Deleted

[Scarecrow]

Deleted

[PSCahill]

I had the same problem...meanwhile, my much-slower-reader of a husband was zooming through it, because he was LISTENING to it after downloading it from audible.com. I finally decided to listen to it as well, and still got frustrated with her anti-religious rants, but managed to finish it. I loved what she said about the problems with statism, but her atheism left a sour taste in my soul. The movie, which is coming out soon, I hope will not dwell overmuch on the atheism, which was really not a-theism, but anger and hatred toward God. I think when one lives in a place like Russia, where the state was enshrined as their god, well, she just couldn't tease the two apart...she hated the state, and she hated "god" which for her, primarily was the state, and something that existed just to take away her freedom. I think I will go back and actually READ the book after seeing the movie...I know Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is easier to read after seeing the movies! She really did have some amazing things to say the problems with communism, and the right of people to be free, so I hope they hit the highlights in the movie. I thought how nice it would be if someone would post the best bits from the book where she is particularly brilliant in taking apart statism...without tainting it with the antigod rage.

[John Locke]

It starts slow but yes it gets better. At least I thought so. Although it is so massive its hard to..ugh stomach it all.

[patriotsaint]

It's a long book and there is quite a bit of nonsense to sort through as far as her "objectivist" philosophy is concerned. Even the stuff she gets right such as free market principles end up tainted with her individualistic views that are extreme to a fault.

She is so focused on individual will and freeing her protagonists from any societal duties that she leaves no room for the principle of charity, which is the books biggest flaw in my opinion. Instead of godless communism, we are given godless capitalism where individuals are encouraged to enshrine their own individual will as god, irrespective of how if affects their fellow men. The only moral lodestar the characters steer by is that nobody owes anyone, anything without paying for it. Even the "utopia" she creates is a sad place, where friends pay for favors instead of willingly helping one another. In once scene a character pays to use a friends car instead of simply borrowing it. It's not an idyllic place where I would want to live. Characters respect one another, but there is no true love.

Having said that I still think it is a worthwhile read. I gleaned many good things from the book. At least at the end of it all you will have an answer to the question, "who is John Galt?"

If you want a quicker, softer look at her philosophy, check out Anthem. Anthem can be read in a day, and it's main character has a much more human disposition than the cold, stone-faced characters of Atlas Shrugged. The individual still dethrones God in this short novel, but you won't escape that in any Ayn Rand work.

[buffalo_girl]

So I'm on the fourth chapter of Atlas Shrugged, and I have to say I'm really struggling to stay interested in this book. The fact that so many like-minded people me have reccomended it is the only reason I'm still reading it. So far it is about the most boring thing I've ever read. Someone please tell me it gets better.

I would forget about reading it. You would probably get a whole lot more out War & Peace by Count Tolstoy.

No one could possibly live the life Ayn Rand portrays in Atlas Shrugged or the FountainHead. Both are fairy tales with no vestige of humanity.

[liberty2]

I have to agree with Buffalo Girl and others who say, just skip it.

Totally wasn't worth the month it took me to get through it (and that was my second try, I first read it in high school, thought I missed the point so I tried again - SIGH).

I agree that the Objectivism ruins anything that could have been positive in the book. The interpersonal relations are abysmal. I feel bad for her reality. Dismal place to be.

BTW, I LOVE Tolstoy!

[buffalo_girl]

BTW, I LOVE Tolstoy!

Yes! So much more about the human capacity for spiritual growth and the ability to adapt to adversity than anything Ayn Rand could have conceived.

[ChelC]

Atlas Shrugged and War and Peace have been on my someday list for a long time. From these reviews though, it sounds like I won't like Atlas Shrugged, so I'll probably skip it. I don't like contrived stories that are written just to promote a political idealogy. Bugs. Me.

War and Peace is on my kindle app though... maybe I'll read it next. I'm currently reading Three Against Hitler and the writing is so-so, but the story is very inspiring, so I'm enjoying it. I may have to read a "fluff" book in between though. I've been reading lots of heavier things lately.

[larsenb]

Atlas Shrugged and War and Peace have been on my someday list for a long time. From these reviews though, it sounds like I won't like Atlas Shrugged, so I'll probably skip it. I don't like contrived stories that are written just to promote a political idealogy. Bugs. Me.

War and Peace is on my kindle app though... maybe I'll read it next. I'm currently reading Three Against Hitler and the writing is so-so, but the story is very inspiring, so I'm enjoying it. I may have to read a "fluff" book in between though. I've been reading lots of heavier things lately.

Ah, ChelC, I like your avatar of Sophie Scholl and her brother and another of her cohorts in the Resistance of the White Rose. There is a German movie out on her story dealing mainly with her arrest, trail and execution, which is probably the most gripping, emotionally draining movie I've ever seen. I think it's called Sophie Scholl, the FInal Days. I highly recommend it.

Also, I tried reading Ayn Rand's, The Fountainhead, but could only get through about 2/3rds of it. The rant contained in the book against 'altruism' seemed incomprehensible to me, believing as I do that the Gospel is rather like a training school to lead us into selfless service and love. Had a tough time buying into Rick Koerber's ideas for the same reason.

I just read a Wikipedia article on Rand, which was illuminating. She did have good ideas that support a libertarian and even conservative point of view, but took some of these ideas to the extreme limit.

[Scarecrow]

Deleted

[ChelC]

Thanks Larsen. I have seen the movie and I really like it. I keep hoping we can have a girl someday so I can name her Sophie. That's how much I like her story.

I love, love, love, brave women!

[larsenb]

Thanks Larsen. I have seen the movie and I really like it. I keep hoping we can have a girl someday so I can name her Sophie. That's how much I like her story.

I love, love, love, brave women!

Amen! And so many women leading out politically on important issues.

That would be an excellent tribute to Sophie and something for your daughter-to-be to really live up to; but heartbreaking to you if you lived to see her do so . . . . and ending in a similar way.

[buffalo_girl]

War and Peace is on my kindle app though...

Unless you are really, really good at Russian surnames, I would recommend watching the BBC production of War & Peace before reading War & Peace. I think that version of it is an 8 hour series. There's also a Russian version of it which I saw in the 1970's which was 22 hours long! It was great, but I haven't been able to find the complete movie on DVD. I have a 'cut' version of the Russian movie, but it isn't nearly as compelling.

Until I watched that movie I couldn't keep all the families straight, let alone the various associated characters. When it gets to the battle scenes in Austria it's nearly beyond the pale to keep track of all the adjutants, minor generals, princes, counts, captains, cavalry, cossacks, etc.. It all came together after watching the movie. I had faces to attach to all those names!

Nikolay Rostov's friend and Captain of his company, Vaska Denisov, actually does have a lisp in the book, so when you hear that lisp in the movie you will know that's exactly what Tolstoy intended.

Have fun watching the movie with your family. I'm sure your little boy will love the battle scenes. The sound of the cannon balls whistling overhead is amazing.

[ChemtrailWatcher]

Buffalo_girl, you amaze me!

I read War and Peace when I was 14 years old, at the same time that I was watching that 1970's BBC series you mentioned. I LOOOOVED it! I totally agree -- the series helped me to keep all the characters straight. My parents taped the series off the T.V.. I actually have seen it multiple times, if you can believe it. It's quite a long series. I really enjoyed Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Pyotr. That was before he became famous as the cannibal guy. I love the happy ending too.

[buffalo_girl]

I love the happy ending too.

It is all so expansive, isn't it? It covers the entire Napoleonic Campaign against Russia, seen through the lives of individuals impacted by the course of history.

[ChemtrailWatcher]

It is all so expansive, isn't it? It covers the entire Napoleonic Campaign against Russia, seen through the lives of individuals impacted by the course of history.

Definitely. But having been a teenager when I read it, I was more interested in all the romantic bits. And it's full to the brim with romance.

I found Tolstoy's/Pyotr's exploration into Freemasonry quite interesting as well.

[creator]

Good to see that I'm not alone in hating this book. I think I'll just skip over it and read something else.

The books has 3 parts to it. I remember the first part being a little more boring but after that I was hooked. (I listened to the unabridged audio book) I thought the book was great, one of my favorite fiction books. I don't agree with everything in it, nor all the philosophies of Ayn Rand but there are definitely some great principles (not moral, but political/economic) in the book and it is almost like a prophecy of what is going on with government today (i.e. government thinking what they are doing will solve the problem, when in fact they are actually making it worse and/or causing the problems. I'd recommend the book despite its flaws.

Another interesting perspective to the book is that (allegedly) it was commissed by the Rothschilds and also contains their plan for the world... Read here and here

[HeirofNumenor]

Tolkien & Tolstoy...how can you go wrong with these great literary friends of God? O:-)