Mr. Yoder’s Blog

As the school year waned, I embarked on a reading challenge of epic proportions:  Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged.’  At 1168 pages it is probably the longest book I have ever read.  Having requested it at the library without actually seeing it, I was stunned by its size.  It was like ordering a large cheesesteak at Smith’s not realizing that it is 2 feet worth of sandwich.

So without further ado, this is my 1168 word review of ‘Atlas Shrugged.’  I read the book as part of my effort to read the supposedly great works of literature.  Usually I find these books to be unreadable wastes of wood pulp.  To my annoyed surprise, the book was not bad.  Set in a fictional version of our own world, it is the story of Dagny Taggart, Operating Vice President of the Taggart Transcontinental Rail Road, and her attempts to live as a capitalist when countries all across the world are becoming ‘Peoples States’ (communists).  It is part mystery, part science fiction, part action/adventure thriller, part romance and part philosophical treatise.  Since it is so long the different styles do not often interfere with each other.

The character of Dagny was the most believable.  Actually, she was the only one that seemed to have any legitimacy as she wavered between the two factions in the book; I will call them the egoists and the commies.  Egoist is a term coined by Rand, I believe.  In the context of this book, think of it as a capitalist in the extreme:  nothing is given, everything has a price (or a ‘value’) and any form of charity is a weakness.  The commies are just that:  communists.  They are also the rich and self-anointed cultural elite.  They are the enemy for the Soviet ex-pat Rand and throughout the course of the book they work to turn the United States into a communist country (by means of politics, not the stereotypical military takeover).

‘Atlas Shrugged’ is clearly a defense of the egoist philosophy, the reliance on self.  At first, I loved the way the egoists out-thought, out-talked, and humiliated the commies and their cultural elitism.  I enjoyed the mocking tone used to describe philosophers and others that spend their time in thought only with no action.  But over a thousand pages, it starts to wear thin.  In fact, Rand winds up doing her philosophy a disservice by not creating a commie character capable of trying to form a cogent argument against the egoists.  All of the commie characters are whining, sniveling, spineless globs of flesh that are easy to hate.  I guess for Rand’s purposes, the ease of hatred is a good thing; the reader clearly is not supposed to like them.

The egoists are just the opposite.  Where the commies are all emotion and feeling, the egoists show no emotion, especially when dealing with the commies.  They are cool, calm and collected all of the time.  Even in defense of their lifestyle, their rights, their money, they show no emotion.  Rand likes the word ‘flat’ in describing a tone of voice.  It seems a character says something ‘flatly’ at least every third page.  Again, it is to the detriment of Rand’s purpose.  An egoist that shows some passion and maybe gets angry with the commies is much more believable than the characters that the reader is presented with.  The egoists are without emotion even with each other.  You would think as they discuss their plans, as they try to recruit others to their cause that they would show some spark, but there is nothing.

And lest we forget, the physical descriptions of the two classes:  egoists are thin, athletic, tall and generally beautiful.  The commies are pallid, fat, and seemingly unhealthy.  As a movie, the discrepancy would be glaringly distracting.

Returning to the supposed heroine, Dagny Taggart is a very strong character, a very strong woman.  It is interesting, considering the age of the book, that no mention is made of the scarcity of women as industrialists, no mention is made of the fact that Dagny is a woman in a man’s world.  I think that is a testament to Rand’s vision; it is almost clairvoyant in her hope for equality.  If only Dagny were not dependent on men.

Huh?  Throughout the book, Dagny attaches herself to various men, three to be exact.  And it is not like she just finds a guy for a fling; the men she is with are rich and powerful egoists that are stronger than she.  It detracts from her ability and the strength of her female character to be alternately fawning over her railroad, her man, and her convictions.  Equally as frustrating is the interaction between the three men.  It appears they are not the type to kiss and tell because despite the fact that they are the best of friends, egoists all and business allies, they never learn of the others’ relationships with Dagny.

The last two or three hundred pages varied greatly in their quality.  Dagny seemed to find a level keel, making her more fun to read.  There was a great action/thriller component to these last pages including a great rescue scene.  Unfortunately, the end also wrapped up the story of Eddie Willers.  If ever there was a character in the book that I was ‘routing’ for it was Willers.  His ultimate end is insulting to what Rand was trying to accomplish.

The last two hundred pages contained exactly that:  what Rand was trying to accomplish.  After so many pages, there had to be a catch; it came in the form of an egoist monologue (although set up in fascinating fashion) that proceeded to run for sixty pages.  It brought the plot and all the development of nine hundred pages worth of story to a screeching halt.  At times it was redundant, at times it wandered back to the plot for a paragraph or two.  Throughout it all it was an incredibly transparent move on Rand’s part to espouse her ideas and philosophy.  The length and timing of the monologue ultimately defeated her purpose.

It is a shame; a lot of what Rand has to say makes sense, at least to me.  She desires smaller government.  She wants free markets to regulate themselves in the form of customers purchasing from reliable providers.  Consumers, working together as a group, should be able to protect themselves.  Written nearly half a century ago, the themes are almost psychic in their predictions of what is happening in the United States today.  I am certain Rand is rolling in her grave in response to government bailouts, nationalized healthcare and companies deemed ‘too big to fail.’

It certainly was an epic book, taking me well over a month to read.  I cannot agree with everything, but Rand makes some interesting suggestions, although there are probably more efficient ways to suggest them.  After all the effort, I am glad I read the book.  I give it a respectable two percent on the milk scale.