“Atlas Shrugged,” the best-selling novel written by Ayn Rand, turns 50 this year. It was published on October 12, 1957. Several American news outlets celebrate its 50th anniversary. The NYT, for instance, has this article up and has also republished its original review of “Atlas Shrugged,” same goes for National Review. Furthermore, the Times also published a letter to the editor written by one Alan Greenspan in response to before mentioned (and linked) review. As can be seen, its reception wasn’t exactly heartwarming. In fact, it seems that Ayn Rand spend the entire day (on which reviews were published) crying.
Even though many reviewers weren’t impressed with “Atlas Shrugged,” it still left a major mark. Ayn Rand inspired many, many people; most of them highschool or college students when they first read it. Although it’s not a literary masterwork, it still sells some 150,000 copies each year. People’s lives continue to be changed by it. And for that, Rand should be respected.
Be sure to read this post by Jessica Schneider and, if you have time, to watch the interviews she links to. Also read this post by Susan Duclos aka Spree.
A fascinating figure Ayn Rand, to say the least.
Thanks for the mention Michael. My mother practically had to force me to read that book and I am now on my fourth copy and have read it more times than I care to admit.
I finish it feeling hopeful about the world, which is why I continue to read it every few years.
Wooden characters and a “greed is good” philosophy is what I’ve heard about Rand’s books.
Not something that really appeals to me.
“Wooden characters and a “greed is good” philosophy is what I’ve heard about Rand’s books.”
Careful about going by “what I’ve heard.” That is an oversimplification. Characters which are cardboard to some are heroic to others. She does get into plenty of sterotypes of other political views, and her books aren’t without fault, but they also shouldn’t be written off as not worth reading.
Her philosphy might be considered “greed is good” but that is also an oversimplification.
No, the characters are wooden. It’s truly atrocious fiction. One would be advised to stick to the non-fiction, because the novels are bad impressions of melodrama with the most transparent of political aims. The bad reviews were well-deserved.
It truly is an awful book in its writing, but its meaning is so eye-opening for many young people that they suffer through it over and over again. I admit it: I did many years ago! And “greed is good” is missing the point entirely. How about, “do not be ashamed of excellence, and do not be ashamed of its rewards.”
The fiction does indeed paint it as greed is good, though. It denies the existence of well-intentioned altruism (note that anyone concerned about others is drawn as a monster). So while her non-fiction may allow for the possibility of the moral goodness of, well, moral goodness, her fiction undermines that notion.
I should probably preface this with the observation that I’ve been a book critic for papers as diverse as The KANSAS CITY STAR, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER and the (Portland) OREGONIAN these past 30 years.
A long time ago, I was raised in the High Holy Cult of Ayn Rand. Later, in college, when I finally read ATLAS SHRUGGED, I was appalled: it was DREADFUL. I had already read a lot of Ayn Rand by then, and even by her standards, ATLAS was a real clunker. All of her points had been made more elegantly elsewhere.
It failed on virtually every level: Hideously bad science fiction, cardboard characters and characterizations, long, tedious, repetitive speeches, a self-pitying premise that seemed more appropriate a Leslie Gore song (”It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to), and an astonishing bloat. I once calculated that 800-1000 pages could have been blue-penciled without harming the novel — indeed, it would have IMPROVED it.
Assuming that the fundamentally clunky plot could be saved, that is. (I always dissolve into helpless gales of laughter when Dagny Taggart and the gang suddenly decide they’re James Bond and “rescue” John Galt.)
And that was when I believed in that ‘Wile E. Coyote Supergenius’ claptrap. I’ve reread it since, and it’s a worse mess that I remembered. But: it seems to hit something archetypal in the American mindset, is the only explanation I can give for its popularity.
If you DO read Ayn Rand (and you should) read the far superior THE FOUNTAINHEAD — Ayn’s reimagining of Frank Lloyd Wright’s struggle with the forces of dogmatism and mindless authoritarianism. But keep the all-important poison pill in mind:
Howard Roark only has the right to blow up those bricks that he himself manufactured and set — Because the hod-carrier has as much right to HIS genius as Roark does to his Which is the fatal flaw in Rand’s philosophy:
ONLY the “hero” matters. *All others are expendable chattel.* And that’s, ultimately, a very, very, very scary way to view the world. It leads to people being thrown into ovens.
But THE FOUNTAINHEAD is everything that ATLAS SHRUGGED is not: fast-paced, believable, well-written, and truly a novel of ideas. (Quick: name three other novels of ideas written by women prior to 1950). I don’t believe a word of it, but it’s a great book and well worth your time.
ATLAS, on the other hand, makes a great doorstop.
Cheers.
That’s what I should have written instead of “Greed is good” (thinking of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko at the time).
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All true hart00, it is a horrid book but as you say, it does seem to weirdly “hit something archetypal in the American mindset.”
One small point though: the characters who were so concerned about others’ welfare felt they were within their rights to take anything from anyone they chose in order to put the situation to what they saw as right.
I have to differ with the Rand-haters in the audience: Atlas Shrugged is without a doubt the most powerful novel I’ve read. Few others come close, though as Hart00 notes, The Fountainhead is excellent as well.
Far from being cardboard cutouts of characters, Rand’s primary actors are powerfully drawn figures who don’t apologize for being themselves. Perhaps it is that which offends so many.
I’ll say this: When I read Atlas Shrugged for the first time I’d been in the working world for almost 10 years. In all that time and the schooling (MBA) that preceded it, nothing I’d ever read from the hand of another human being validated my life as this book did.
“Atlas Shrugged is without a doubt the most powerful novel I’ve read.”
Force is nothing without precision and aiming. Or: a kick in the glockenspiel is also powerful.
[...] of publication of Atlas Shrugged is the twelfth of October. October 12, 1957…fifty years ago. Here’s where I found out about that… Even though many reviewers weren’t impressed with “Atlas Shrugged,” it still left a major [...]