Who is John Galt?

[SubtleSilence97]

A few weeks ago, I found myself browsing the internet in search of a book to read. My search finally ended (20 google searches later) when I arrived at a website that contained a list comprised of 'the greatest works of literature of all time.' At first I merely scanned through it, to see if anything caught my eye, but I saw only the usual. But then, I looked through it more thoroughly and immediately saw a title that caught my eye. 'Atlas Shrugged' was the name of the book, and it was written by Ayn Rand. So, out of pure curiosity I clicked on the title in hopes of unearthing more information concerning the topic of the book.

What I read was as follows: What Moves the world? Who is John Galt? Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against a woman he loves? ... You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy. Why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction... etc.

At once, I felt intrigued. So, thinking no more of the matter, I went out to our local Hastings and bought the book for $14.95. It would be a couple of days before I finally sat down to read the book, but when I did, my excitement was at it's pinnacle. So I sat down on my front porch and commenced reading the book. And 30 pages in, I was bored to death. For all the hype that I had read about this book, none of it had been transmitted to me in any of the 30 pages. Now, I don't know if the fact that I'm 14 has anything to do with it, maybe I'm not mature enough to fully comprehend the message of the book, I don't know. But what I do know is that the book bored me immensely, and I could not for the life of me find the greatness that so many others before me had. Has anyone else had this problem? Or is it just that I am an illiterate with insufficient intellect to understand the book?

[OrphanPip]

Don't worry about it Subtle, the book is trash, one part boring polemics and one part trite bodice ripper.
Ayn Rand pops up on these "best of" lists because she has a devoted fanatical following driven by their sympathy for her politics.

[SubtleSilence97]

Whew, thanks. I had begun to worry. Glad to know that somebody else out there shares my perspective.

[Summer M]

You read 30 pages of a book that is approximately 1,000 pages long, depending on edition, so you can't have an opinion on it. Read it through first, then make up your mind. OrphanPip is entitled to his opinion because he read the book through, or so I assume.

[cyberbob]

I made it like 400 pages through so I'm entitled to an opinion. Stop reading it. It only gets more boring as it goes on.

The problem with Atlas Shrugged is that it's preachy and repetitive and the characters are flat. You're 14, though, so I assume you'll find plenty of hyped-up books boring at your age and each of those books will have its own faults.

I think if you're reading something and hating it and wanting to put it down then you should just put it down. If you read it half-heartedly, just to get through it, I think you'll miss whatever's good about that book. If you feel curious about it later then you can give it another chance. I've done that with a bunch of books. I'll try to read them but am not able to so I give up, then months or years or whatever later I'll try again and I'll love it. Or not, but at least I tried.

EDIT: and if you're not gonna finish reading it maybe you should get a refund because 15 dollars is a lot for a book IMO. Next time maybe you should try checking the book out of the library first, or just stand in the bookstore and read as much as you can before the owners accuse you of freeloading.

[wormofthebooks]

The book is very good. Although not everyone agrees with the political standpoints, the basic message is that too much government will ruin a society that is founded on Capitalism. As someone who became a serious reader at a young age, I would never accuse you of being too immature to understand the novel. I read it for the first time with I was about 19 or 20. I loved it and read it again a few years later. I enjoyed the mystery and romantic aspects of it.

Not every great novel is for everyone to enjoy. Charles Dickens is listed in every "must-read" list but personally I find his books boring and I have to muscle my way through them. Perhaps Atlas Shrugged is not for you, but try reading it again in a few years. Maybe you'll see something differently then.

[Shevek]

I would just read Galt's speech instead of wasting your time on the 1 000 page repetitive tome. I don't say this merely to start a tedious Ayn Rand debate; generally, her intention with Atlas Shrugged and all her works was to articulate her philosophy. Reading the speech should be sufficient to understand her philosophy's main tenets.

[wormofthebooks]

I heard from philosophy students that her philosophy is never really taken seriously in the classroom. Have you ever read Ayn Rand's biography? She was definitely an intelligent and interesting person... She was very confidant and self-assured. She was the type of woman who would (and did) sit her husband down and tell him straight up that she was having an affair and she was going to continue it on scheduled days whether he liked it or not. Her biography is actually more interesting than any of her novels.

[Shevek]

Since the post-2008 surge in popularity of American libertarianism she has received some attention in academia, but her ideas do not have nearly as much clout as Robert Nozick (who in my mind oversimplified Locke, but my point is that at least he engaged with the tradition, unlike Rand).

I haven't read an authoritative biography, although I have read passages out of Leonard Peikoff's works (her "intellectual heir") in which he praises her supposed originality, her brilliance, etc. I've read anecdotes about her personal life that don't exude confidence to me. I can't pretend to know whether she had a mental illness as many suggest, but everything she says about her work and life is dreadfully narcissistic. I think it was in a print interview that she proclaimed there are only "three important As" in the Western canon -- Aristotle, Aquinas and Ayn Rand.

[Summer M]

I think it's unfortunate that on a literature forum some members are trying to discourage others from reading a book. For better or for worse, Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential books of all time and it deserves a read for that reason alone.

[Helga]

I think it's unfortunate that on a literature forum some members are trying to discourage others from reading a book. For better or for worse, Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential books of all time and it deserves a read for that reason alone.

I think it's great that teenagers want to read but I won't recommend a book I don't like, literature forum or not.

[Heteronym]

I think it's unfortunate that on a literature forum some members are trying to discourage others from reading a book. For better or for worse, Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential books of all time and it deserves a read for that reason alone.

Influential to whom? Other writers? Certainly not. Readers? Perhaps American ones, where she's most popular. Wall Street upstarts? Definitely!

[Emil Miller]

Influential to whom? Other writers? Certainly not. Readers? Perhaps American ones, where she's most popular. Wall Street upstarts? Definitely!

According to this extract, if translation is anything to go by she seems to have been, and still is, quite influential.

Many translations have been published in the last 50 years. Translations currently in print include Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

[Heteronym]

I didn't say she wasn't widely translated. But a writer can be widely translated and not mean anything to the people of these countries. Go ask the Portuguese or the Italian if they even know her or give a hoot about her ideas, I think a few will probably have heard of her, fewer will care.

[Summer M]

Rand's books have been translated to many languages, read and discussed by many people, and have been exerting wide influence for decades. Whether or not they're any good, and whether or not her philosophy is of any value, are different questions altogether. Let us separate the question of value from the question of influence.