Our First FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged

A Publius Essay | 15 January 2009 | Publius

[cowboyway]

Please add me to the ping list. Thanks.

[grey_whiskers]

Was Dagny Taggart smokin' hot?

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

The other problem with Randians (from the little I have seen) is that they reject compassion altogether.

Don't know if this necessarily derives from their atheism, as you can find hints of this among Rush Limbaugh's ("talent on loan from God" therefore not a atheist) discussions .

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

Ayn Rand wanted Farrah Fawcett to star, but the project never materialized.

My head just exploded.

...did I say that Dagny Taggart was smokin' HOT, or what?

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

Please add me to the ping list.

Cheers!

[austingirl]

Count me in. Thanks.

[BraveMan]

LOL! I remember that . . .

Thanks for putting the great Ayn Rand's work in proper perspective. I'd often thought Atlas Shrugged should have been nominated for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Sadly, John Galt’s seemingly endless verbal assaults forced on the populace cannot be condensed enough to fit within the rules of the contest.

Succinctly put, the books message is: 1. Socialism is bad, 2. God doesn't exist and 3. Its OK to be a marriage wrecking whore if you're an entrepreneur.

[BamaGirl]

I loved Atlas Shrugged! I haven’t read it in 20 years. Please sign me up.

[TradicalRC]

An excellent idea. Long overdue. There should also be two booklists for conservatives: an essential and an exhaustive. Conservatives never seem to agree on them but we should give it a shot anyway. Count me in.

[ronnyquest]

Add me please.

[jazusamo]

Please add me to list, Publius.

Thanks!

[DivaDelMar]

Please add me to the ping list. Many thanks. I am particularly fond of The Federalist Papers and I eagerly await the chance to discuss them.

Thank you again for your efforts.

[littlehouse36]

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money

Great description of socialism!

[rodguy911]

If you were going to pick one group of conservative thinkers that defy stereotyping its probably we Randians.

I'm a Christian. Used to be a Methodist until I witnessed leaders of my church force/send a youngster into the arms of the Castro brothers. Stuff like that wakes you up.

[Spunky]

"Some are turned off by the length of her works of fiction."

I was one of those. My eyes couldn't take 400 pages of the tiny-est print.

Add me to your list and I will try again.

[MrsPatriot]

Please add me to your ping list.

Thanks

[MonicaG]

Cool, Publius - count me in! I finally read Atlas Shrugged for the first time about 3 years ago, since I’d heard about it forever and wanted to understand the “Who is John Galt” references I kept reading/hearing. It’s an awesome book, and I could see why my California public educators never assigned it to me... LOL.

Is there even a Cliffs Notes of this book? I imagine it would be as thick as a normal pocket-paperback...

[MonicaG]

Agree, yet early on with decades of commie infiltration, as outlined in their “manifesto” - so it’s both early on in the book yet also well underway. Television and more recently, the internet being such powerful tools; useful to influence, train and motivate the 2 minutes hate Orwell wrote of (but didn’t envision internet-led 24/7/365 hate of President Bush, apparently).

[MonicaG]

That is funny; good for you for making sure Lewis saw it. Rock ON, AmericanGirlRising!

[MonicaG]

And Sowell’s “Vision of the Annointed...” book - I’ve bought & “loaned” out a few copies, not to mention distributing Sowell’s “Applied Economics,” which is such an awesome book!