often lately, but indulge me one more time and then I'll restrain myself (for a while).
You don't talk much about your politics, but occasionally there are indications or hints that you don't share the leftist intensity of most of your colleagues. Obviously, a right-leaning college faculty member does well to shut up about such things, for reasons both professional and social. You are also frequently annoyed or bothered by the attitudes of some of your students, as well as by the lack of basic skills which they ought to have if they're going to college in the first place.
So, I'm GUESSING that we could refer to Atlas Shrugged as "Ricki in a bad mood." The basic premise is, as you probably know: What if all the talented, smart and productive people of the world went on strike, leaving the world's parasites with no hosts?
Despite its length, I think it's worth reading. Some warnings, however. Parts of it are dated (especially because a railroad is the key industry of the novel)since it was written 50 years ago. And Ayn Rand, who personally appreciated most of all what she considered her own genius, saved her greatest contempt not for those who disagreed with everything she said, but for those who agreed with MOST of what she said. Since she was an atheist,she would have great contempt toward you and me for being Christians. She and William F. Buckley, Jr., whom you would think would have been soulmates, were very disparaging of each other because he was a highly observant Catholic.
With the nation now going in a leftward direction politically, Atlas Shrugged is probably more relevant now than it would have been 20 or 30 years ago. It truly will be part of whatever we might think of as the counterculture during the Obama Administration.
Reading Ayn Rand's book is practically a requirement in my family, like Catch 22. Sure, you can choose not to read them, but you will feel mighty left out at the O'Malley Thanksgiving dinner table!
I read all her stuff and I find it intellectually interesting - if rather dull, in terms of her writing. It's just not my thing. I'm bored by her, although she certainly does spark conversation!
I do love that she and Alan Greenspan were BFFs and she would host poetry readings at her apartment in Greenwich Village and he would show up religiously. How I would have loved to attend one of THOSE evenings!
Maybe it's because I "read" it on CD on a car trip, but I found it enjoyable and rarely boring. It probably also helped that the narrator was Edward Herrmann. Some parts dragged a bit but overall I thought it was excellent.
Very different experience when I tried to read The Fountainhead. I slogged about halfway through and had to give up on it.
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