I read The Fountainhead years ago, as a late teenager. Then, I enjoyed it.
So, I started Atlas Shrugged just recently. I haven’t gotten too far into it. I’ve seen the things about Rand, and what a heroine she is to the conservative crowd. But, this isn’t a novel; it’s a large piece of unending propaganda. And, it’s poorly written. There are a few, proud, strong, misunderstood, individuals, and then there’s everybody else, who are all about THE COLLECTIVE – and they hate the few, proud, strong, misunderstood, individuals for daring to be individuals. And, ALL the people who support the collective have something fundamentally wrong about them. They’re bad and weak people, one and all.
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Regardless of your politics, this is terrible literature. It makes sense that a person coming out of the collective society of the USSR would have it in for collective thinking. But, Rand *really* has it in for the collective. It’s doubtful that I’ll get too far with this thing because the message is completely clear in the first 10 pages, and it’s damn big book. How many times do I need to re-read the same message, over and over again?
by McGauth925