Book Review: Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Book Review:  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (Published 1957)

Q: How do readers get their arms around a book that is over 1,000 pages and rambles all over the place with dozens of complicated characters over three sections?

A: Like a long concerto, you just have to press “play” and start the piece. It took me months to read, but I am proud to say that I have completed one of the most revered books in American literature. Some people claim to read it every year, which seems religiously faithful to me?!

Recently, vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said he respected the book and agreed with Francisco d’Anconia’s philosophy as recounted at the wedding of Bill Taggert; one in which the priorities of the collective good end up harming the economy and destroying the individual efforts of independent businessmen.

I have read many complicated books over the years, but this one was pretty hard to finish, especially in the third “movement,” or Act III. The book over-flows with symbolism, motifs, undercurrents, back stories, adulterous betrayal, illicit relationships, political fighting, metaphorical situations, integrated, difficult characters… The intricate web of unlikely story lines almost overwhelms; so it takes perseverance to finish this tome. It's sold millions of copies since 1957, becoming popular again recently with a feature film based on Act I.

Dozens of times in the book, discussions evoke the question “Who is John Galt?” It is said in many different contexts, not only a literal question about the mysterious man who has disappeared; but asked as a figurative, almost meaningless, satirical question as well.

To the thinker, the question implies, “What is the mind?” 

Another way to look at the question is to say, “What happens when the mind disappears? 

Galt knows that without his mind and the minds of the world’s great entrepreneurial thinkers, the industrial power of the world will be lost and the economic engine of the world will stop. Protesting a powerful gov’t. pushing hard toward collectivism, Galt and his colleagues go on strike.

In the title’s metaphor, these great men & woman (Dagny is also Atlas-like) shrug, and let the world go on without them, a/k/a “Atlas Shrugged.”

 Galt’s ideas culminate with his appearance on a nationally broadcast radio program. He takes advantage of the opportunity to speak his mind to the people, something for which he waited at least twelve years. This broadcast takes two hours and is the central moment in Rand’s manifesto, Atlas Shrugged; at which John Galt speaks unimpeded about the global crisis. The incumbent gov’t. is shocked by this speech.

It centers on the independence of the mind, as opposed to the blankness of someone unable or unwilling to deal with reality. The reigning gov’t. leaders are caught off-guard and afterward want to negotiate with John Galt, and/or in the alternative, to kill him. This speech peaks at the zenith of a twisting, turning plot (85% of the book is told at this point), and is the one large section on which anyone can focus in order to make sense of this massive book (some quotes from the speech follow):

“Thinking is man’s only basic virtue, from which all others proceed. And his basic vice, the source of all his evils, is that nameless act which all of you practice, but struggle never to admit: the act of blanking out, the willful suspension of one’s consciousness, the refusal to think—not blindness, but the refusal to see; not ignorance, but the refusal to know. It is the act of unfocusing your mind and inducing an inner fog to escape the responsibility of judgment—on the unstated premise that a thing will not exist if only you refuse to identify it, that A will not be A so long as you do not pronounce the verdict “It is.” Non-thinking is an act of annihilation, a wish to negate existence, an attempt to wipe out reality. But existence exists; reality is not to be wiped out, it will merely wipe out the wiper. By refusing to say “It is,” you are refusing to say, “I am.” By suspending your judgment, you are negating your person. When a man declares: “Who am I to know?—he is declaring: “Who am I to live?” ©Ayn Rand from Atlas Shrugged (Random House 1957).

Galt goes on to identify three things as the supreme ruling values of his life: 1Reason—2Purpose—3Self-esteem. These three values imply and require all of man’s virtues and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.

Aristotle

This speech is a political manifesto for an objective movement and it goes on for dozens of pages. Rand sets out the Aristotlian battlefield between the objective and the collective, about which the conflict in the story rages. Allegedly, this moral battle is between those that live by their own effort (materialists) and those “parasites” who consume the products of others without the same sacrifice (collectivists). The political system Galt hopes to build is contained in the single moral premise: “no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force." "Every man will stand or fall, live or die, by rational judgment. If he fails to use it and falls, he will be his only victim. If he fears that his judgment is inadequate, he will not be given a gun to improve it. If he chooses to correct his errors in time, he will have the unobstructed example of his betters, for guidance in learning to think; but an end will be put to the infamy of paying with one life for the errors of another.” ©Ayn Rand from Atlas Shrugged (Random House 1957).

Much of the speech is anti-religious, and its premise makes the atoning work of Jesus Christ seem anti-ethical to John Galt’s way. He is certainly not Jesus; however Galt is the supreme leader of a humanist philosophy which seeks to revolutionize society, culture, and personality.

“Your code divides mankind into two castes and commands them to live by opposite rules: those who may desire anything and those who may desire nothing, the chosen and the damned, the riders and the carriers, the eaters and the eaten. What standard determines your caste? What passkey admits you to the moral elite? The passkey is the lack of value.” ©Ayn Rand from Atlas Shrugged (Random House 1957).

Strangely, this book is very relevant in the current polarized political climate; wherein Obama liberals face off with conservative Tea-party patriots. As in the story, the fall election season presents a stark contrast, a distinct difference in ideology.

It took me about a year to finally complete all three parts, and the first two sections have spawned full-length feature films. I hesitate to guess if anything can be made of the third act; it is all speech, and then conclusion, nonetheless a film may be forthcoming. It is hard for me to recommend the time it takes to completely read this book, unless one is a serious political buff or affiliates with Rand's unrealistic philosophy.

Ayn Rand’s personal worldview is lived out in the characters of this novel. The concretes may differ, but the abstractions are the same. Her relationships with men, associates, government, media, and God proved to be difficult and strained but her ability to write this novel is amazing. It is a tribute to the universality of this struggle that it remains so relevant today. Existence, philosophy, and independent thought are still valuable to readers; this book certainly exercises the mind, but I disagree with its central theme and the many side premises exalted in Galt's speech.

Ayn Rand would never have suffered an editor, although needed badly here, nor did she pain to make an explanation from the perspective of the other side; in the end, the characters, like comic book Avengers, return to Galt's Gulch, their secret Colorado hideout, to plan their ascension up the road of economic recovery and to leadership of the new world. It is a fanciful conclusion to an ungodly mess.

3 *** out of five stars

©Mark H. Pillsbury