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FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, Ten Years After
A Billthedrill Essay | 27 August 2009 | Billthedrill

Posted on 08/27/2009 9:05:35 AM PDT by Publius

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To: Clinging Bitterly
"Atlas Shrugged" is now available for the Kindle.

I wore out my paperback copy!

41 posted on 04/30/2010 2:00:31 PM PDT by Redleg Duke (RAT Hunting Season started the evening of March 21st, 2010!)
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To: Redleg Duke
A paperback could wear out easily just getting through it. A.S. is a volume I had wanted to read for a long time. For this book club reading I downloaded an editable text version (so I could place bookmarks & comments) and also the 53 hour audio version. Now, the audio is quite a hoot, because you quickly realize nobody speaks in normal conversation the way Rand wrote the dialog. Still, it helped me to get through it. With the amount of other reading I was doing at the time, I tended to burn out quickly.
42 posted on 05/01/2010 10:36:04 AM PDT by Clinging Bitterly (We need to limit political office holders to two terms. One in office, and one in prison.)
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To: Clinging Bitterly
I don't know. I haven't read the book (or even heard of it before now) but the premise, that advanced knowledge is forgotten by all but a self chosen few as a consequence of societal collapse, doesn't seem plausible.

Advanced knowledge was outlawed in Luddite post-nuclear revulsion. (Think contemporary "Green" on steroids.) The monks preserved it, not understanding its significance, in many cases. Leibowitz was an obscure draftsman, who signed many blueprints that were hand-copied as illuminated manuscripts. One such was a drawing for a motor stator, titled "Squirrel cage", which caused no end of bafflement.

One comment I found amusing was a monk wondering why he had to copy a drawing by painstakingly Leaving little white lines to form the image by inking the whole page. it did not make sense.

Over the generations, people began to decode and deduce the scientific and engineering principles, and another civilization slowly rose from the feudal/tribal stages.

In time, this did likewise.

One one of my all-time favorite books. I may need to read it again now.

43 posted on 07/12/2010 12:26:50 PM PDT by Gorzaloon (CNN:AP:etc:Today, President Obama's stool was firm and well-formed. One end was slightly pointed. ")
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To: Publius

Coming to this thread by way of the more recent one about the just-wrapped AS movie (Part 1). If my comments are off-topic, I apologize in advance.

There’s a great series of SciFi/Alt-History novels that deal with a situation very similar to what could be expected in the post-AS world. Called the “1632” series (after the first book), the plot revolves around a circa 1999 West Virginia coal-mining town called Grantville (based closely on the very real WV town of Mannington) hit by a cosmic cataclysm and transported, intact, to Central German in the middle of the 30-years war.

While written in a very different style and with less intellectual heft than AS (more whimsical/tongue-in-cheek), and also with a decidedly different ideological bent (the originating author, Eric Flint is a big union guy - former UMWA - and undoubtedly a Socialist - many fans call him “Eric the Red”) as well as much suspension of disbelief (too easy assimilation by the “uptimers” into the variety of languages in use at the time), the series does talk very effectively about how a society more modern than AS (1990s vs 1950s) is able to adapt and assimilate with one significantly more primitive (late-Renaissance vs industrial post-apocalyptic). With the added wrinkle of existing well-established nation-states and true historical figures (Richelieu, the Hapsburgs and de’ Medicis and Barbarinis, the Inquisition and a King Charles I of England who learns about 20 years early what a then-young Oliver Cromwell will have in store for him) thrown in.


44 posted on 07/27/2010 3:42:33 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: Publius

45 posted on 07/27/2010 3:50:42 AM PDT by Mojave (Ignorant and stoned - Obama's natural constituency.)
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To: Publius
Stefan Molyneux interviews Harmon Kaslow, a producer of the new movie 'Atlas Shrugged' Part 1, an mp3 audio file podcast from Freedomain Radio.
46 posted on 03/14/2011 12:08:35 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko (et numquam abrogatam)
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To: ADemocratNoMore; Aggie Mama; alarm rider; alexander_busek; AlligatorEyes; AmericanGirlRising; ...

If you scroll up one entry to Post #46, you’ll find a link to an MP3 podcast of an interview with Harmon Kaslow, one of the producers of the “Atlas Shrugged” movie. I found it interesting.


47 posted on 03/14/2011 1:45:01 PM PDT by Publius
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To: Publius
although hers was a screenwriter’s understanding of history

gotta argue a bit with that.

"Alice Rosenbaum" was raised and schooled in Russia - was about 13 when the Revolution turned her world upside down.

However, in Russia, as in most of Europe, schools taught World History and they taught it well. They weren't bogged down with all the cr*p our schools are today.

She was precocious, teaching herself to write by age 6 and already writing stories and plots by age 8.

At university, she studied philosophy and history - and she had studied American History her last year in high school.

I suspicion she knew history, including Dark Ages, a dight better than only from a "screenwriters understanding."

48 posted on 03/14/2011 3:56:26 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("We stand together or we fall apart" mt)
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To: Publius

Hey, friend...good to see you......thanks for the repost !!


49 posted on 03/14/2011 4:30:23 PM PDT by mick (Central Banker Capitalism is NOT Free Enterprise)
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To: Publius
One might construct an entire body of fiction around this alternate world. It is a pity that Rand declined to do so.

No pity - Go for it!

Perhaps your book will be on the shelves constantly for the next 50+ years and become the most read novel in history?

Everyone sits on a different branch and gets a slightly different view from their perch.

It isn't necessary to tear apart another persons description of THEIR view - just present your own.

'reminds me of all the commentaries on the Bible, and even IN the Bible - all the pontifications of what Jesus taught, for example.

I'm with Jefferson on that subject. I have "Jefferson's Bible" - which is merely the words of Jesus, cut and pasted - literally - by Jefferson into a book of it's own.

I also have a beautifully "illuminated" book (illustrated in old Bible style illustration,) and the entire text is simply what would be the 'red letter' words in the Bible. It's simply titled: "His Words."

I'm of a mind that Jesus - especially considering who He was, was able to get across His message before He left. Although, admittedly, he taught in 'layers', for "those who have eyes to see and ears to hear." It's up to us as individuals to read and reread and "get it" - straight from the horses mouth, as it were.

I feel the same way about, say, Robert Frost's poetry, or Michelangelo's - or Norman Rockwell's paintings. They stand on their own and need no interpretations. They said, painted, what they had to say. End, fini.

They stand on their own. As does Rand's works.

Different writers, hatched in a different place, a different era, interpret the scene beneath their perch a bit different. That's fine. Write about your vision, paint your own paintings.

The saying goes: "Those who can't, teach."

I've often thought that could also be "Those who can't, 'critique."

No offense. Just my "view."

An aside: One doesn't have to reach back to the 'Dark AGes' for examples of how to live post 'civilization.' I grew up on little farm, deep in the country, in the 1930-40's. We lived, basically, as people had lived for hundreds of years - other than we had a car - but we could have gotten by without even that.

There was no electricity in area. Our 'running water' was a hand pump on the sink. We burned kerosene lamps and heated/cooked with wood stoves - our fuel cut from the surrounding forest.

A constant years supply of food was on hand - in the gardens, cellar barrels, gleaming canning jars - milk,butter, pork and beef in the barn. Chicken and eggs in the coop. Meat and fish in the woods and waters. Fruits (apples and cherries) and berries on the land. We had a GOOD life. My grandparents never worked for anyone else.

Right now, you might be surprised at the thousands of people across this county who are already or in preparation to be able to live that way again. They are preparing with great purpose. They are networking. Many communities already have bartering systems - some even their own 'money' - up and running.

There are many today that wouldn't be in The Gulch when the SHTF - but they will not be helpless - NOR defenseless.

You might enjoy this story, as it pertains to a non-dollar system.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/berkshires_kicking_dollar_habit

Even the bank accepts their 'money.' There are bartering networks across the country.

Some states, even now - I think Utah and Georgia? - are reading their own in state monetary system, their own currency.

I could go on - but enough already. The Tea Party folk are a testament of the people that will be able to roll up their sleeves, dig in and create survivable communities that would "seed" the recovery - or maybe it isn't 'recovery' we want or need, but redirection of our country. Jefferson's dream was to develop this country as 'agrarian" - be the breadbasket of the world and trade for manufactures good - leaving the manufacturing and big cities overseas - his rationale: They breed crime and corruption. Who can argue with that.

Just maybe, like it or not, we'll soon have the chance to redecide that proposal.

In the meantime, as bad as it is and may well be - We'll weather the storm better'n most think...

50 posted on 03/14/2011 5:32:23 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("We stand together or we fall apart" mt)
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To: sig226
cities also can't support agriculture until the tar and concrete are removed to expose dirt.

Well, Detroit's half way there.

In the meantime, city-folk should be doing this -

LIVE LINK NEXT POST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q

BTW - your post is GREAT!

51 posted on 03/14/2011 5:50:40 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("We stand together or we fall apart" mt)
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To: Publius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q

City farming


52 posted on 03/14/2011 5:51:20 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("We stand together or we fall apart" mt)
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To: Publius

I checked the listing of where it will be playing here in NY. Only 2 theaters and both in NYC.

The ONLY time I go to NYC is to catch the amtrak to DC for a Tea Party.

Looks like I’ll be purchasing the dvd!


53 posted on 03/15/2011 3:19:53 AM PDT by NoGrayZone (Hell really is a bottomless pit of fire. Which side of the line are you going to choose? Palin/West)
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