Atlas shrugged

I have to admit that I have been putting off this blog mostly because there is so much to say about this book. You may have noticed that Atlas Shrugged Part 2 is now in theatres and is a very big deal in pro-capitalist circles.  I haven't seen either of the movies yet but plan to.  When books are adapted to movies a lot has to be cut out much to the disappointment to fans of the book.  In the case of Atlas Shrugged, that could be a good thing.

This book was Ayn Rand's pride and joy and she felt very passionately about the subject matter.  Unfortunately I think she felt maybe a bit too passionately about this subject because the plot gets bogged down in places by long, looonnnggg speeches that tended to repeat earlier speeches in the book.

Atlas Shrugged is about the endeavors of one woman to keep her railroad company afloat in the face of overwhelming opposition from a country that seems to cut off every chance for success with do-gooder regulations that backfire.  Only the legislature instead of seeing the error of there way add more regulation to stem the results of their errors until the employers of the big businesses just quit and disappear.  No one knows where they are going and it's a mystery that hints to something supernatural.  Sort of.

The biggest problem I have with this book is that it never quite develops into science fiction.  It's almost dystopian but it doesn't quite go there either.  It's strongest thing it had going for it was the relationship between Hank Reardon, the steel tycoon and Dagney Taggert, the railroad tycoon and Francisco the copper tycoon (I listened to it on audio so I may be misspelling the names).  It's almost an Arthurian love triangle and very dramatic akin to Ernest Hemingway.  And then in part 3 the character of John Galt is introduced and messes that whole thing up the one thing the story had going for it.

I know this is capitalist blasphemy but I was really disappointed with this book.  Although the politics are actually in line with my own the story itself despite 60 hours of my life spent to listening to this it never really developed completely.  I know it's amazing that a book that long can feel underdeveloped but trust me a good 10 hours of this had to have been long speeches that ran together and in some cases used the same examples almost verbatim as used by other characters earlier in the book (i.e. John Galt's 3 hour speech in some places sounded identical to Hank Reardon's 45 minute speech earlier to the point it sounded like he was the one talking.)

I really wanted to give this one a higher score but I'd have to say 6 out of 10.