In The Name of the Best Within Us

A Bittersweet Ending

1,069 pages later and I finally reached the end of Atlas Shrugged. I have been provided with all the answers I have proposed and left with an ending that has left me pleased. I still cannot help but feel a pang of sadness because I simply fell in love with this book, and I hate it when books that I love come to an end; it sucks I wish they could keep going, but that is sadly impossible. The strangest part of it all was that I was never expecting anything in this massive book to ever intrigue me at all.

When first opening the pages, I was afraid that what would lie ahead would be dense and boring paragraphs that simply argued the impracticality of one philosophy over another, but I was proven wrong. One of the main aspects that I have taken away from Atlas Shrugged, which was an aspect that is seemingly difficult to ignore since Rand is not the subtlest person out there, was her philosophy. Though no where in the novel is it stated that it is called this but I did a little research and learned that is had a proper title; Objectivism. In Galt’s incredibly long speech, he outlines Objectivism, and at many times it sounded insanely redundant because it was not the first time we heard of these ideals since Rand uses her characters as mouthpieces and had them discussing it throughout the novel.

I am not someone who attempts to involve myself in politics but instead I simply observe what is going on. I am surprised that I find myself to agree with Rand’s philosophy way more than I ever thought I would. Her ideology is simple and can be summed up in a phrase; people should live for no one but themselves (which is very similar to the oath in the novel). Yes, this statement sound entirely egoistic, but it is true. As shown throughout the novel that those who simply allow themselves or put themselves out there for people who are not worthy of it always get burned. Before I would have believed that we needed to look out for others if we are powerful and have the ability to do so, but now I find that this simply would not work. Why do I feel this now? I am aware that the circumstances of the novel are entirely extreme but the fundamentals are logical. If we do just put the need of others before ourselves, our entire lives will revolve around fulfilling the needs of others and we will not live. Our minds will only be focused on others, and we would develop a sense of entitlement that would leave us entirely lost if those who we depended on left us, which is exactly what happened in the novel and look at the chaotic mess that followed as a result. In my opinion, in order to be successful in this world we must accept the fundamentals of Rand’s philosophy; live by reason, pursue our own happiness, be independent, work hard for your money and don’t let those who don’t deserve it take it away from you.

One of the other reasons I really enjoyed the novels were the characters. If the characters were any different than how they were presented this novel would not have been the same. Dagny is my all time favorite, and this is simply because she is a strong and independent woman, a woman that I admire and aspire to be. Though she upset me at one point with her hopelessly falling in love with several men, I knew this woman I admired was still there and the fact that she never gave up on her railroad is a admirable personality trait. I also fell in love with Hank; I loved watching him go through this metamorphosis where he changed from a confident man that did not mind being mooched off of by those who are inferior to him to eventually joining those in Atlantis and fully embracing their ideals. I felt for Francisco, as he had to give up the love of his life in order to join the strike, and at the end lose this love in order to fight for a world that Dagny deserved to be in rather than the one she is in now.

A character that must be discussed is John Galt. The mysterious John Galt was the one that was in the back of my head throughout the entire novel and now I find him to be one of the more important characters alongside Dagny. At first I was not impressed with him, and I was a little annoyed at him and Dangy’s relationship, but it was not long before I began to admire him just as I admired Dagny. The aspect of John Galt that I admire the most is his mind and the brilliance that lies within it. His character created a philosophy, was the leader of a strike, created a revolutionary motor, and ultimately saves the world.  Rand’s presentation of him is spot on; he is both physically beautiful and brilliant, overall she makes him sound like a superhero. He is the representation of the main theme of the novel, Objectivism, which is that the mind is the key that one can achieve prosperity and success in life.

To conclude, I am happy I read this novel and I believe that it left an everlasting impact on me. It changed my political perspective and allowed me to value the importance of the mind and of reason. It was also just a very good book to read, and good books are very hard to find nowadays.

What an ending!

I can honestly say that finishing reading Atlas Shrugged has been a difficult challenge. My opinion on this book is a strong one. While the writing itself is beautiful and the story is rather engaging, the length seems a bit unnecessary. Rand is one of the best authors I have ever had the pleasure of reading, but the amount of detail was excessive and a lot of times the points she tried to make were irrelevant to the story. In a lot of cases, Rand goes off on a tangent. One small incident leads to a huge rant that somehow connects to politics and how corrupt the government is. While I thoroughly enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, I wish it was just a little bit more concise. I hate when authors drag something on just for the sake of putting more writing on the page. Many may disagree with me, saying that everything Rand wrote was put there for a specific purpose that ultimately helped lead to the conclusion of the book, but I do not see it that way. Also, I feel like Rand tends to repeat herself a lot. Maybe it's to stress a point and drive it into the minds of her readers, but, on the other hand, it gets to be a bit much.
Anyways, beside the length and redundancy of Atlas Shrugged, I loved everything about it. The character development was definitely my favorite part. The way Rand initially describes each character ends up being intriguingly different than how they are at the end of the book. My two favorite characters were definitely Dagny and Francisco. I must admit that I wish they ended up together, partially because the whole "first love/ childhood sweethearts" concept is so romantic, and also because they are just so perfect for each other. Together they could conquer the world, they're just that powerful and strong-willed. The fact that Dagny's character transformed so drastically was a bit annoying at first, and I know that I complained about how "weak" she has become in the past, but to be honest, I still love her. She has learned how to handle two important aspects of her life: being able to love someone else and being able to stay true to herself and respect herself. As a woman myself, I believe that putting yourself before any man is extremely important. My love for Dagny has come and gone and come back again, and at the end of the day, I realize how hard it must be to be her.
Now the end of the story was something I wasn't expecting. I bet a lot of people hated the ending and felt rather disappointed or cheated to some extent, but I think the way Rand ended it was perfect. If you think about it, the book had to end with some optimism, as bittersweet as it was. The fact that Eddie was stranded with no way of getting home was in no means optimistic, but all in all, the whole story basically revolves around the destruction of society. From the get go, the story outlines a dystopian society, corrupt government, and apocalyptic time period. To go from all of that to a perfectly happy, skipping-off-into-the-sunset ending would be ridiculous, to say the least. While we're comforted by the fact that the main characters, with the exception of poor Edwin Willers, are safe and sound, they still have a lot of work to do in rebuilding society to how they want it to be. It's kind of like a win-win situation, in a way. The society they all hated came to a downfall and now they have the opportunity to raise it from the ashes according to their liking, their standards, their political views, etc. If Rand continued on after that point, I probably would have thrown the book across the room and refused to read another sentence. Every good book must come to an end eventually, and the story of the Taggarts, John Galt, Francisco, and the rest of the gang definitely had to end where it did.
All in all, Atlas Shrugged was one of the best books I have ever read, and I'm not just saying that to get brownie points. It was enjoyable from beginning to end, though some moments were particularly frustrating, but that comes with the territory. This book is powerful and demands a lot of respect. The dedication and hard work that Rand put into writing it is evident, as well as her passion for economics, government, and politics.

Fade to Black, Roll the Credits, Applaud

I have exhausted my entire supply of sticky notes, wasted about three sticks of lead from my mechanical pencil, and my eyes feel like they are about to fall out of my face- damn, you could of at least gifted us a version with larger text?  Not that I am ungrateful- just in pain- but I digress…

                You know, before reading Atlas Shrugged, all that I knew about Ayn Rand was that she wrote a ton of books that trash talk communism- and not much else. I always knew I would get around to reading her work since Anthem and The Fountainhead both sit in my brother’s bookshelf, but I am very grateful that this inevitable journey into her writing was expedited, or to be more blunt, forced upon me. No, no, I am not complaining, I promise. I sincerely enjoyed this novel. Really. I totally mean it. Pinky promise. This is not sarcasm. I realize that my previous statement makes this sound even more sarcastic- oh hell, let me just prove it to you.

           I usually judge a book, movie, or television show’s worth by how much anxiety it gives me. Let me rephrase that: how much anxiety its story gives me- the time constraints of these weekly blog posts definitely gave me anxiety, but all in good fun. On the scale of worth based on stress while reading, where 1 means I am in homeostasis and 10 means you probably should call a hospital because a girl my age should not be experiencing cardiac arrest, I would give this a solid 6. Ok, maybe a 6.5 since I’m feeling nice (and lightheaded). There were times where I was at the edge of my seat (or bed, or wherever I may have been while reading), but there were also times where I could have written the novel myself considering I even predicted some of the dialogue-to -be -said. When Dagny got slapped in the face by genius playboy Fracisco D’Aconia? Awesome. When the Taggart Train crossed over the bridge of the John Galt line? I knew it would happen and yet I probably did not breathe while reading. Where the suspense went sour was when Rand tried to bring too much suspense into the reading right to the point where I either did not care anymore or she did not allow the tension to linger by being blatantly obvious as to what would happen. I unfortunately had Cheryll’s fate accidentally spoiled for me, so when I arrived to the part where she finally apologizes to Dagny and has a little Dr.Phil-esque session with her big sister-in-law, she seemed to be healing, which I found weird for someone who is about to commit suicide. I answered my own question roughly a minute afterwards upon reading the scene where the sexual tension between Lillian and Jim finally cracks, finding myself saying  “Oh, she’s going to walk in, see them having sex, freak out, and THEN kill herself?”  It is a shame that I was right; I liked Cheryll, even when she was ignorant, and I secretly wished that the spoiler was false, but in the world of Rand (and in the real world), the good suffer just as much as the bad. Have I convinced you that I like the book yet? Probably not, so let me keep trying.

                To read a book that is usually generalized as a solid block of objectivist propaganda and find other, possibly greater ideas and morals out of it is what made Atlas Shrugged such a beautiful novel. I have a disinterest in politics and business because they are complicated, controversial topics that I would much rather stay out of. Perhaps this is deliberate ignorance to the world around me, but I have my reasons. Anyway, because of this, I feared that I would not enjoy the novel because of inadequate understanding or just plain indifference. I am happy to say I was wrong.

 Ayn Rand makes it easy for readers to grasp the situations and ideals she tries to display in the novel. Even more admirable is the fact that she took her ideals and made a compelling fictional narrative out of it, with drama, some suspense, action, and to an extent, some horror. I fell in love with the characters, each and every one of them, even the slimiest ones (yes, even Jim). Through her writing, Rand made me love, then hate, then adore, then abhor, and finally appreciate these characters because of how human she made them, and how she made me think deeply about each of their personalities before casting final judgment upon them.

Trailing off that thought, I want to talk more about Jim in this final goodbye. I feel it is appropriate, especially since all I have ever talked about in these blog posts is his sister. I do not hate Jim, I never did- I just pitied him. The eldest, male heir to the Taggart train business has been suffering since childhood, and I witnessed this. Imagine being the older brother, the one who, in a patriarchal society, was expected to be the smart one, the winner, the pride of Nat Taggart himself… imagine being this boy named James Taggart , having to sit in the shadow of his genius sister, and his even more genius best friend, sitting as an outcast as they would daydream about their success and future- of course he was going to turn out rotten. When he found Cheryll, I was happy. I thought that he would finally have someone to love him for his true self, and as it turns out, he thought so too, but it resulted that he just wanted someone lesser than him to admire him so that he could genuinely feel of higher worth and stature. By taking all of Dagny’s credit because he was not smart enough to come up with it himself, he was nationally loved for it, but I believe that he understood that he was just lying to himself, so Cheryll was the only way he could legitimately feel more important; in comparison to a common girl, he had to be by default! Yes, he did sick, terrible things. Yes, he abused his wife and helped screw an entire nation out of greed. Yes, he lied and looted. But Jim is not evil- he is just broken and pathetic. Because Rand let me see how he lived his childhood, I could never bring myself to hate him.

I realize I have long passed the limit of this final blog post- I guess this proves that I have trouble letting go. I did enjoy the novel, and I will re-read it soon, as well as read her other books because I admire her quality of writing and eloquence. It has been quite a journey, Ayn Rand, and to conclude this blog post appropriately, I will end with this:

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Shrugs To You (Rachael Marks)

     Well... it is finally the time to say goodbye. 1069 pages read, so many characters met (some with obscenely strange names- I mean Tinky! Cuffy! Seriously!), all the moments, its over now. Wow... its so hard to believe. The commitment made is now going to become a thing of the past, just a memory of a long ass book that we slaved over.
     I'm going to miss it as crazy as I may think I am for saying it. It was such a journey to get through. I became so connected to the story- and yes- I did throw the book across a room... twice... in public... and I screamed. I screamed a lot. A LOT. But despite that, I think I enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing the development of Hank Rearden, and his friendship with Francisco grow into the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I liked discovering Rand's fetishes through her sex scenes, and determining that what she really should have done was write erotica. I liked those little moments that made me laugh and the ones that made me say "damn- that was really well written". Because we all have to admit- like her or not- Rand is a superb writer.
     Now, I obviously had many issues with this book- as I have ranted about them in my previous blogs, mostly about Dangy. But by the end- I became indifferent about her relationship with Galt. I actually, sadly, lost interest in her character all together. Instead, I found myself reading the book and groaning whenever she was in it. I just wanted to read about Rearden. Sure, I'm sad about it, I mean, I really liked her, but sometimes people change. We can't dwell on the past.
     The book really did seem to go over the span of time that it did. The characters would even start to age in my imagination as I read. Dagny got really fat when she first saw Galt at the train station for some reason, but maybe that was because I couldn't really figure out her dress. And then there was Lillian, who got crazier with every page I turned. And of course- Francisco. Wow- I really never thought I would like him but in the end he became one of my favorite characters. In the beginning he was Mr. Perfect, but once the other Mr. Perfect (a.k.a. Galt) came along and Francisco revealed everything and showed some weakness and imperfection, I finally decided to push down my walls and admit that I liked him. It also helped that he is badass in the remainder of the story.
     One final (or hopefully final) complaint I will make is the way Rand described her characters (except for Dagny). They were always the opposite of how I imagined them. I mean I know its stupid, but I seriously saw Francisco as blonde or with light brown hair. AND THEN EVERYONE ELSE WAS BLONDE! I thought the rest of them would be brunette. That was really awkward for me to get a hold on. I still imagine them in the way I originally assumed they would look like, sorry Rand.
     But- wow- I don't know if I can say everything I want to say (plus I only have a few minutes before the clock hits eight) but I'm glad I got to read this book. I am glad I got the Atlas Shrugged experience. Even though it prevented me from reading "V For Vendetta" (which was especially painful when the Galt speech was going on) I loved it. The ending was so action packed- and usually I'm not a huge fan of that- but I really loved it in this book. I swear, I will walk away from this claiming that Rearden and Francisco are the greatest bromance that ever was. Because they truely are. So- alas- I must bid this blog fair-well... crap I think I may even cry- but I have so much stage make-up on so that is probably an awful idea. This blog was my friend on my lonesome weekends- like Priya's cheesecake. I had so much fun with it- and I know that there will be/are more blogs but- I really liked this one. So- I sappily conclude this last entry. Oye- This is so hard. I loved this book (except for all the shit I bitched about in my other entries). This was a great experience!
.... and I realize I still can't read "V For Vendetta".... but... what the hell! I'll rant my heart out until I can!

1069 Pages (Monica Rodriguez)

            Upon finally reaching page 1069 I have mixed feelings about the novel and how it unfolded.  While I did enjoy the enticing writing of Ayn Rand and the way in which she had the characters, that she pushed us into rooting for, prevail in cunning and genius ways I did not enjoy how repetitive the book quickly became.

The point of the book was clearly given to us right from the beginning with James’ constant muttering of “I cant help it” and “no one can blame us” and the stranger’s use of the question “Who is John Galt?” These phrases depict the looters as men who do not take responsibility for things that go wrong, stating that because they are not blame or because there no answer to their question they should not try and fix a problem that they face. This is a trait that Rand later proves to be unproductive when she expresses the way in which Taggart Transcendental was failing under James’ leadership and how the government falls under the leadership of men like him. The phrases are then constantly used throughout the book marking each character that uses them as a looter and one of the proverbial “bad guys”. When I first began reading the novel I found Rand’s use of theses phrases to be genius because it effectively made the reader hold disdain for those who used it. When I reached later parts of the book and she was still using those phrases I started to tire of the repetitiveness of the book.

Then I reached Galt’s speech. This 50 page speech is a prime example of my most pressing issue with this novel. Galt spent the time stating over and over again the exact same point; men are not meant to live by taking the work of others. It is fine point, one that Rand has even persuaded me to agree with, for the most part, but it did not need to be stated in so many different ways and is not so complicated that it needs 50 pages to be made clear. The speech, in its repetitive nature, was sort of like a smaller version of the entire book. It had some wonderful points but was a to long and repetitive considering how those points where made in the first five pages.

What is ironic is that my favorite thing about this book was the way in which small events represent the economy’s declined throughout the entire novel. It was near the beginning that Rand first expressed one of these metaphors with the story of the factory. This factory had seen many owners and under its final owners a system was created in which workers would be paid based on their demonstrated need, not on their actual work. Naturally this system failed terribly because the workers had absolutely no motivation to work hard when they would not get anything out of it. This factory and its quick demise was the clearest bit of foreshadowing that Rand gave us. It was a metaphor for the whole of the country and the path that it was taking, a warning that was later realized when the lights of New York shut down much like the lights of the factory had been shut down years before. We were later gifted with another metaphor during the confrontation between Dr. Stadler and the Friends of the People. During the confrontation Stadler could not understand how the Friends of the People could have taken over Project X, something he had created and as such was his “property”. However, mush like Stadler’s fellow looters seized Rearden’s intellectual property, The Friends of the people did seize his weapon and their seizing of his property later led to the complete destruction of “a circle with a radius of a hundred miles”, much like the looter’s seizing the rights to Rearden Steel led to the country’s economy collapsing. These metaphors were my absolute favorite things about the book because they cleverly expressed in a small way the points that Rand was making with her drawn out story.

In addition to the brilliant metaphors, I also greatly enjoyed the moments of triumph that I discussed in my last two blog posts. Rand, in her talent for writing, was able to make me feel serious hatred for many of the looters and their attempts to control the producers. During moments like Rearden’s trail and Galt’s speech (well the beginning of it) I was absolutely in love with the book because the “heroes” of the novel were overcoming the corruption of the looters with clever words during events that the looters had orchestrated. Those events proved the genius of the characters that I had grown to admire and how they were the once with the true moral code.

With my book fully annotated and this final blog post nearly finished I am glad that I read this novel. Although there were times that the repetition frustrated me to no end, there were also many moments when the cleverness of some of the characters made smile and laugh. I will not miss having to look at the dauntingly large novel on my desk every Sunday, but, other then that, I finish this book with happy memories of metaphors, triumphs and rants with my friends about the once seemingly endless Atlas Shrugged. 

Waiting for Superman

Rand moralizes that it’s only the tangible that are worth discussing, and this idea of tangibility can only be derived from those that are named, and yet I have a hard time categorizing exactly where Atlas Shrugged falls in the realm of literature. Atlas Shrugged lies in the gray zone between a novel and an essay. It’s clear that Rand’s purpose for writing Atlas Shrugged was to convince the reader of her ideas, but unlike an essay she uses fictional examples that she, as the writer, has been able to manipulate in order to support her argument. In reality many of the traits that she demonstrates through her characters from the novel, both those like James Taggart and John Galt, would only work in exceptions. Her claims are not laws; and as in scientific law versus scientific theory, they do not pertain to everyone or even most people. But it’s true that extremity is sometimes required in order to stress traits that would not reveal themselves else wise. We would not have noticed them if they hadn’t been exaggerated. Although my inability to categorize Atlas Shrugged left me feeling frustrated if there is any genre that Atlas Shrugged falls into it’s that of fantastical reality.

If you were to replace the leotards and tights with pant suits and replace superpowers with the strength of the mind we end up with a novel that represents that of a Superhero comic. Rand assumes in the creation of her characters such as Dagny, Hank, and Francisco that there are humans who poses extrodinary abilities, and that they understand the truth better then anyone else. Many of Rand’s characters, like that of a superhero, follow a simple formula. Rand’s protagonists all poses a natural ability to think and problem solve; their superpower, that makes them greater then the common people. Along with their natural ability, they’re naturally gorgeous, and this is done for a specific reason. Rand mentions through out the book the physical appearance of the protagonists, whether its Dagny standing in the terminal by the train tracks in her silver evening dress, or Hank stepping out of his car dressed only in the highest quality and most expensive suit. Their clothing are their capes, they are their marks that are meant to separate them from the rest and to show externally that they are exceptional internally.  But like the superheroes and following Rand’s formula, the protagonists all poses one fault that always causes them to falter, it’s this one fault that prevents them from being perfect. Especially for Dagny whose undying love for her railroad prevented her for the majority of the book from escaping to Atlantis. Like those of the villains from a comic, in Atlas Shrugged you know an antagonist when you see one. It’s not coincidence that Wesley Mouch’s name sounds so similar to “weasel mooch”.  Rand gives us characters such as the sadistic Dr. Ferris who builds torture chambers that span floors, and then gives us men such as John Galt whose self control and strength prevent him from even screaming while being tortured. Rand resists from making the comparison herself, but what the reader is being given is a situation of good vs. bad. 

And if there is anything that I oppose in Rand’s beliefs is that there is a separation between good and evil. I don’t believe there is such a thing as a good and bad, and I don’t believe in superheroes. There is never going to be one person with the ability to save the world, Superman is not going to sweep down from the sky and save our burning city. This seems like a logical thought, that of course Superman does not exist, neither does the Easter bunny, yet we see this idea play out constantly in society. Every election we always we shout “this is the one who will solve all of our problems". Our system of government has lead us to believe that things could actually change by replacing one man with another, that because he has the title of leader, he would be able to control the outcome of an entire country. If history has taught us anything it’s been that this is a lie, and yet no matter how many times we keep proving ourselves wrong we are caught in this vicious cycle. We look at the current situation in congress and we criticize them for being so divided, failing to remember that we’re the ones who voted them in. They’re only an exaggerated microcosm of the whole. We vote them in because we believed that they would make everything better, and an extreme idea leads to extreme people. Believing that there will always be someone to save us in our hour of peril sounds like a great fairy tale, but we can’t spend the rest of our lives waiting for Superman.