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A review by leo_glz
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
1.0
“Yes, at first, I was happy to be learning how to read. It seemed exciting and magical! But then I read this—Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit, I’m never reading again!”
First of all, Rand makes her protagonists and good guys (the non-looters from now on) seem like absolutely perfect people that can do whatever they need whenever it is needed. As an example, Dagny flies a plane despite this having never been set up, and John Galt, basically Objectivism and Rand's ideals personified, is described as being essentially the hottest man alive.
Meanwhile, Rand makes literally everyone else in the novel public enemy #1 (the looters from now on), and literally kills hundreds of them throughout the course of the book because they don't agree with her ideas.
However, every single one of these people range from bad at best to absolutely terrible at worst.
One of the heroes of this story, Hank Rearden, completely hates his family because they are looters who depend on him for money. He especially hates his wife, Lillian Rearden, for the same reas0ns.
Since Hank actually secretly loves Dagny Taggart, they have an affair (such a hero).
Dagny is just a selfish person. She literally couldn't care less about anyone. Her only interests are money, Taggart Transcontinental, Francisco d'Anconia, Hank Rearden, and John Galt.
Dagny's brother Jim, a looter, is also completely terrible. He marries a convenience store clerk named Cherryl because he wants to destroy her goodness, and when he eventually succeeds by taunting and making fun of her, saying that she will never be able to divorce Jim, and that she's stuck with Taggart, she goes completely insane and kills herself.
The novel as a whole was completely inflated. There is no clear focus for the entire story. At first, it's just Dagny trying to manage Taggart Transcontinental for the first 200 pages, then, it's Dagny and Hank Rearden trying to find the maker of a static electricity motor, and then it's Dagny and Hank trying to find out who "the destroyer" is and why so many non-looter rich people are disappearing. Then it's about John Galt's fixing of the entire United States economy.
The first of the part of the novel is the most unfocused part, as Dagny and Hank just completely forget about the motor, and the first 200 pages are just railroad things that set up our main characters 50 pages in. It could've been so much shorter, but Rand had to inflate it to 1168 pages.
This novel took her 14 years to write.
She had so many good ideas, like Dagny. Dagny could've been a representation of an artist's undying will to keep working at all costs, but instead, anything that could've been a representation or moral for something more profound than "Objectivism good" isn't actually a representation or moral. Rand thinks that these completely insane characters and situations are how people should act in her perfect view of the world.
If you want to see a video that recaps all of Atlas Shrugged, and shares most of my opinions on Rand, the novel, and Objectivism, then watch this video by the Radical Reviewer: https://youtu.be/Xa_7XwpH5NA
Hurray for Barbrady!
First of all, Rand makes her protagonists and good guys (the non-looters from now on) seem like absolutely perfect people that can do whatever they need whenever it is needed. As an example, Dagny flies a plane despite this having never been set up, and John Galt, basically Objectivism and Rand's ideals personified, is described as being essentially the hottest man alive.
Meanwhile, Rand makes literally everyone else in the novel public enemy #1 (the looters from now on), and literally kills hundreds of them throughout the course of the book because they don't agree with her ideas.
However, every single one of these people range from bad at best to absolutely terrible at worst.
One of the heroes of this story, Hank Rearden, completely hates his family because they are looters who depend on him for money. He especially hates his wife, Lillian Rearden, for the same reas0ns.
Since Hank actually secretly loves Dagny Taggart, they have an affair (such a hero).
Dagny is just a selfish person. She literally couldn't care less about anyone. Her only interests are money, Taggart Transcontinental, Francisco d'Anconia, Hank Rearden, and John Galt.
Dagny's brother Jim, a looter, is also completely terrible. He marries a convenience store clerk named Cherryl because he wants to destroy her goodness, and when he eventually succeeds by taunting and making fun of her, saying that she will never be able to divorce Jim, and that she's stuck with Taggart, she goes completely insane and kills herself.
The novel as a whole was completely inflated. There is no clear focus for the entire story. At first, it's just Dagny trying to manage Taggart Transcontinental for the first 200 pages, then, it's Dagny and Hank Rearden trying to find the maker of a static electricity motor, and then it's Dagny and Hank trying to find out who "the destroyer" is and why so many non-looter rich people are disappearing. Then it's about John Galt's fixing of the entire United States economy.
The first of the part of the novel is the most unfocused part, as Dagny and Hank just completely forget about the motor, and the first 200 pages are just railroad things that set up our main characters 50 pages in. It could've been so much shorter, but Rand had to inflate it to 1168 pages.
This novel took her 14 years to write.
She had so many good ideas, like Dagny. Dagny could've been a representation of an artist's undying will to keep working at all costs, but instead, anything that could've been a representation or moral for something more profound than "Objectivism good" isn't actually a representation or moral. Rand thinks that these completely insane characters and situations are how people should act in her perfect view of the world.
If you want to see a video that recaps all of Atlas Shrugged, and shares most of my opinions on Rand, the novel, and Objectivism, then watch this video by the Radical Reviewer: https://youtu.be/Xa_7XwpH5NA
Hurray for Barbrady!