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From: ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.sf-lovers
Subject: ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
Message-ID: <865@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Jun-85 18:50:41 EDT
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Posted: Wed Jun 19 18:50:41 1985
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                         ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
                            Signet, 1957, $1.75.
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper

     In spite of its over a thousand pages, I can't find much to say about
this book.  The premise is that the technical and managerial geniuses, who
have been all that has stood between the masses and ruin, have decided (with
the encouragement of one John Galt) no longer to let their talents and
abilities be comandeered by those less able than themselves, but instead to
drop out of society and form their own society based on their desires.  (I
bet you hadn't realized that Ayn Rand invented the hippie!)  Of course,
things quickly go to hell in a handbasket because of this, starting with the
collapse of the railroads, which Rand sees as the foundation of American
society, trade, and culture.  The result is predictable to any one who has
read any Rand before (though I refuse to believe that even as their are food
and fuel shortages because of collapsing (in some cases literally)
railroads, a post card can get from Colorado to New York in four days.  It
can't do that now!).

     Rand's obvious happiness in killing off all the "worthless" characters
in this book (which includes over 90% of the general public) makes it
somewhat difficult for most people to buy into the good points that she is
making.  While her methods of making her points are not the most subtle in
the world, Rand's questions of ability and the responsibility of an
individual to "donate" his or her ability to the general good because others
have decided so is well worth considering.  Unfortunately, eleven hundred
pages is more considering that you may want to do.  The best way to read
this book is to skip all the long speeches (particularly in the second half)
and read it as a science fiction "end of the world" story.  Then do your
philosophizing on your own.

					Evelyn C. Leeper
					...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl