Three face-to-face friends and I have decided to read and discuss
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's her fourth and last novel. I put off reading this book for years because it's over a thousand pages long. Reading with friends will make it easier, especially since we plan to email our comments and questions to each other after each chapter. Would any of you like to join me in discussing this philosophical book on Book Buddies? You are welcome to start at any time and leave comments even long after the live discussion takes place. (Click on any of the underlined links to read that part of the discussion.)
Wikipedia has lots of information about
Atlas Shrugged and about
Ayn Rand, the author (shown here). This is from
eNotes:
"According to a 1991 Library of Congress report, it is considered the second most influential book after the Bible in the lives of its readers. A complex combination of mystery, love story, social criticism, and philosophical concepts, the 1,100 page novel embodies the author's passionate celebration of individualism, free will, capitalism, logic, and reason. ... The apathy of the people is summed up in a new slang expression, 'Who is John Galt?' which conveys hopelessness, fear, and a sense of futility, as well as everything unachievable and imagined."
The book is divided into three parts with ten chapters in each section:
Introduction ~ by Leonard Peikoff (in the Mass Market paperback, which I have ~ if you have a different one, I'd like to hear about yours)
Part One ~ NON-CONTRADICTION
I ~ The Theme
II ~ The Chain
III ~ The Top and the Bottom
IV ~ The Immovable Movers
V ~ The Climax of the D'Anconias
VI ~ The Non-Commercial
VII ~ The Exploiters and the Exploited
VIII ~ The John Galt Line
IX ~ The Sacred and the Profane
X ~ Wyatt's Torch
Part Two ~ EITHER-OR
I ~ The Man Who Belonged on Earth
II ~ The Aristocracy of Pull
III ~ White Blackmail
IV ~ The Sanction of the Victim
V ~ Account Overdrawn
VI ~ Miracle Metal
VII ~ The Moratorium on Brains
VIII ~ By Our Love
IX ~ The Face Without Pain or Fear or Guilt
X ~ The Sign of the Dollar
Part Three ~ A IS A
I ~ Atlantis
II ~ The Utopia of Greed
III ~ Anti-Greed
IV ~ Anti-Life
V ~ Their Brothers' Keepers
VI ~ The Concerto of Deliverance
VII ~ "This is John Galt Speaking"
VIII ~ The Egoist
IX ~ The Generator
X ~In the Name of the Best Within Us
The Essentials of Objectivism
"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." -- Ayn Rand
