Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: notesfiles Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!petsd!pesnta!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpfclp!mike From: mike@hpfclp.UUCP (mike) Newsgroups: net.books Subject: Re: Orphaned Response Message-ID: <4500021@hpfclp.UUCP> Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 21:18:00 EDT Article-I.D.: hpfclp.4500021 Posted: Fri Jun 28 21:18:00 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 4-Jul-85 04:59:57 EDT References: <2096@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Lines: 82 Nf-ID: #R:sdcrdcf:2096:hpfclp:4500021:37777777600:4520 Nf-From: hpfclp!mike Jun 28 15:18:00 1985 After reading the various reviews and comments on ATLAS SHRUGGED, and having recently finished reading it for the second time, I have a few remarks to add. > I am also somewhat annoyed by the romanticization of smoking. Obviously this is something Rand (a smoker) was quite infatuated with. At the time of the book's publication, smoking was not generally considered to be destructive behavior, although drinking was. Rand made several comments about drinking in her book (i.e. liquor-soggy brain, a drunken James Taggart, et al). Thus, the romanticization of smoking does not really bother me. I consider it to be simply a cultural facet of the book and an error of knowledge about the effects of smoking by that culture. > The book is about individualism and capitalism. When a person is born > into a system where everybody else ("society") controls how you do things > it can be difficult to know what has been done to you ("brainwashing"). > Atlas shrugged goes to great length to convince you of what is going on, > that is, how you are being controlled. This is taken both on an > individual level and on an economic level. Individualism and Capitalism are the consequences of free, rational minds. Rand's theme was the role of man's mind in existence. This was demonstrated superlatively by pitting those who held a single human life as a standard of value against the collectivests who held the goals of society as a standard of value. In Rand's own words: "Who is to decide what the goals of society are? Blank out." Couple these ideas with Rand's belief that reason is an absolute not to compromised at any cost, and that there are no such existents as collective thoughts, and you begin to see how and why the story crystalized as it did. > Rand greatly simplifies how the world works as to minimize the number > of variables in the story. This is like doing a scientific experiment > where you keep all the variables fixed except the one you are studying. > Rand does this same thing to make her points. Further, she speeds up > the effects (like having everything economically collapse in a year > or two, where it really would take 20 years) as to speed up the story. The economic collapse took twelve years in the book, which seems more than sufficient time to me. I often hear people tell me that the story told by THE FOUNTAINHEAD could conceivably happen, but that the events occuring in ATLAS SHRUGGED are mere fantasy. I usually respond by saying something like: "Have you read today's newspaper?". I agree that a strike by all the producers in the world would be difficult to achieve, and that it would take extraordinary minds to lead it, but I firmly believe that the events that destroyed the productive capacity of the nation, as described in the book, are occuring each and everyday. >> Rand's obvious happiness in killing off all the "worthless" characters >> in this book (which includes over 90% of the general public) makes it >> somewhat difficult for most people to buy into the good points that she is >> making. I don't recall ever seeing 90% or any other figure mentioned in the book as the number of characters "killed off". I don't know why people think Rand held such animosity for the "masses". Her point is that some people are better than others because they have a better mind, are more self-reliant, self-sufficient, and a score of other virtues clearly explained in the book. Each person is an individual to be considered and judged individually. The word "masses" is a collective term and serves only to diminish one's ability for objective discrimination. >> The best way to read >> this book is to skip all the long speeches (particularly in the second half) >> and read it as a science fiction "end of the world" story. Then do your >> philosophizing on your own. This is equivalent to saying the best way to paint a fence is to paint every other board. If you don't like the speeches, why are you reading the book? The speeches are there to exercise your mind and give you the intellectual ammunition you need to survive in this aristocracy-of-pull, looter government, collectivest world. In fact, there is really only one "long" speech; the rest can be read in twenty minutes or less. > It affected me greatly in terms of "energizing" me > in my battle against the world for my livelyhood. Ditto. Michael Bishop hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b