Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcrdcf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!barryg 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