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From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
Message-ID: <2096@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Jun-85 10:03:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.2096
Posted: Sat Jun 22 10:03:49 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Jun-85 08:12:25 EDT
References: <865@mtgzz.UUCP>
Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica
Lines: 32
Xref: watmath net.books:1982 net.sf-lovers:8154
Summary: 

For consistency with Leeper beleifs on spoilers, this review should have
been marked "spoiler." The reason why all those people were gradually
evaporating is the book's Maguffin (Hitchcock's term for the thing the
plot/hero(ine) focused on chasing down).  You don't find out until halfway
through.

I find the book's preachiness somewhat easier to tolerate (i.e. skim over)
than its sex scenes.  Rand's heroines find true love in what looks altogether
too much like rape to an outside reader.  (This is true not only of this
book but also of THE FOUNTAINHEAD, Rand's SF novella, and her play.  It may
be a giveaway that she adored reading Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.
Sometimes I wonder if she would have also liked Norman's Tarl Cabot had
she lived long enough to read him.)

Of Dagny's three lovers, the first shows his love by slapping her (when
she suggests she could be more popular if she got poorer grades); the
second tells her he despises her because she is willing to fall in with his
lusts; and the third has her without asking her consent on the railroad
track.

I am also somewhat annoyed by the romanticization of smoking.

On the other hand, the idea of a "Robin Hood" who robs from the
governments and gives to the should-be rich whose money has been taxe
away is truly delightful.  And a lot of the plot is very interesting and
well written.

If you like preachy predictions of doom with SF overtones, I also recommend
Taylor Caldwell's THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, Sinclair Lewis's IT CAN'T HAPPEN
HERE,...In fact, a lot of mainstream writers have written one.

--Lee Gold