Like the author of this piece, I got a creeping sense of familiarity throughout Atlas Shrugged that grew as the story proceeded. It's very revealing that what resonates isn't the physical circumstances - Rand wrote of a time when there was no airline travel and mass communications was only the radio - but rather the cultural and philosophical maneuverings and the impossible vanities of a parasitical would-be ruling class that finally ended up dragging down the host society. As John Galt says himself in the novel, he isn't actually changing anything, he's merely accelerating it.
For those suggesting that Rand needed a good editor, she had one: Bennet Cerf (remember him from Hollywood Squares?). She simply didn't listen to him. Hence the infamous Chapter 26. Publius and I have a lot to say about that one.
Who Is John Galt? is intended to be a companion book, not a sort of Cliff's Notes. Like the author of this piece, you can't avoid the 1100 page monster but perhaps like a lot of us it turns out not to be so impossible after all.
Was Bennet Cerf on “Hollywood Squares”? I thought he was on an earlier show like “What’s My Line?” or “To Tell the Truth.”
I’ve been re-reading the book, and it’s better than ever. The discussion topics are more relevant today than they were 9 years ago.