I’ve been meaning to get to this review for a while, particularly since Atlas Shrugged was what inspired the name of this blog (see What’s In a Name). Since listening to Atlas Shrugged via Audible, I have gone on to read several other works by Ayn Rand, all of which I have enjoyed immensely. I plan to move on to The Fountainhead and “We The Living” in the very near future, but as of right now, I have only made it through the entirety of Atlas Shrugged and “Ideal”. However, I can honestly say I can recommend her work wholeheartedly and without concern for the quality even if I have not yet read all of it. Her work is of the utmost quality and philosophically praiseworthy even if I disagree with her on one or two points.
My General Opinion of Atlas Shrugged
I suppose it would be a bit unacademic to say I adored it. That certainly would not have the evidence to back up the claim I made earlier that her work is of the utmost quality and philosophically praiseworthy. Nevertheless, before I dive into anything specific about the book, I have to say that I was highly impressed.
I chose to read the book as part of an ongoing research project into the effects of communism on American society and history. The book is fiction, but it does a beautiful job of illustrating what happens when you take a collectivist mindset to its natural conclusion, something which the Pilgrims at Plymouth in Massachusetts and at Jamestown in Virginia discovered quite promptly with two very different responses. Rand put the story to the history that we have forgotten, and though the tale she tells is fictional in its plot and character, the reality she paints is in no way a construct of fiction.
Atlas Shrugged did a wonderful job of helping me to better understand both the capitalistic mindset and the socialist or collectivist mentality. In the case of Jamestown in real life, as I have been studying their history I have seen the very issues that Rand brought to life in the characters of James Taggert and Orren Boyle play out to disastrous effect. Similarly, in the case of Plymouth Rock’s colony, I can see the principles held by objectivist characters Dagny Taggert and Hank Rearden in action within real, historical communities to amazing effect. These principles can be seen in various cultures and civilizations throughout history, and the same results that Rand highlights in Atlas Shrugged are present there. So in many ways, Rand’s work serves to bring us the struggle of history on a stage which a reader may be more open to critical examination of the ideas behind the struggle, that is to say in the medium of fiction.
On the whole, this is a book I think every single college student–if not every high school student–ought to read. Along with 1984, The Secret Agent, Animal Farm, and A Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged presents us with ideas that are still being promoted today in all their ugliness or glory. It provides us with the balance to the overwhelmingly liberal attitude that often presents in the literature our colleges promote and should be part of any discussion of the issues of capitalism and socialism, at least from a literary perspective.
What I Really Liked About Atlas Shrugged
Rand does an excellent job of portraying human nature in both the good and the bad. One of the constant themes of the book is that of selfishness. Society constantly promotes the idea that one must be self-sacrificial and serve the whims of others, not one’s own whims. On the surface, this seems like a fair, righteous ideal until you realize that what they are in effect saying is “you should serve me because I need something you have and I either can’t or won’t get it for myself.” It is socialism in its finest form, and as one of the characters remarks, it is the highest form of selfishness to demand someone else sacrifice their desires and needs for yours for the sake of being deemed morally good by society.
In effect, society in Atlas Shrugged praises the one who has nothing at all that could have merited him his success and demonizes any who made their success on their own hard work for being capitalist, selfish, and focused entirely on profit at the expense of everyone else around them who needed that money more than they did.
But even as it shows this basest result of human selfishness, which results in the demand of what you did not earn from those who did earn it while offering nothing in exchange, Atlas Shrugged also shows the best results of human selfishness. Rand repeatedly proposes that we are selfish by nature and because we are, we do what makes us feel good or what makes us happy unless forced to do otherwise. We want what is best for us.
This was the base for her philosophy of objectivism, and she showed this clearly in those characters like Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggert. Each provides cutting edge, superior goods or services because each takes pride and joy in their work. Sure, they want to make money, but lust for money is not above morals that demand they produce something that makes them deserving of the money others will give them. They are selfish in the truest sense as they are seeking to succeed for no one’s sake but theirs, but have they done anything that is morally objectionable? No.
This shows the side of human selfishness that can lead to good. It is this kind of selfishness that drives us to hand a homeless person a cup of hot coffee or a sandwich. We do it because it makes us feel good. In the case of a religious person, we may do it because we believe God (or perhaps karma) will reward us for it or punish us if we fail to do the kind thing.
But what drives us to it is not that someone is standing there making us offer it. What drives us to it is not that the homeless person has demanded it. Many of them are actually quite surprised when someone stops to offer them that coffee or sandwich because in today’s world, we have so many other things that make us feel better than helping that homeless person (like making a meeting on time or getting to dinner). This was what Rand showed. Human nature at both its best and its ugliest. Human nature in the aspects of selfishness or greed working in both a positive and negative way instead of purely in a negative way. And in this, I believe that Atlas Shrugged performs magnificently.
What I Liked a Bit Less
I don’t have much in the way of criticism for Rand. She has become one of my favorite authors with this one novel alone, and what I have read of her since has only reinforced my love for her complex characters, rich world-building, and philosophically deep story-telling. However, I do have two points that I disagreed with Rand or found I didn’t enjoy the novel as much.
Religion
First is the point of religion. As an atheist, Rand was strictly against the idea of God. It shows in her work. She scorned the religious as some of the worst sorts of self-sacrificing, hypocritical creatures possible. The religious were not found among the many types of individuals who came to Galt’s Gulch in the course of the book, and they were not found because, from all I gathered in the book, they were considered unable to accept a lifestyle in which no one is given anything as a gift, no one demands anything undeserved, and no one can take anything from his neighbor that he did not earn or give something of equal value for.
Personally, I find that objectivism fits perfectly with true faith, even when it isn’t Christianity. So long as your faith includes the notion that you will be rewarded for good deeds done–particularly if they require sacrifice of you–you are not in fact doing something for nothing. You are giving something to those around for nothing; that much may be admitted. But if you are doing it in service to your God and with the belief that there will be some reward for it, if not in this life then in the next, you are most certainly not doing it for nothing, and one might argue validly that the one for whom you are in reality doing it for is in fact going to give something of equal or superior value in exchange.
One may argue however much they like on whether or not any such God exists, but the matter of fact remains that if you believe this sincerely, you can still be an objectivist. The difference between an atheist objectivist and a religious objectivist is that the atheist objectivist will see no reason to help someone at their own great self-sacrifice without any tangible reward in the now while a religious objectivist does. The difference may be boiled down to who the act of service is for: the person receiving (or maybe even demanding) it or the god of the person giving sacrificially of themselves in exchange for that god’s reward.
This was my only real objection to the book, but it was not such a large objection that I was unable to enjoy Atlas Shrugged. In fact, I found that aside from a few prominent cases of anti-religious rhetoric, the objectivism set forth in Atlas Shrugged rather gave me the final puzzle piece in helping those around me to understand how my faith as a Christian can be in complete harmony with capitalism without being inhumane or unloving toward those who can offer me no tangible benefits. It offered the link between capitalism and charity that is so often missing in the debate between collectivists and objectivists.
Writing Voice/Length
My second problem with the book had more to do with the format of it. Atlas Shrugged is a long book! By long, I mean something around 62 hours of audio, which I did cut down some by listening to it at about 1.5x the speed. I immensely enjoyed the book, and it was most certainly an emotional rollercoaster, the likes of which I have not been on in a very long time. However, I felt that it was not written in a writing style most modern readers would be able to appreciate or endure.
My promise to you is that it is 100% worth pushing through to the end even if at first you do not feel engaged. But Rand does write with a much more Tolkien-esque voice. She uses a combination of omniscient point-of-view/narration and third-person limited. This, in her case, in no way diminished my connection to the characters, which I think is a testament to her tremendous talent and hard work in honing her craft until her writing was of the most superior quality. Nonetheless, I think that the modern reader might better perceive the point if the story were written with a more modern tone.
My suggestion to readers embarking on the journey in Atlas Shrugged is to enjoy it for what it is: a classic-style piece written with a somewhat more modern voice than was common back then. Do not expect the reading to be light, easy, or fluffy. It will make you think. By nature, Atlas Shrugged was intended to be a philosophical piece. Rand said herself that she didn’t believe in separating her writing from her philosophy, nor did she believe it possible. I am of a similar opinion when it comes to writing, and so it did not bother me. However, I recognize that not everyone is accustomed to philosophical fiction. But I promise you that the story is an engaging one if you’ll give it a chance.
Conclusion
Whatever may be said about Atlas Shrugged, it is a book I highly recommend. It doesn’t get enough attention as the masterful piece of writing it is. Even those not overly fond of philosophical works could still enjoy the complex, carefully crafted tale that Rand has woven in Atlas Shrugged. It was well worth the 62-hour-long listen it took to finish the book, and it had me on the edge of my seat at many points from beginning to end.
I am not ashamed to admit that I cried, laughed, and at points sat there all but chewing my nails in nervous tension waiting for the next words that might tell me a character’s fate. I found myself most closely relating to Dagny Taggert, and her struggles and cry echoed mine own in so many instances when I look at the world around me and the country I love and ask, Why? Why? Many of the tears were on both her account and mine as I struggled alongside her to answer that question. I felt the same relief she did when finally the answer was given and Galt brought her to the conclusion she so desperately needed.
I believe that others will find that same relatability in the pages of the book. Rand knew her craft first and foremost, and she penned an excellent piece in Atlas Shrugged. If you haven’t read it yet, do it if only to say you have read one of the best philosophers of modern times.
