[Publius]

This concludes our FReeper Book Club on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged that began back in January. For 31 weeks we’ve come together as a group to read, analyze and discuss Rand’s magnum opus. Billthedrill and I want to thank those FReepers who joined the book club and participated, and those who just dropped by. We hope the experience has been as enjoyable for you as it was for us.

We especially want to thank those FReepers who forced us on occasion to check our premises, which forced us to change both narrative and questions. When it comes to peer review, FReepers rock!

Thank you for making this such a wonderful experience.

[Publius]

FReeper Book Club

Atlas Shrugged

Afterword and Suggested Readings

Ping! The thread is up.

Prior threads:
FReeper Book Club: Introduction to Atlas Shrugged
Part I, Chapter I: The Theme
Part I, Chapter II: The Chain
Part I, Chapter III: The Top and the Bottom
Part I, Chapter IV: The Immovable Movers
Part I, Chapter V: The Climax of the d’Anconias
Part I, Chapter VI: The Non-Commercial
Part I, Chapter VII: The Exploiters and the Exploited
Part I, Chapter VIII: The John Galt Line
Part I, Chapter IX: The Sacred and the Profane
Part I, Chapter X: Wyatt’s Torch
Part II, Chapter I: The Man Who Belonged on Earth
Part II, Chapter II: The Aristocracy of Pull
Part II, Chapter III: White Blackmail
Part II, Chapter IV: The Sanction of the Victim
Part II, Chapter V: Account Overdrawn
Part II, Chapter VI: Miracle Metal
Part II, Chapter VII: The Moratorium on Brains
Part II, Chapter VIII: By Our Love
Part II, Chapter IX: The Face Without Pain or Fear or Guilt
Part II, Chapter X: The Sign of the Dollar
Part III, Chapter I: Atlantis
Part III, Chapter II: The Utopia of Greed
Part III, Chapter III: Anti-Greed
Part III, Chapter IV: Anti-Life
Part III, Chapter V: Their Brothers’ Keepers
Part III, Chapter VI: The Concerto of Deliverance
Part III, Chapter VII: “This is John Galt Speaking”
Part III, Chapter VIII: The Egoist
Part III, Chapter IX: The Generator
Part III, Chapter X: In the Name of the Best Within Us

[MtnClimber]

Thanks to you and Billthedrill! It has been a very interesting series. You two sure put in much thought!

[r-q-tek86]

Thank you both for sticking with this project. I know you were getting frustrated as the numbers of posts went down, but I know a lot of the members were reading faithfully even if they didn't post.

The insights you offered and the discussions that were generated made me look forward to Saturday mornings.

[CrappieLuck]

I’ve enjoyed this venture though Atlas Shrugged almost as much as the book itself. Your analysis is excellent and very instructive.

This has been a very timely venture and it’s obvious that this was no small effort on your part.
Thank you!!!!

[Sans-Culotte]

Bump, and thanks for the effort!

[Fast Moving Angel]

I too have looked forward to this every Saturday morning. Thanks to both of you for providing explanations and insight into a book I thought I knew well — but now know much better, as a result of your excellent efforts.

[whodathunkit]

A wonderful experience indeed!

Though the time invested in this effort was substantial, the return was even more so.

Great job, everyone.

[ladyvet]

Thank you! Whats next?! :)

[ml/nj]

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant.

Maybe I read this? I don't know. I just know I was never impressed by Kant. Leonard Peikoff slams him in his Ominous Parallels to which Rand wrote an introduction and which I highly recommend.

ML/NJ

[TradicalRC]

Since this IS the anniversary year of the Moon Landing and Woodstock, I would also recommend reading Apollo and Dionysus in The New Left: the Anti-industrial Ideal.
Let us not forget the skeleton in Ayn Rand’s closet: St. Thomas Aquinas.
And for all of her raving against Plato, the purism she sought out in her own ideology marks her as a peculiarly Platonic anti-Platonist. Just MHO.

[depressed in 06]

Without your help this book would have been just another door stop. Could not have made it without you.

[Taxman]

Let me add my heartfelt thanks to both of you for your dedication and hard work these past months. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading, thinking about and contrasting AS with contemporary America, once again. I still remain astonished at how prescient Ms. Rand was.

Good luck with your publishing effort — I’ll certainly add your book to my collection!

On a related note, I noted on this thread several months ago that I had spotted a “Who is John Galt” billboard in Georgia. I was asked where it was, and was not able to specifically ID it’s location on I-95.

Well, I saw it again yesterday. It is located on the Southbound side of I-95 about one mile north of Exit 1 in Georgia.

Southbound FReepers might be on the lookout for it. It is a very visible and attractive billboard, I might add.

[TASMANIANRED]

Kudos on completion. Excellent body of work .

At 18 I'd have never picked up a philosophy book without it being a requirement for a class. Instead I picked up a novel and it shaped the rest of my life.

Thanks for the reading list..

[tstarr]

Publius,

I’d also like thank you and BilltheDrill, as well as everyone else on the list who has made my re-reading of Atlas Shrugged much more enjoyable and illuminating than it was the first time through. I enjoyed the background information, the expansion of many of the points beyond what I would have gotten on my own, and the general high level of discourse on the subject. I only made a few comments, primarily because I invariably found whatever point I might have had already made by the time I checked in to the thread. I look forward to the next book!

- Ted

[Clinging Bitterly]

I have to echo everyone else - thanks for all the good work in this, and I'll be ready and waiting for the next session.

Good reading suggestions too.

Everyone, be sure and check the gutenberg.org website for etexts (or audiobooks) of the older works in the public domain. Most of them are there and for folks trying to hang on (as I am at least) you can save some cash.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks for all of your hard work! I came to the party late, but it has been a pleasure to revisit this ‘old friend.’

“The arc of the plot ascends through a desperate effort of the industrialists to reignite the country’s production, countered by moves on the part of the established powers in academia, bureaucracy and culture, descending in the final third of the book to the ravaging of the country and the escape of its creative elements.”

Anyone with a working mind, looking at the state America is in today should either cry in despair or be mad as hell and be ready to fight!

I choose the latter. :)

[sig226]

Wow. I wish I was involved earlier. I waited for each Saturday’s thread, knowing I would read insights I hadn’t suspected and that I would have to think carefully to be able to offer anything that would add to the conversation.

Thank you Publius and Billthedrill. This was enlightening and fun.

[OldNavyVet]

Bravo! And, Thank you.

[BamaGirl]

Thanks so much for all your hard work and dedication on this! Like many others on this thread, your analysis was something I’d look forward to all week. I am so sad it is over.

I suppose the most direct way to show my thanks is to make sure I buy your book when it comes out! :)

Thanks also to all of yall regular commentators, r-q-tek86, stylin_geek, StillThinking, .... I’ve learned so much from all of you. Yall make FreeRepublic a wonderful place.

[gracie1]

Thank you for a job well done. I may not have posted every week, but I dutifully read the thread each week. I know so few people who are familiar with AR, it was good to get further insight from others. Good luck with your agent and I hope you get published.