-
Welcome
to BookAndReader! We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!
Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.
Ayn Rand
- Thread starter words
- Start date
Hugh
Member
Whew! Finally finished Atlas, all 1200 pages. Slogging through John Galt's radio address was the toughest part, I could only manage a page or so a day before it put me to sleep. It had a few nice little nuggets of wisdom interspersed throughout, but for the most part it seemed like meaningless philosophical rantings.
Having said that, I actually liked the book. What most people seem to like about Rand's novels I seem to dislike, and what they seem to dislike I like. Most of her critical reviews on Amazon say that her charcters are wooden, but it's her characters that I like. I tend to disagree with much of her philosophical ideals, while her fans embrace them with a religious fervor.
The fictional character that I hated most in any novel I ever read was Peter Keating in Fountainhead and the fictional character I love the most is Dagny Taggart in Atlas. My bookshelves are overflowing with dozens of paperback novels, so that's a lot of characters to compare them with. Dagny's ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and to get things done really drew me to her. I also really liked Hank Rearden until he turned his back on his own mother, and I believe Rand threw that in just to drive home her ideal of selfishness.
Even though Atlas is considered philosophical literary fiction, it rivals best selling genre fiction with thrills and suspense.
The edition that I read was by Plume publishing printed in 1999. It has an introduction with Leonard Peikoff that contains spoilers in the front of the book. I thought that was, well, dumb. At least he give you a warning that there are spoilers in his intro, and he seems to assume that whoever is reading this book as read it before. Still, common sense dictates to put that at the end of the book.
I've never re-read a fiction book before, but I will probably get this one back off the shelf sometime in the future, I enjoyed it that much.
Having said that, I actually liked the book. What most people seem to like about Rand's novels I seem to dislike, and what they seem to dislike I like. Most of her critical reviews on Amazon say that her charcters are wooden, but it's her characters that I like. I tend to disagree with much of her philosophical ideals, while her fans embrace them with a religious fervor.
The fictional character that I hated most in any novel I ever read was Peter Keating in Fountainhead and the fictional character I love the most is Dagny Taggart in Atlas. My bookshelves are overflowing with dozens of paperback novels, so that's a lot of characters to compare them with. Dagny's ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and to get things done really drew me to her. I also really liked Hank Rearden until he turned his back on his own mother, and I believe Rand threw that in just to drive home her ideal of selfishness.
Even though Atlas is considered philosophical literary fiction, it rivals best selling genre fiction with thrills and suspense.
The edition that I read was by Plume publishing printed in 1999. It has an introduction with Leonard Peikoff that contains spoilers in the front of the book. I thought that was, well, dumb. At least he give you a warning that there are spoilers in his intro, and he seems to assume that whoever is reading this book as read it before. Still, common sense dictates to put that at the end of the book.
I've never re-read a fiction book before, but I will probably get this one back off the shelf sometime in the future, I enjoyed it that much.
Google.com changed their logo but I can't see the new logo because I get sent to google.de.
Hugh
Member
It's a black bar over the original Google logo. Clicking on it takes you to a page about the US government proposed legislation.
Hugh
Member
Dunno. I guess it depends on how many people get irked enough to call their representatives.
SFG75
Well-Known Member
Hugh
Member
Su-weeet! That's what I wanted to see. After finally reading the bill enough times to understand it, it appears to be a way for the government to extort innocent web sites, such as craigslist and wikipedia, by forcing them to pay fines for the piracy of third parties. Of course this sounds cynical, but websites are already quick to pull the trigger on any uploaded content that even MIGHT be in violation of a copyright. SOPA and PIPA just make sure the government gets paid a fine now.
Someone also told me that websites would have to go to court to lift a block that has been put in place against them by government, as opposed to the governmnet going to court to get a block put on. Not sure that I understood that in the actual bill though.
SFG75
Well-Known Member
It is something out of an Ayn Rand novel though. Intelligent business people(i.e.-facebook inventors, etc) face limitations through government regulations, and laws, supported by "consumer power" extortionists who only want to stifle growth. I don't know if SOPA would mean the U.S. would have censorship like China does with the internet, I guess time will ultimately tell. In the mean time, see you at Gault's Gulch.:whistling:
SOPA would mean that someone like 20th Century Fox could have a website shut down without due process on mere suspicion that said website was involved in a copyright violation.