The Dusty Bookshelf discussion

I'm in the middle of Atlas Shrugged right now. Have any of you read it? I actually kind of like it. I think it's a good dystopian. I'm on page 700 so if anyone wants to start I probably won't finish for at least another 3 weeks :)

Oh and April - I haven't reached the big speech yet by galt. But my guess is that it's the ENTIRE chapter called "This is John Galt Speaking." LOL

Jessica wrote: "Oh and April - I haven't reached the big speech yet by galt. But my guess is that it's the ENTIRE chapter called "This is John Galt Speaking." LOL"

Too funny. Yup, that'd probably be it! I'll be taking a quick look at it again as a reminder then I'm up for discussion (especially since we just watched the movies...which followed the book, but unfortunately were not the best made movies..blah:)

My dad said the same thing about the movie. He wants to read the book to see if its better. I might watch the movie after I finish.

I will just comment...that if you do NOT read the book first, it may be hard to tell what in the world is going on, especially with the important parts of the book. Had I not read it first, I would have totally missed the mark of the movie!

Ok...so re-looking at Atlas Shrugged and Miss Rand's ideals. I think the biggest difference we had is she believes in no kind of faith. It's difficult to have the cut and dried kind of society she longs for...and still have compassion and a faith in God. While she talks about how if you don't produce then you are not worthy of living in society. Again...I have a different view of service based occupations, non-profits that sort of thing...and it really all goes back to, while I can't sight specific sentences or anything at this moment, she clearly came across as not having any belief in God.
While I agree that it shouldn't be a "nasty" thing to actually want to do good for yourself, and make money...nothing wrong in my mind with capitalism.... there's something that is inherently wrong, in my mind, about ONLY helping yourself...without any conscience of what happens to our fellow man. That's the jist of my 'problem' with her views:)

Yeah I thought the same thing. Her view of reason being the ultimate drive for her society doesn't explain people who work for charities or who do altruistic things. She almost makes it sound bad that if I do something without "getting" anything out of it. But this book did make me notice that at its essence socialism can be legalized theft. And how dangerous the attitude of something for nothing and entitlement is. Man part 3 is reeeaaallly dragging. I'm reading for it to end and there are still 200 pages left :/

I read it last year and thought it was fantastic (although by the time I was done with the John Galt chapter I felt like I was the dead horse getting beaten!) but I agree with your sentiments, ladies. Very well put, April, that while working hard to improve yourself is all well and good but to ONLY work towards that end and not be benevolent to others? I think she's mostly going after those people that feel ENTITELED to such help without doing anything to work towards it, and I agree with her there. Once you believe it's your right to receive and someone else's right to produce for you... well, that's a slippery slope. But cutting yourself off from the world because you don't like how it's run? No society will be perfect, their new world would also devolve over time.

Alana - Ha ha I thought the same thing about the John Galt chapter! I think she had a good point where she showed that even if you are completely "selfish" you do end up helping others around you. But I think people living to the extreme that she showed would end up more like Scrooge than anything. I agree that the other extreme is just as bad where people feel entitled to help. I'm glad I finished it. I learned a lot about being more objective but no way would I go to that extreme. I think it's so important to care for and help others.