Inky Horizons

For those with little or no inclination to read Ayn Rand, you might want to at least take a look at the cover art for her novels.  It gives a good perspective both artistically and philosophically what Rand is all about:

Ayn Rand Cover Art

It is impossible to review Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged without critiquing the underlying philosophical principle of Objectivism.  Now, before you misunderstand me, there are some principles of Objectivism I believe strongly in.  Some people can be and are heroic figures.  Facts do outweigh fantasy.  Reason does trump faith and religion.  I also agree with some of the sexual tenets of Objectivism.  (As an aside, and to give her credit, Rand often gets a bad rap on homosexuality.  Though she found their behavior personally disgusting she supported their ineluctable right to practice their lifestyle.)  But even as far as the sexual elements go Rand is far too timid to bring the male-female dynamic to its inevitable conclusion re: Objectivism in Atlas Shrugged.  She stands on the edge of the chasm, but she never has the courage to leap.

But the novel really begins with Rand's mistaken conceit.  She writes in the forward she believes she is doing something new, in a new way, through the publication of this novel.  Uh, no.  You see, Rand knows fuck-all about science fiction, and there are a lot of SFnal elements in Atlas Shrugged from the super-strong lightweight Rearden Metal to the eponymous science fiction motor that draws static electricity from the atmosphere and converts it to kinetic energy.  She's not doing anything new here, trust me.  No matter how she tries to spin it, presenting sharply drawn philosophical concepts in literary form is not "ground-breaking."  Ask Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley if you doubt my word.

Atlas Shrugged is filled with heroic men, and women, who are always described as "severe," "austere," "hard," or "lonely."  But what kind of people are they, really?  Well, she says, they are human beings with free will.  Rand believes every man has the potential to be good or evil.  He must decide which he shall be and the decision will affect only him. 

This is where Rand shows the depth of her naivete.    It is, in essence, a total repudiation not only of human history but of human emotion.  Astonishing.

But what kind of people are these heroic figures?  They are by and large powerful industrialists who don't give a fuck about the public.  Rand believed people like this were the pinnacle of humanity.  But her slavish devotion to their unchecked power, her unabashed admiration of their "greed is good" philosophy does cause her to kneel (whether she wants to admit it or not, and despite the anti-spiritual principles of Objectivism) before an altar.  The altar of the Dollar Sign.

There's a lot of trickle-down theory in Atlas Shrugged.  While that shit didn't work in the Reagan Years, it has smooth sailing in the pages of this over-written novel.  But surely I'm exaggerating, you say.  Um, in a word, no.  Rand believed that altruism in all its forms was a sin.  She would not have supported nor understood on any human fundamental level why Milton Hershey provided his employees with free medical care and paid off the mortgage of every church in town during the Depression.  But is she aware that altruism also manifests itself in the action of a mother throwing her body in front of a bus to save her child?  Rand does not think on this intimately human level.  As one of her characters remarks in the novel, "The public be damned!"

That means you and me. And whether Rand realizes it or not, it means her, too.

There are other, more stupefying passages that in today's world seem not just old-fashioned but dangerously simplistic.  In one passage the two lovers, Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggert, are driving through unblemished, untouched Nature.  Rearden remarks, "What I'd like to see is a billboard."

In another passage Dagny is talking to a scientist about the motor:

"So you're doing research work on your own?"
"That's right."
"For what purpose?"
"My own pleasure."
"What do you intend to do, if you discover something of scientific importance or commercial value?  Do you intend to put it to some public use?"
"I don't know.  I don't think so."
"Haven't you any desire to be of service to humanity?"
"I don't talk that kind of language, Miss Taggert.  I don't think you do, either."

Finally, on the last page of this 1200+ page novel, her eponymous hero, John Galt, draws a dollar sign in the air.

Now, okay.  There's nothing inherently wrong with any of this.  I mean, if I can read Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil then I can read damn near anything without choking up bile.  But it goes on, like I said, for 1200 pages!  People sit around and tell each other what they already know, what they already believe, what they've already done and why they did it. Rand sets up strawmen so her heroes can knock them down.  Again, nothing wrong.  That's what these kind of novels do and if you approach it from that viewpoint then Atlas Shrugged works admirably.

So how is the writing?  Well, it's clunky at times, and at other times it's awkward. There's a lot of empty spaces being described and little humans who are dwarfed by towering skyscrapers or standing around in awe of huge roaring machines.  But there's other things, too, that should be mentioned.  Rand is a marvel when it comes to delineating human gesture and movement.  Her metier, despite the grand philosophical themes she plays with here, are the descriptive passages that hang with you.  She paints with pinpoint precision, using words to emote truth and power about people, and that's a beauty -- and a pleasure -- to read.

However, aside from all that?  Well, aside from the preachiness and the naive (I would argue dangerously simplistic)  way Rand views the world, the biggest flaw of the novel is its inability to uphold the suspension of disbelief.  --And, no, I'm not talking about her motor that defies the Second Law of Thermodynamics, either.

Remember, the CEOs and industrialists and powerful businessmen who look only upon profit as the single necessary human motive, these are her heroes.  When laws and other governmental obstacles get in their way of making a profit they go into hiding to teach the world a lesson.  To teach humanity that we can't get along without them.

You've got to be kidding me.  All right.  To be fair to Rand this was written pre-Enron and pre-multi-million dollar gold parachute and 300-million dollar severance packages for CEOs.  But, c'mon, get real.  Do you really want to argue the world wouldn't have stood up and cheered if Ken Lay was taken out in shackles, made to kneel on a sidewalk while lots were drawn by the people he duped so they could press a small-caliber pistol to his skull?  Is Rand so jaw-dropping naive she thinks the world would really stop spinning on its axis if every fat pigfucking executive who lives for nothing but profit were to go into hiding?  To teach us a lesson?  They'd be doing the world, and the people in it, a goddamn favor.  And trust me, the world wouldn't stop spinning on its axis.  These Atlases can shrug all they want.  Those human beings currently being ground into dust via the modern CEOs maniacal blood-grab for profit would be far better off without their putrefying existence.  Yes, please.  Do us all a favor and go on strike.  Feel free.

Again, I must stress this, Rand sets up her heroes to be a different kind of man than the money-grubbing soul-destroying monster we suffer from today. Except, when everything is all said and done, they're really not.  One of her Oil Executives sets fire to his wells before going into hiding, leaving behind a note saying the public can have them back the way he found them.  But he didn't find these oil wells on fire.  He did that out of a sense of pique, like a spoiled brat.  And it's really difficult, no matter what your political or social demographic, to get past the "fuck the public, masturbate with the dollar" philosophy that runs rampant throughout this novel.

So.  Having said all that.  Should you read Atlas Shrugged?

Yes.  Absolutely.  And here's why.  Despite being flawed this is an important novel.  There are themes which do resonate, like the theme of standing up for yourself and for what you believe in.  Like the fact reason is more important than the unsupportable nonsense of religion.  Like the fact science is more grounded in reality than faith.

Atlas Shrugged is a strange, at times unbelievable, novel.  It's one of those books I'm not necessarily happy to have read, but it was necessary for me to read.  I guess it's hard to explain. I can neither recommend nor dismiss this work of art (and it is art, no question) created by Ayn Rand.

You, like everyone else, will simply have to read the novel and make your own judgment.  In the end, that's what Rand want us to do anyway with every aspect of our life.  And within that very narrow framework she succeeds admirably in getting that sense of dignity across in Atlas Shrugged.