Almost a martyr

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. This book would easily take the first five spots on my worst book list! What an arrogant, misguided, simple-minded bitch who wrote this book! But I digress.

As a novel it fails. The story is weak, melodramatic, and ultimately utterly ridiculous. It's as heavy as a rain-sodden phone book and only slightly more interesting. The characters are flat--there's not a one that is likeable and few that grew or changed over the course of this gigantic tome. Indeed, the characters seem to fall into two or three categories: the beautiful, uber-competent industrialists; and the incompetent "looters" who hate the industrialists, but like what the the industrialists have. The strikers always know what to do. They handle every crisis easily and unemotionally. They're never vulnerable. On the other hand, the looters couldn't pour piss from a boot with instructions on the bottorm. They are, however, smart enough to recognize their incompetence, resorting to begging John Gault to please be a dictator!

And then there's the unimaginative dialogue. "What?" uttered with a sense of surprise seemed to be the go-to phrase. "I'm scared!" showed up far too often. When in doubt, go with the, "We -don't-know-what-to-do" line of dialogue. The Fountainhead had the advantage of an interesting story line to go with it. This story line rambles and bores, with little suspense beyond when Dagney would eventualy join the "strike." Like a soap opera, one could easily skip pages at a time and not miss anything because the story progressed so slowly and the prose was so over-blown.

As a "philosophy" it fails. Socialism fails because few people have the integrity and constitution to work harde, do their best, stand on their principles, and live morally simply because it is the right thing to do. There are few Howard Rourkes in the world. However, the same flaw in man that makes socialism an unworkable system makes unbridled capitalism flawed as well. There are too few Howard Rourkes who can resist the temptation of greed. They are unwilling or unable to make a fair trade of something of value in return for value. Witness Bernie Madoff or the executives in the most recent financial disaster. Consider the various coal mining disasters, directly attributable to the drive for profits.

Rand witnessed the wrecked economy of the Soviet Union. Too bad she missed the wrecked economy we're enjoying now. And for the record, the problem wasn't that there too many regulaions, but that there were too few of the right regulations to serve as a check on man's natural greed and tendency to cut corners if there are no repercussions.

Moreover, the book is anti-Christian if not anti-religion. Instead of loving God and loving others before oneself, the idea is to love oneself first. "I swear by my life and my love of it, I will not live for another man or ask another man to live for me." Rand mocks the basic tenets of Christianity; there is no place in her world of egotism for the altruism that forms an essential part of Christianity. Love my neighbor? Only if my neighbor has something of value to trade.
I am the center of my universe.

Finally for someone who claims to celebrate the mind of man, Rand has scant respect for the minds of her readers. She beats the readers over the head with her simplistic philosophy, I suppose, because we readers aren't bright enough to get it the first 67 times. That might explain the mega-sermon delivered by John Gault near the end. Really?

I could go on and on. I wish I had back the hours I spent, but I suppose this is the kind of thing I should read to be ready to challenge those who have bought this crap hook, line, and sinker. Ultimately, I feel like I've trudged through mud and come up dirty. Quite unsatisfying.