Atlas Shrugged

Certainly does have an eerie similarity to what we are witnessing in America today. I would make it required in any high school curriculum!

It's really easy to make your philosophy come across as correct when you can design the world in which you're presenting it so that you decide everything that happens. This is why bad philosophies can make such compelling fiction. This *is* pretty compelling fiction -- a world of fantasy heroes in which a lot of people have understandably chosen to get lost, some of them permanently. It's trivially refutable as philosophy... any accurate biography of the author will demonstrate that not even the grand dame herself could live according to her own principles. When she had to choose between the objective facts she supposedly revered and the loyalty and reverence of her band of fanatical followers, she simply lied to them, rather than admit (for example) that many, many people had helped her in significant ways, and she would almost certainly not have succeeded as an author -- or perhaps even survived to write her major works -- without them.

There are also some basic contradictions. Example: the alleged consummate individualist claims that if everyone choose rationally, nobody would differ from each other even insofar as ice cream preference; but that effectively denies any such thing as individualism and makes everyone in her ideal world identical to each other. And indeed, all the heroes in Atlas Shrugged *are* pretty much identical to each other, except for minimal differences in physical appearance and choice of profession. The even choose the same college majors.

The second star is simply because, like any other fantasy heroes, Rand's can be fun to be around for a little while. They're exciting, dashing, gorgeous, and good at everything. Enjoy them. Visit if you like. But don't get lost here. Objective reality, whatever the author may have wanted to believe, lies elsewhere.

Atlas Shrugged is perhaps the greatest, most revealing novel ever written. It is larger than life, and a truly philosophical, dramatic, exalting, and suspenseful read.

A life changimg read.

If you liked The Fountainhead but thought the philosophy took a back seat to character development and plot, Atlas Shrugged is great - not concerning itself with such outmoded details like characters who might exist and avoiding exposition, Atlas Shrugged is the most pedantic, two-dimensional book ever. Huzzah.