Reviled in some circles and mocked in others
This made me smile.
From a purely story point of view, it was too predictable. My sister read it and just based on her description of each character, I was able to tell her how the story would end up for each of them.
The Economist has many great dry one-liners (usually as photo captions), but that was one of the best ever. :)
That one chapter was so long.
From Kung Fu Monkey:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
The whole “going Galt” non-phenomenon probably got a lot of people who had never heard of it interested.
Yeah. Who exactly is going to go Galt? These pundits. Go ahead, we don’t need you on the air.
No one ever went broke underestimating the American public.
McCain did, kind of.
There are two books in the last ten years where I’ve wondered, why oh why did I finish this wretched thing? One’s Atlas Shrugged, and the other this:
Orphans of Chaos
No one ever went broke underestimating the American public.
Hillary did. But I guess Obama supporters bailed her out.
I don’t get the renewal in popularity. Wouldn’t the banksters and Wall Street goons be the bad guys in Atlas Shrugged? They have been swapping handjobs with government for decades. Business in general is not under attack.
Yeah, exactly. The idea is that the government and a bunch of corporations are in cahoots to undermine those who can really support themselves. It’s right with Rand’s stuff. She’s a very interesting person, particularly in her later life, as she begins to become demented. Ugly, though.
I guess so, if you also include Fannie and Freddy, AIG, etc… which would be ‘looter’ companies.
Oh okay. For some reason I thought the embattled CEO of Fannie Mae was picking up a few extra copies or something. :)
Ayn Rand: “Excuse me, sir?”
Man: “Yes?”
Ayn Rand: “I’m lost. Do you mind helping me?”
Man: “Aren’t you Ayn Rand?”
Ayn Rand: “Yes, I am!”
Man: “Then you can go help yourself!”
Whatever gets the Fox News crowd to start reading, we should just accept. It’s kind of like one of those inspirational stories of inner city schoolchildren who refuse to learn, until some brave teacher reaches out and relates to them on the level of a missing and inspirational parental figure, usually by dancing or teaching them poetry. You are the gruff principals of the school, questioning the methods of Ayntonio Randeras as she strawmambas these embittered young Republicans towards true delusion.
Just remind yourselves that it just as easily could have been a back issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids that these people started getting on about. She really did crystallize personality flaws into an ideology though, didn’t she.