So I Started Atlas Shrugged. . . .

[IronicMaiden]

So I started reading Atlas Shrugged a little more over a week ago. I'm on page 130, and it fucking sucks.

The antagonists are strawmen, the protagonists are one dimensional, hell, all the characters are one dimensional, and the text is as purple as a Canadian sunset.

Seriously, if it takes an entire page to describe a piece of freaking music, (And this text isn't big, in fact it's quite the opposite) then maybe it's time to look back over your book and cut some of the unnecessary adjectives. Reading this book makes me want to tear my eyeballs out and bounce the against a wall for the entertainment value. It's about as stimulating as counting the bricks in a brick wall. Another thing I freaking hate about the text is how Ayn Rand always gives things some sort of indescribability. "He didn't know why this happened, but it did." "Their eyes flickered with an emotion she couldn't quite place." "She wasn't quite sure why the object fascinated her, but. . ." Blah blah blah, so on so forth. I don't mind writers taking this way out a few times a book, or even one or two times a chapter, but this nitwit used it every second paragraph.

Ayn Rand tries to sell her philosophy by creating characters that exhibit the qualities she dislikes, and then making them do stupid shit. Like the part where Hank Rearden gives his brother's charity ten thousand dollars, and his brother handwaves it and keeps acting like he shared a womb with a douchebag. No Ayn Rand, that's that's not how most charity workers act, and yes charity is a good thing. If I wanted to argue that Hitler was a nice guy I wouldn't write a one thousand paged novel in which people insult Hitler and then go on to stick sparklers in their eyeballs.

I know the book is supposed to be turning us to Ayn Rands way of thinking and that's why she didn't bother making the characters a bit more easy to care about, but other people have done it way better than her. These people were also not trying to push a philosophy that was COMPLETELY RETARDED. Oh my god, so many things about the message of this book make me want to shoot myself for being on the same planet that this pretentious piece of trash was written. I mean, trees died for this bullshit! A lot of them, too!

And this whole "Who is John Galt?" crap! I have a better question; "WHO FUCKING CARES?!"

Ayn Rand was a pompous cunt and I'm glad she died long ago so we won't have to deal with any more of her bullshit.

TL;DR Version: I hate Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

Shit, this was much longer than I expected it to be. . . . Guess I really hate that book.

[IronicMaiden]

At 12/7/12 06:45 PM, Scary wrote: you expected ayn rand to be good dude i don't know what to say

I didn't expect her to be good, I just didn't expect her to be so damn bad.

[Sekhem]

i've read it (yes, all of it) and it's not bad for the reasons most people think it's bad (the message)

it has a pretty powerful message, i believe (people can achieve great things on their own, not to bow down to groupthink etc)

it's just not a well-written novel (english wasn't her first language, but it wasn't nabokov's either; she isn't excused)

most people just get too bogged down in the philosophy of objectivism and all of the political implications of the novel (rightfully so perhaps, considering how much it has influenced contemporary american politics)

[Crazywill]

I read the whole thing in high school, but I never really enjoyed her stilted delivery. I thought it was great when I was younger though. I read the whole thing through like two or three times, but skipped the part with the huge speech by John Galt since it went on for 30 goddamn pages.

[Phobotech]

At 12/7/12 06:33 PM, IronicMaiden wrote:
And this whole "Who is John Galt?" crap! I have a better question; "WHO FUCKING CARES?!"

I do. He's my Dad.

[captainlolz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j56IiLqZ9U

my experince with of this book summarized

[yurgenburgen]

At 12/7/12 06:33 PM, IronicMaiden wrote: If I wanted to argue that Hitler was a nice guy I wouldn't write a one thousand paged novel in which people insult Hitler and then go on to stick sparklers in their eyeballs.

I want to read this.

[Ceratisa]

Been playing too much MWO lately, my brain instantly translated Atlas into the assault mech...

[BucketOfSand]

trying to understand aye rand is like trying to hug a enraged bull

[BumFodder]

Yeah ive always thought Ayn Rands opinions were stupid too. I dont think anyone even takes her seriously, like how everyone knows state of nature theories but no one actually takes them seriously.

[LemonCrush]

Prophetic genius

[LickitySplit]

At 12/8/12 08:50 AM, BumFodder wrote: Yeah ive always thought Ayn Rands opinions were stupid too. I dont think anyone even takes her seriously, like how everyone knows state of nature theories but no one actually takes them seriously.

You do realize it's a book of fiction and that her actual beliefs should not impact your view on her books right? Unless you are a moron at least.

Anyway, Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead are decent books. IronicMaiden (shitty band name pun) probably doesn't like them because according to his profile he is 14.

[BumFodder]

At 12/8/12 10:32 AM, LickitySplit wrote: You do realize it's a book of fiction and that her actual beliefs should not impact your view on her books right? Unless you are a moron at least.

I dont think you understand.

[LickitySplit]

At 12/8/12 10:41 AM, BumFodder wrote:

At 12/8/12 10:32 AM, LickitySplit wrote: You do realize it's a book of fiction and that her actual beliefs should not impact your view on her books right? Unless you are a moron at least.

I dont think you understand.

"Yeah ive always thought Ayn Rands opinions were stupid too"

No one said they weren't...

[BumFodder]

At 12/8/12 10:45 AM, LickitySplit wrote: "Yeah ive always thought Ayn Rands opinions were stupid too"

No one said they weren't...

Some people very obviously do agree otherwise this thread wouldnt be around.

[BumFodder]

Agree with the opinions I mean.

[Ericho]

The biggest criticism of Ayn Rand's novels is that they mostly serve as an outlet for her political views. I heard there's this one sequence in the book where a character goes on for sixty pages about her views. In case you didn't know, the second part of the movie has a zero percent on RottenTomatoes, possibly making it the worst film of the year.

[IronicMaiden]

At 12/8/12 10:32 AM, LickitySplit wrote: You do realize it's a book of fiction and that her actual beliefs should not impact your view on her books right? Unless you are a moron at least.

I agree with you. Or at least, I would if her beliefs weren't reflected by the book. This isn't one of those things where I don't like the book just because I don't like the writer's personality, I don't like the book because a) It's unnecessarily boring and b) The book itself is selling the writer's beliefs, which I myself believe are stupid. If Atlas Shrugged was a good book on its own merits I wouldn't care if it was a Nazi who wrote it, but it doesn't stand on its own.

Take 1984 for example. This book was written in a way that got right to the point. No faffing about describing a piece of music in every way possible. It has a tense, interesting story, characters you actually give a rat's ass about and it sucks you into its own world. Atlas Shrugged has none of these things. Even if 1984 wasn't a warning about the dangers of totalitarianism, I would still read it for the story alone. If Atlas Shrugged wasn't pushing objectivism, its story would still fucking suck.

[LickitySplit]

At 12/8/12 12:22 PM, IronicMaiden wrote:

At 12/8/12 10:32 AM, LickitySplit wrote: You do realize it's a book of fiction and that her actual beliefs should not impact your view on her books right? Unless you are a moron at least.

I agree with you. Or at least, I would if her beliefs weren't reflected by the book.

Fair enough, certain styles of writing aren't for everyone.

Have you read Anthem?

[Jester]

At 12/7/12 06:45 PM, Scary wrote: you expected ayn rand to be good dude i don't know what to say

I enjoyed Anthem but that's the only one of her books I've read.

[LDAF]

Damn, reading some of the responses in this thread along with the OP post has made me want to put off reading this for a bit...it's on my to-do list. Ah well, gotta do what I've gotta do. I honestly just wanted to read it to get a grasp of different styles and varieties and such for my own reading, and looks like this is gonna be a "how to NOT do so and so" type of thing, but I'll see.

[Lintire]

One big long fucking political lecture. She could have just jotted her ideals in a bulletpoint list and saved everyone a bunch of time.

[OwnageGiy223]

I had to read Anthem as part of my English III class. My god that book oozed pretentiousness. Like, dripped this horrible, gelatinous substance that smelled like something between undeserved self importance and dogmatic obsession.

[Halberd]

Women writers can be pretty shit sometimes

[Halberd]

At 12/8/12 10:44 PM, Halberd wrote: Women writers can be pretty shit sometimes

and I mean like the weird way they write. the indescribability.

When I was 12 I read the first two Twilight books out of curiousity and all the writing is more emotional than logical it is SICKENING

jk rowling is an exception though i have a mad theory that she is actually a MAN or somethin who knows

[Nickisabi]

That's how the illuminati keeps you from reading it. It bores the hell out of you. But I finished anyways.

[Ericho]

I was looking in bookstores to see what was the longest novel they had. I went over to Wikipedia's list of longest novels and I honestly can't find anything in any store that has more words than "Atlas Shrugged". I have heard this is an annoying book, but why does it have to be the LONGEST book in the entire store?!