• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

What If Atlas Shrugged?

Guess I really ought to read Atlas Shrugged sometime.
Often compared to Orwell, Rand's work seems to stem directly from having lived through the Russian revolution and having seen the horrors of the Soviet Union first hand. Her ferocious atheism and rejection of pretty well everything but pure reason, strikes me as rather Dawkinesque.
At well over 1,000 pages it's hardly a light afternoon's read and, like all political works, I suspect I would find it preachy and dull.
Still on Amazon.uk it's rated 4.5/5 over several hundred reviews.
Any regulars here actually read it?
 
What if Atlas Shrugged?

6d83cf9fc3f7aca65fc3d997f831414d.jpg
 
Guess I really ought to read Atlas Shrugged sometime.
Often compared to Orwell, Rand's work seems to stem directly from having lived through the Russian revolution and having seen the horrors of the Soviet Union first hand. Her ferocious atheism and rejection of pretty well everything but pure reason, strikes me as rather Dawkinesque.
At well over 1,000 pages it's hardly a light afternoon's read and, like all political works, I suspect I would find it preachy and dull.
Still on Amazon.uk it's rated 4.5/5 over several hundred reviews.
Any regulars here actually read it?
I bought it and The Fountainhead, but haven't mustered up the energy to read either.
 
I bought it and The Fountainhead, but haven't mustered up the energy to read either.

I tried reading Atlas Shrugged years ago but gave up, I know such books may be demanding but I just didn't take to her writing style. Orwell is far more accessible in 1984 and Animal Farm; as is Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.

I haven't read The Fountainhead but a pretty good film was made from it.

Here be spoilers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead_(film)

Full film here:

 
Yeah, I did try reading a couple of pages but Rand's writing style is fairly awful.
 
Read the Fountainhead and Atlas as a teenager, long about 1972-73. Outgrew the "philosophy" within 6 months.
Its a nice fantasy for a teenage nerd.
 
I tried reading Atlas Shrugged years ago but gave up, I know such books may be demanding but I just didn't take to her writing style. Orwell is far more accessible in 1984 and Animal Farm; as is Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.

I haven't read The Fountainhead but a pretty good film was made from it.

Here be spoilers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead_(film)

Full film here:


I've seen that film and it's hilariously bad, aside from the major plot point of the heroine getting raped by the hero which they try to build up as romantic and heroic and oh so masterful. That bit's an insult to the intelligence.
 
I've seen that film and it's hilariously bad, aside from the major plot point of the heroine getting raped by the hero which they try to build up as romantic and heroic and oh so masterful. That bit's an insult to the intelligence.

Once again I reject this smearing of a classic.
 
I've seen that film and it's hilariously bad, aside from the major plot point of the heroine getting raped by the hero which they try to build up as romantic and heroic and oh so masterful. That bit's an insult to the intelligence.
That plot point is in the book as well. I first "read" the book by listening to it as an audio book on tape on a car trip with a friend, and when that came up we both looked at each other and said "wait a minute, he's raping her?", we turned the book off.
 
That plot point is in the book as well. I first "read" the book by listening to it as an audio book on tape on a car trip with a friend, and when that came up we both looked at each other and said "wait a minute, he's raping her?", we turned the book off.

In the film she certainly didn't regard it as rape and chases after Roark. They end up as a couple.
 
In the film she certainly didn't regard it as rape and chases after Roark. They end up as a couple.
In the book she chases after Roark and they become a couple too. But the encounter most certainly was described as rape. The scene in question from the book:
--------------------
She tried to tear herself away from him. The effort broke against his arms that had not felt it. Her fists beat against his shoulders, against his face. He moved one hand, took her two wrists and pinned them behind her, under his arm, wrenching her shoulder blades.…She fell back against the dressing table, she stood crouching, her hands clasping the edge behind her, her eyes wide, colorless, shapeless in terror. He was laughing. There was the movement of laughter on his face, but no sound.…Then he approached. He lifted her without effort. She let her teeth sink into his hand and felt blood on the tip of her tongue. He pulled her head back and he forced her mouth open against his.

-----------------------

She then falls for him BECAUSE he raped her, the rape being evidence to her of his Randian objectivist superiority.
 
Last edited:
Once again I reject this smearing of a classic.

It is utterly wondrous! I saw it as a kid and took it entirely seriously - it's exactly the sort of thing a kid of twelve would write, if she/he had the ear of a Hollywood producer.

I was delighted to be reunited with it, when I found the video. From first to last I was mesmerized by the mastery of Ms Rand's visions and the way they were embodied by the lovely Gary Cooper etc. Patricia Neal had to go off and marry Roald Dahl after it, such is the unexpected power of great literature! I mean Great Literature!

Must dash, I have a tower-block to demolish to prove my purity of spirit! :artist:
 
Last edited:
In the book she chases after Roark and they become a couple too. But the encounter most certainly was described as rape. The scene in question from the book:
--------------------
She tried to tear herself away from him. The effort broke against his arms that had not felt it. Her fists beat against his shoulders, against his face. He moved one hand, took her two wrists and pinned them behind her, under his arm, wrenching her shoulder blades.…She fell back against the dressing table, she stood crouching, her hands clasping the edge behind her, her eyes wide, colorless, shapeless in terror. He was laughing. There was the movement of laughter on his face, but no sound.…Then he approached. He lifted her without effort. She let her teeth sink into his hand and felt blood on the tip of her tongue. He pulled her head back and he forced her mouth open against his.

-----------------------

She then falls for him BECAUSE he raped her, the rape being evidence to her of his Randian objectivist superiority.
Look at some old films from the 40s and 50s. Pay attention to the love scenes.
A lot of them look a LOT like rape...hero forces himself on sexy heroine...she fights back (why?) and then finally gives in to his masterful manliness.
That kind of thing was a common plot device in fiction way back then. Now, if a woman fights the man off, she means it.
 
Back
Top