Well I found out who John Galt is. That was at about page uh 600 or so. I am really enjoying this book, but ...
Much like "Dances with Wolves", "Atlas Shrugged" could stand to go on a bit of a diet. A lot of times there are these, what I like to call "Beating Barbaro" segments. Page after page about how astonished Dangy was that she saw no sign of any emotion from Hank's face which, Hank in return, could sense that she saw and realized now that she was fully aware of the torture he was going through, and admired him even more for not showing it. Hank understood the utter lack of any sign of emotion on Dangy's beautiful, but professional face did not mean she had just slipped into a coma, as others might think, but that Dagny, Operating Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental was totally gaga over Hank. They both internally leapt for joy at how cool they were and how not cool everybody else was. They accomplished this through complete motionlessness without showing any blah blah blah. Get on with the train crashes and bankruptcies and shit, Ayn! Jeez.
Much of the book is commentary about the evils of socialism and how the only true good in the world are those Tall, thin, handsome, hard-working, smart forward thinkers who build big-huge monopolies, and are constantly harrassed by greedy lazy fat ugly slobs trying to get something for nothing.
If someone is fat in this book, they are evil. True story.
There's one part where a trainload of people gets crushed under a tunnel that collapses, killing everyone. Whew, everyone on board was a fat socialist! I'm not kidding. Before killing them, the author gives each person's name, how fat they are, and what great sin against capitalism they advocate.
That's pretty much the only gripe I have with an otherwise amazing story. After about page 200 or so, I was unable to put it down (except to wash for dinner and things).
I realize if you've got 1200 pages you need to put words on, you can't just say "Communists are bad, mmkay?"
You could maybe put some pictures of trains or some pop-up skyscrapers. Now that's what I call literature. Something that really jumps off the page at you!
So if I was to sum it up, I'd say "more pictures". Currently, there are none. I hope my suggestion does not fall on deaf ears whenever they get to the final draft of this thing.
3 comments:
Thanks Fred, you're doing a superb job of reminding me of how much I hated Atlas Shrugged. Oh, and if this is any comparison, I started reading that novel about fifteen years ago and I'm still not finished. Course, I don't no where it is any more, but I'm pretty certain I didn't burn it. In fact the only literature I make a habit of burning is anything written by Shim. Hi Shim. See? Counting Fred's label, that makes two references to you in this blog.
No problem Brady. I like the book, but there's a whole cult following thing that is more than creepy. It's, dare I say, unnecessary. I know it takes a long time to read, but that doesn't make you special. You only got through it because you have no friends and nothing to do. Now if you'll excuse me ...
I will start with Catch-22 in a few days. Thanks again btw.
Next post (spoiler alert!) tell me movies that were good for a while, but the ending sucked. I guarantee a better ending!
Vive le Shim!
Field of Dreams better make that list, buddy. It was a good until all of that crap about baseball being the constant through all of the years. Whatever, Terrance. FOD blows from that point forward.
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