Thoughts on Anthem and Atlas

          I have a confession to make.  I’ve never read Atlas Shrugged.  Yes I started it, four times, but as of today I have not finished it.  While in high school, I developed a love of science fiction.  As part of a literature class, I read Anthem thinking it was a mere sci-fi story.  After that, I attempted to read Atlas Shrugged.  Frankly, I thought it might be another science fiction story.  It didn’t take me long to realize it wasn’t science fiction and put it back on the shelf.  If you’re thinking that I missed the point of Anthem, you are right.  Moreover, I certainly did not get the message of Atlas, but I was just sixteen.

          In college I tried Atlas again for another literature class.  I finished the first part, but the plot didn’t grab me, so once again I put it aside.  Several years later and about a week into a new job the manager, a women just a few years older than me, asked if I had ever read Atlas Shrugged.  I confessed my failure.  As we worked that day, she talked a little about Rand and the author’s objectivist philosophy.  It was the first time I ever heard that there was more to the novel than an interesting story.  That was enough to get me to buy another copy of Atlas and to get about halfway through before putting it aside. 

          In the coming months I read a few articles about Ayn Rand and some more about her philosophy.  Then I reread Anthem.  This time I saw what Rand was trying to do.  The story was a mere vehicle for the message of individualism and the struggle of those with drive and vision against collectivism.  The understanding of Anthem sparked my interest in Ayn Rand, as well as a lifelong interest in not just living my life, but understanding the “why” behind the way I live and feel.  Over the years, I have read most of Rand’s fiction and non-fiction, but I never again attempted Atlas Shrugged, until just recently.

          When they announced that the movie Atlas Shrugged would soon be released, I ordered another copy and began to read.  I know the basic plot, but as I quickly turned the pages, I keep rooting for Dagny, Reardon and Wyatt to succeed against the fools around them.  I understand Rand’s heroes and I despise her villains, but worst of all are the fools, like Reardon’s family, who are willingly ignorant leeches.  Reading Atlas now, I highlight passages that I know I’ll want to refer to later.  I have grown from the boy that could not understand past the young man who did not understand into the man who must understand. 

          For me, Rand's magnum opus became truly compelling only when I understood the author and the message of individualism and individual achievement that drove her to write it.  Today, as I read the novel, I find it difficult to set down.  I want to see her vision of a world where the prime movers go on strike.  I’ll finish the book soon and then I want to go see the movie. 

          However, I’ll be in rural Alaska for another month.  The nearest movie theater is hundreds of miles away and even if I decided to go to one, there are no roads.  So, even though I really want to, I haven’t yet seen Atlas Shrugged, but I’ve been reading the reviews.  Movie critics, like their Hollywood friends, generally come from the hate America and anti-capitalism mindset, so when I read Roger Ebert's scathing review, I just smiled.  Of course, you loathed it Roger.  Ayn Rand represents everything you hate.  Why did you bother even to see the movie? 

          As I peruse the many bad reviews, I remind myself that it is surprising the liberals of Hollywood ever attempted such a movie, even more so that it appears to be true to the novel.  As I write this, the critics on Rottentomatoes.com are panning the movie, giving it just 7% fresh, but viewers are giving it 85%.  When I finally get home, I’m just going to go see it and judge for myself.