Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0Value for Money: 7.0/10.0
Writing a review about a 900+ page book and also not revealing anything about the plot is a daunting task. The fact that it is Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” does not make this task any easier. The Atlas Shrugged too, just like the FountainHead is much more than the pages that make the book. It almost comprises a mode of life and a figment of an imaginary society, remnants of which are visible in various examples in the real world.
The Atlas Shrugged has a plot which though is completely woven into economy and finances, yet is not a typical debate of capitalism versus socialism. The story is about the creative people who drive the others, bearing the burden of their fellowmen, just like Atlas stands, bearing the burden of the Earth. The name itself signifies that Atlas Shrugged and hence the plot revolves around a dramatic story of a society which is suddenly devoid of its driver, the innovators and the chaos that would follow. Ideally, I would like to remain non-political, but the story moves very closely to the various political aspects like equality of opportunity and financial aid among people of even the weaker sections of the society. Now I fundamentally believe that though equality is good, completely forced equality is harmful. I read in a book somewhere, that if all the sand of Mount Blanc (the highest mountain of France) is spread in entire France, the entire France will only rise by 6 inches. Similar to this thought is the fact that if everyone is a millionaire, what is a million’s worth anymore. The book echoes this ideology when it says, if everyone is paid equally; why would one work hard? This concept is shown so strongly, that saying you like this book in itself is a political statement.
Moving more clearly to the plot, it is the story of an ambitious and dynamic woman, who wishes to head the Biggest Railway Locomotive Empire which was created by her father. At every point of her life, she faces challenges, because the society is not mature enough to understand that a woman would run the railways. Her, not-so-competent brother makes an absolute fool of himself and the organization with his limited array of thoughts, narrow mindset, inability to understand any of what’s going on coupled with his intent to find profit in others, creating an oddly evil character.
Though the story does not show any visibility at first, as the book moves on, we realize that the Government keeps preaching various policies for giving “equal benefits to all” at the cost of making the ones with higher capability to take an extra load to “help” their not-so-privileged brothers. What follows these regulations is that the men of industry, the greatest people that the society needs to fix things, are disappearing. For the heroine above, just went she needs them the most, they drop everything they are doing, abandon their factories and their businesses and disappear.
The story also has a highly-successful person, who character confuses the reader unless read and followed very carefully. Various twists and turns of the tale make him look like a rich brat or a wonderful strategist. The tale also encompasses another hero, a person with all the self-motivation and power to actually fuel the story and the society in the tale for years with his metallurgical innovations. The at times brotherly and at times rivalry relations of the above mentioned characters is also a thing that holds the readers in awe. The series of suspense leads to another mystery being solved which change the entire course of the story for the better or the worse.
The story-line, like the Fountainhead is slow and at times difficult to comprehend. The sheer size of the book (looks almost like a dictionary) is enough to discourage people from taking it up. The lack of sense behind the Financial policies that the Government and Leaders enforced on the characters in the book was a definite turn-off for me. I could not really digest the fact that people who have spent their lives making financial policies can overlook such a fundamental aspect. But then, looking at the real world made me realize that votes are actually the thing that drives such initiatives.
The entire book is a tussle between “the Innovators” and “the Looters”. It sets a very high standard of what is right and correct in the world today, though it is a bit heartless and cold. It ultimately boils down to the same aspects as the FountainHead: high self-esteem and selfless altruism. The book has a lot of pages with discussions and speeches which are way-beyond the book itself. Looking at them over and over again, not only make for a great reading, but that reading will also give you more insight on life.
Final Verdict:
This is one book, which only people who can handle long speeches and have time to invest will be able to truly enjoy. For the lovers of the book, the reality, taken with a pinch of salt is that most people I know, shrugged the book, before the Atlas shrug. In fact, one thing I have observed in these novels is that people believe in the childish ways in Rand’s books because they typically have no children and hence they can strive for the idealism. The high standards set by the characters are far from reality and the utter heartlessness is also not the idyllic way of life. All in all, it is a book that keeps shifting between Utopia and Perfection.
The Correlations of the Real World with this book:
On hindsight, I feel that presently we are almost living the Atlas Shrugged. The current Financial Crisis is an ideal situation of this very concept where the American Government tried to provide housing to the “common man”, even with sub-prime credits. The thought that those people would be able to “earn” those houses was in itself far-fetched. Now that mortgage defaults are skyrocketing, the government is working on mortgage bailout plans for needy borrowers who can't afford the homes they bought. Similarly in India, we have loans of farmers written off at the time of elections and reservations in even the most Premier organizations for the vote-banks of politicians. Such policies ruin the lives of hard-working people whose tax money is used to salvage the so-called victims of the crisis. But slowly we are seeing the truth now; the looters' philosophy has failed. The global economic crisis is a result of the doomed culture of consumption over production. Would we see the beginning of an "Atlas Shrugged" scenario with the election of the Third World Socialist Obama and a majority Democrat Congress or will Obama prove something otherwise? And if that “income redistribution” happens, would we see the inventors, industrialists, entrepreneurs and skilled workers revolt against the injustice or simply drop out and disappear once their patience runs out?
Only time will tell...
The Atlas Shrugged has a plot which though is completely woven into economy and finances, yet is not a typical debate of capitalism versus socialism. The story is about the creative people who drive the others, bearing the burden of their fellowmen, just like Atlas stands, bearing the burden of the Earth. The name itself signifies that Atlas Shrugged and hence the plot revolves around a dramatic story of a society which is suddenly devoid of its driver, the innovators and the chaos that would follow. Ideally, I would like to remain non-political, but the story moves very closely to the various political aspects like equality of opportunity and financial aid among people of even the weaker sections of the society. Now I fundamentally believe that though equality is good, completely forced equality is harmful. I read in a book somewhere, that if all the sand of Mount Blanc (the highest mountain of France) is spread in entire France, the entire France will only rise by 6 inches. Similar to this thought is the fact that if everyone is a millionaire, what is a million’s worth anymore. The book echoes this ideology when it says, if everyone is paid equally; why would one work hard? This concept is shown so strongly, that saying you like this book in itself is a political statement.
Moving more clearly to the plot, it is the story of an ambitious and dynamic woman, who wishes to head the Biggest Railway Locomotive Empire which was created by her father. At every point of her life, she faces challenges, because the society is not mature enough to understand that a woman would run the railways. Her, not-so-competent brother makes an absolute fool of himself and the organization with his limited array of thoughts, narrow mindset, inability to understand any of what’s going on coupled with his intent to find profit in others, creating an oddly evil character.
Though the story does not show any visibility at first, as the book moves on, we realize that the Government keeps preaching various policies for giving “equal benefits to all” at the cost of making the ones with higher capability to take an extra load to “help” their not-so-privileged brothers. What follows these regulations is that the men of industry, the greatest people that the society needs to fix things, are disappearing. For the heroine above, just went she needs them the most, they drop everything they are doing, abandon their factories and their businesses and disappear.
The story also has a highly-successful person, who character confuses the reader unless read and followed very carefully. Various twists and turns of the tale make him look like a rich brat or a wonderful strategist. The tale also encompasses another hero, a person with all the self-motivation and power to actually fuel the story and the society in the tale for years with his metallurgical innovations. The at times brotherly and at times rivalry relations of the above mentioned characters is also a thing that holds the readers in awe. The series of suspense leads to another mystery being solved which change the entire course of the story for the better or the worse.
The story-line, like the Fountainhead is slow and at times difficult to comprehend. The sheer size of the book (looks almost like a dictionary) is enough to discourage people from taking it up. The lack of sense behind the Financial policies that the Government and Leaders enforced on the characters in the book was a definite turn-off for me. I could not really digest the fact that people who have spent their lives making financial policies can overlook such a fundamental aspect. But then, looking at the real world made me realize that votes are actually the thing that drives such initiatives.
The entire book is a tussle between “the Innovators” and “the Looters”. It sets a very high standard of what is right and correct in the world today, though it is a bit heartless and cold. It ultimately boils down to the same aspects as the FountainHead: high self-esteem and selfless altruism. The book has a lot of pages with discussions and speeches which are way-beyond the book itself. Looking at them over and over again, not only make for a great reading, but that reading will also give you more insight on life.
Final Verdict:
This is one book, which only people who can handle long speeches and have time to invest will be able to truly enjoy. For the lovers of the book, the reality, taken with a pinch of salt is that most people I know, shrugged the book, before the Atlas shrug. In fact, one thing I have observed in these novels is that people believe in the childish ways in Rand’s books because they typically have no children and hence they can strive for the idealism. The high standards set by the characters are far from reality and the utter heartlessness is also not the idyllic way of life. All in all, it is a book that keeps shifting between Utopia and Perfection.
The Correlations of the Real World with this book:
On hindsight, I feel that presently we are almost living the Atlas Shrugged. The current Financial Crisis is an ideal situation of this very concept where the American Government tried to provide housing to the “common man”, even with sub-prime credits. The thought that those people would be able to “earn” those houses was in itself far-fetched. Now that mortgage defaults are skyrocketing, the government is working on mortgage bailout plans for needy borrowers who can't afford the homes they bought. Similarly in India, we have loans of farmers written off at the time of elections and reservations in even the most Premier organizations for the vote-banks of politicians. Such policies ruin the lives of hard-working people whose tax money is used to salvage the so-called victims of the crisis. But slowly we are seeing the truth now; the looters' philosophy has failed. The global economic crisis is a result of the doomed culture of consumption over production. Would we see the beginning of an "Atlas Shrugged" scenario with the election of the Third World Socialist Obama and a majority Democrat Congress or will Obama prove something otherwise? And if that “income redistribution” happens, would we see the inventors, industrialists, entrepreneurs and skilled workers revolt against the injustice or simply drop out and disappear once their patience runs out?
Only time will tell...
1 comment:
I just finished reading this book. It's strange but it seems that the fictional society and government in the book matches what I see in the US. I just hope that Obama doesn't push us all the way to Socialism and our "producers" and "innovators" go away. Thanks for your review.
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