“Do you think that Atlas Shrugged was meant to have more themes than Rand's philosophy? If so, then what are they?”
“Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book of all time. The philosophy that propels the story is fascinating and I love exploring it beyond the confines of Atlas in her non-fiction books.”
“Stephanie, I love this book, not for anything to do with politics. I love being caught up in the story, the relationships and in the character development. Amazing characters. ”
“does anyone read this book for anything other than her political message? is it too much to ask for some literary merit to help me along? ”
“What would Rand say about the rise of workers against employers? While she would be against, I think, unions and union activity as well as strongly against miminum wage legislation, I wonder what she would say to the argument that many employers do not "exchange value for value." That is, due to the imbalance in power between the worker and the employer, it is usually the employer who can hold out the longest in a work stoppage, hence the worker is forced into taking wages below the value of their input. Now of course the heros of Atlas Shrugged, Dagny, Hank, Francisco, et al probably would not take advantage of workers in such a way, but how do the workers avoid being taken advantage of is such situations? ”
“any suggestions abt what to read next?i have read fountain head & atlas shrugged...dont mind reading her non-fictin literature even!!!”
“addicted to ayn rand's kind of books totally!!!want to read more!!!”
“This is a true piece of literature. I found the character development to be very engaging with their philosophies and behaviors simply vivid in presentation. Dagny’s strength through out the story even through hundreds of pages made it difficult to pause my reading for a single night and even more difficult to say good by in at the end of the story. The story line it self is timeless. With fewer extremes the arguments of the story is just as relevant today as the time of the writing or during any time of civilized history. This relevance makes it clear to me why the book has earned its place as literature that will continue to be read and studied through the future. I have never seen it discussed anywhere, but I would like to know any thoughts of Dagny’s character being based on Rand’s own persona. ”
“I really liked this book. Rand had some outstanding character developments and suspense. I missed the characters very much when I finished the book - it was the saddest thing ever to put it down. Although this book is well-written, I do not agree with objectivism. It is basically extreme capitalism and I think this is dangerous philosophy. I think it is heartless and too "cold." Although rational decisions are sometimes important, I still want to keep my emotions.”
“I never recommend this book to anyone because it is impossible to predict who will like it and who won't. I tell anyone who has plans to pick it up to skip 20 pages every time they get bored, and that gets some of them through. I used to have a copy in which I had marked all of the pages that were essential to the story (minus the overblown philosophical discussion), and I got it down to about 380 pages. The ideas are compelling, which isn't to say they are perfect but they are interesting to think about. The actual story that is buried in there somewhere is great (but only 380 pages long buried in 1000+) but I LOVE the characters...dynamic, intelligent, emotional, flawed. I still think Dagny Taggart is one of the greatest female characters in literature, and in fact my oldest daughter is named Dagny (and I am proud to say it suits her to a "t"!).”
