I was visiting an old friend for the past few days, and she showed me this cover of Atlas Shrugged I made for her when we lived in Ukraine:

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It was a necessary repair, but it pretty much proves I should be a cover designer._____________________________________________

Original review:

I think Francisco DAconia is absolutely a dream boat. This books like blah blah blah engineering, blah blah blah John Galt, blah blah blah no altruistic act, blah bla- HE-llo, Francisco DAconia, you growl and a half. Also, theres a pirate. So, whats everyone complaining about?

Okay, its not that I dont get what everyones complaining about. I get that Rand is kind of loony tunes of the Glenn Beck variety, and some people (maybe?) use her to justify being assholes, but I just dont like to throw the bathwater out with that baby. Warning: I think, to make my point, I have to refer to Dostoyevsky a lot, which I seem to always do because he really is some kind of touchstone to me. The point Im trying to make with all this blabbering is that the debate over Atlas Shrugged brings out something that I might hate more than anything else (more than weddings and kitty litter even). It makes people say that ideas are dangerous. People on all sides of the spectrum do this about different stuff, and whatever the argument, I dont like it. If an idea is wrong, say its wrong. But genocide doesnt happen because people put forward too many ideas. It happens because people put forward too few ideas.

Anyway, back to the book:

First, story. The third part of this book is super weird. Its definitely not the actual ending of the book, Ive decided, but more of a choose-your-own-adventure suggestion. Its kind of fun that way because any end that you, the reader, come up with will be better than the one Rand suggested. My favorite part of her ending is how John Galt gives the most boring speech possible, and it lasts for about a bazillion pages, and you have to skip it or die. Then, at the end, Rands like, The entire world was listening, ears glued to the radios, because Galts speech was the most brilliant thing they had ever heard. No. Nope. Nice try, liar. So, thats super lame, I agree, and you should just skip the third part.

But people dont get as mad about the epilogue in Crime and Punishment. Why? Thats the same situation, where it kills all fun, and you have to ignore that it happened. Is it just because its shorter, and its called Epilogue? Maybe thats enough. But, on the other hand, maybe people didnt read all the way to the end of Crime and Punishment. Maybe, because it was written by a crazy Russian man, not a crazy Russian woman, people think theyll sound deep if they say they like it.

Second, writing. People complain about Rands writing, and I always think, When was the last time you wrote a 1000 page book in a second language and pulled off a reasonably page-turning storyline? The woman spoke Russian for crying out loud! It most certainly would have been a better choice for her to have written the books in Russian and had them translated, but, I mean, most native English speakers couldnt be that entertaining. Its at least A for effort. Im not going to make excuses for the unpronounceable names she chooses for her characters, but Ill just say Dostoyevsky again and leave it at that.

I know it made a huge difference in my reading of this book that I was living in a Soviet bloc apartment in Lozovaya, Ukraine at the time and had forgotten a little bit how to speak English. Im sure a lot of weird phrasing didnt sound weird to me because it makes sense in Russian. But, also, I feel like Ive read a lot of translations of Dostoyevsky and other Russians that feel really weird in English. You know, everyones always having some kind of epileptic fit or whatever with Mr. D. But, we allow for the weirdness because we picture the stuff happening in Russia, where the weird stuff typically goes down anyway. Ill tell you right now, Atlas Shrugged takes place in Russia. No joke. She might tell you theyre flying over the Rocky Mountains, or whatever, but this book is a Russian if there ever was one. Just so its clear, I LOVE that about it. Thats no insult, only compliment.

Third, philosophy. Maybe I told you this story already, so skip it if you already know it. When I lived in Ukraine, I had the same conversation with three or four people of the older generation who grew up in the Soviet Union. They would tell me, Things were really wonderful in the Soviet Union, much better than they are now. We had free health care, free housing, and now we have nothing. I mean, every once in a while your neighbor would disappear, but it was completely worth it. This was really disturbing to me, because it gave me this picture of the people around me that they were the ones who ratted out the neighbors who wanted a different life. Sure, Rands vision is narrow and sometimes inhuman, but I think it is because she was really terrified of this equally narrow and, as far as Im concerned, inhuman vision. I want a public health care option real bad, and my neighbor has some really annoying Chihuahuas, but if forced to choose between them, Id probably still pick my neighbor.

Admittedly, the problem with this argument is that it sets up a dichotomy where our only choices are the prosperity gospel and Soilent Green. From what I know of Rand, though, she had seen her neighbors and family thrown out of Russia or killed for being rich. She was fighting something extreme by being extreme. Unfortunately, in America, this rhetoric turns into the idea that having public services = killing your neighbor. To me, this comes from people taking her arguments too seriously on both sides. Dostoyevsky has ghosts and devils coming out of every corner, and people take his stories for what theyre worth. We dont think that liking his books makes us mystics and hating them makes us inquisitors. Why is it different with Rand?

Fourth, women. Im not going to lie and tell you that there werent other badass female characters when Dagney Taggert came around. All I want to say about this is that the most valuable thing I got from this book was the idea that one person being unhappy doesnt, and shouldnt, make other people happy. I think, in this way, it was particularly important to me that the protagonist was a woman. I see a lot of women complain about their lives and families, but say its all worth it because theyve been able to devote their lives to making their husbands or children happy. Im paraphrasing, I guess. Anyway, that kind of hegemony really creeps me out.

When I read this book, I was just realizing that I had joined Peace Corps with a similarly misguided motivation. I wanted to go to the needy and unfortunate countries of the world and sacrifice myself to save them. It might sound more nasty than it really was when I say it like that, but I think it is a really arrogant attitude to have. We might have hot running water in America (for which I am forever grateful), but if somewhere doesnt have that, its probably not because of a problem a silly, 23-year-old English major is going to solve. Dont get me wrong, I loved Peace Corps, and it was maybe the best experience of my life so far. But I love it for the things that I got out of it, and if someone else benefited from my being in Ukraine, it was dumb luck.

I dont know about other women, but I was raised to believe that the more selfless (read: unhappy) I was, the better off everyone else would be. I think its a pretty typical way that women talk themselves into staying in abusive situations that their lives are worth less than the lives around them. This would be the Hank Rearden character in the novel. I love that Rand sets up characters who destroy this cycle of abuse. I love that her female protagonist lives completely outside of it.

So, not to undercut my noble feminist apologetics, but really Franciscos just hawt, and I think thats the reason I like this book. There are lots of other reasons to read Rand, but most of those get into the argument about her ideas being dangerous. I just dont think they are, or should be. I think ignorance is dangerous, but I think it should be pretty easy to fill in the gaping holes in Rands logic. Yes, she conveniently ignores the very old, very young, and disabled to make a specific and extreme point. I dont think her point is entirely without merit, though (in the sense that our lives are valuable, not in the sense of kill the weak!). I also think that if we give a danger label to every book that conveniently ignores significant portions of the population to make a point, we wouldnt be left with much.

Anyway, read, discuss, agree, disagree. Ill be making up some Team John, Team Hank, Team Francisco t-shirts later. I hear in the sequel there are werewolves.

Continue reading here:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - Goodreads