I’m reading it on the ‘know thy enemy’ principle. There’s plenty being written about the relationship/connection between Trump and Rand, you’re surely savvy enough to go online and Google what our post/truth world has to say about it. My own personal challenge is that I have to read more than 100 pages a day to get it finished in time for the Inauguration so I don’t have time to do your research for you, but I do recommend you do some!
Atlas Shrugged is variously described as a Capitalist Manifesto and a ‘dystopian’ view of the US. I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice.
If it’s politics that interests you it should be easy to watch this one play out (by easy I mean easy to find the information not actually easy to WATCH!) I predict 2017 will be a particularly difficult year to ‘watch’ or commentate on. We may have nothing to fear but fear itself, but the fear is strong in this one right now.
If it’s dystopias that float your boat, then can I point out the newly formed (or forming) Dystopia Society – the Zamyatin Society – which you can join (build and influence should you so desire) for free right now. It’s an organic sort of a site, hoping to develop views on dystopic/utopic writing past, present and future. How about checking it out HERE
Want to take the quick option and just watch the movie? Well it has been filmed, in 3 parts, but I’m not sure how easy it will be to find the movies – they panned at the box office between 2010 and 2014. Amazon UK doesn’t offer them, though you can pick them up as NTSC US copies and I think they are streamed on Amazon (but I don’t ‘do’ streaming as I live rurally and we don’t have reliable superfast broadband – we are Freesat peasants and proud!) As far as Sci-Fi goes Star Wars Franchise it ain’t. Probably best to gird your loins and settle down for a monster read (in every way!)
As far as bargains go, you can pick it up on Amazon as a penguin modern classic paperback for just £7.99 – which at nearly 1200 pages is pretty much as free market a bargain as you’re going to get. Click to buy is the easy bit. Reading it… now that’s a bit more of a challenge.
I hope to finish Atlas Shrugged by January 20th. And then I hope to discuss it with folks at the Zamyatin Society… but that will need others to have read it too! So why don't some McRenegades pick up the Atlas Shrugged challenge…? Go on, you know you want to... and if you don't want to you probably should!
Of particular interest to those of us at all versed in Scots fiction, the initial (and recurring) question posed in Atlas Shrugged is ‘Who is John Galt?’. From as far as I've got (chapter 4) this seems to be a cliched expression for who knows anything. Perhaps it loses something in the translation. I of course do know who John Galt was – but it seems that the whole of dystopian America doesn’t. If you don’t, for the quick answer check him out HERE. If nothing else it shows that there are many levels to all narrative - and I'm keen to explore them in Atlas Shrugged. If I may dare suggest a cliche of my own, as a novel it's an mystery wrapped in an enigma... and has a lot to teach us about why we should be afraid of the rise of Donald J.Trump. As an act of resistance reading a book seems pretty weak - but then knowledge, as we all know, is power and so by not reading it and remaining ignorant we don't do ourselves any favours. So come on, make this the month/year you step out of your fictional comfort zone and read Atlas Shrugged.
If you can't be arsed, or need a bit more of a kick up the backside, here are some basic links - Wikipedia - the Fount of all wisdom of our internet times eh? (I am only attempting irony here because so many of the things I find substantial and important in life don't seem to be listed in Wikipedia!)
But you have to start somewhere right? And while you're waiting for that book order to arrive... here goes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlas_Society
Cally Phillips