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Bezig met laden... Atlas Shrugged (origineel 1957; editie 1999)door Ayn Rand
Informatie over het werkDe kracht van Atlantis door Ayn Rand (1957)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. A staggering portrait of emptiness. If only someone had remembered to tell the author. Atlas Shrugged is breathtaking empty. Devoid of morality, depleted of literary skill, deprived of sensible plot, deserted of dialogue. Philosophy textbooks disguised as novels are rarely appealing, but especially not when the underlying philosophy is so absurd. Like much throat-slitting libertarianism (which Rand chose to call "objectivism"), the views make minimal sense in regard to their actions, but make no sense whatsoever in regard to the consequences of those actions. Take a few logical steps down the line and see what kind of world you'll end up in if you follow these instructions. (If you're reading this on the cusp of the 2020s, you won't have to do too much guessing; Rand's principles underwrite some of our most prominent world politicians and thinkers.) Run. Take your children and your pets, grab that wad of cash from under grandma's mattress, and head for the hills. A world awaits you there of kindness and compassion, and - for that matter - genuine literature. Maybe you'll enjoy [a:Lawrence Durrell|8166|Lawrence Durrell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1463722118p2/8166.jpg] or [a:Sally Rooney|15860970|Sally Rooney|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1534007127p2/15860970.jpg]? Perhaps you're a [a:Toni Morrison|3534|Toni Morrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1494211316p2/3534.jpg] type, a [a:Kazuo Ishiguro|4280|Kazuo Ishiguro|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1424906625p2/4280.jpg] acolyte, mad for [a:John Barth|8113|John Barth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1222685060p2/8113.jpg] or eager for [a:George Eliot|173|George Eliot|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1596202587p2/173.jpg]. Whatever you choose, it's got to be better than this. As Robinson Jeffers famously said, "when the cities lie at the monster's feet, there are left the mountains". I went into reading this book thinking I would love it. By the end, I found myself answering "who cares" every time the book spouted the mantra "who is John Gault." I was able to read the whole book and did find it interesting enough to finish. I don't think I would be so disappointed if I hadn't gone in with such high expectations for my enjoyment level. One can not really write a short review on this book if it ended with 5 stars. But one also can not write everything about this book without writing another book. I have pages and pages of handwritten text that I someday will put to use... ...but for now everything is simple: this book is about ideas as clock is about time. There is no other use for clock except idea of time and everything that comes with it. So is the book. Really that simple. It objectifies everyone and everything. To the point of been mechanical. And it's about mechanics too! About that steel-cage concrete philosophical building that rises to the sky in one single move. Everything is definitive. Steel-cage of story structure, apartments of world scenes, furniture of characters... it's as beautiful as one construction can be. Almost blinding... ...and there is love. The love... Love. There is no simple words describing love in this book. Except word "love". Very not for everyone love. It is mechanical and objectified of course. Also it is grand and steel strong. It is in the whole building, it is in the matter of the book. And the characters, they are cogs and springs, they are movers and counters, they are parts that make whole, they unique and exist as one. There is absolutely no character development whatsoever, there is no need in one. There is no place for doubts, there is only certainty. There is just this sound of steel beams smashing together, there is this sound of big industrial hammers smashing ideas into matter. There is this sound of beating heart of the machine. Imagine you sitting in Bugatti Veyron, imagine you pushing pedal and open throttle to release all that thousand wild horses into this world. There is a very clear line between people who going there with whole heart no mind technicalities, and the people who don't care because it's just a car. There is no one side to this book. There is good. There is bad. But personally I don't give a damn. I'm in love.
"Despite laborious monologues, the reader will stay with this strange world, borne along by its story and eloquent flow of ideas." "to warn contemporary America against abandoning its factories, neglecting technological progress and abolishing the profit motive seems a little like admonishing water against running uphill." "inspired" and "monumental" but "(t)o the Christian, everyone is redeemable. But Ayn Rand’s ethical hardness may repel those who most need her message: that charity should be voluntary…. She should not have tried to rewrite the Sermon on the Mount." Atlas Shrugged represents a watershed in the history of world literature. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article... "We struggle to be just. For we cannot help feeling at least a sympathetic pain before the sheer labor, discipline, and patient craftsmanship that went to making this mountain of words. But the words keep shouting us down. In the end that tone dominates. But it should be its own antidote, warning us that anything it shouts is best taken with the usual reservations with which we might sip a patent medicine. Some may like the flavor. In any case, the brew is probably without lasting ill effects. But it is not a cure for anything. Nor would we, ordinarily, place much confidence in the diagnosis of a doctor who supposes that the Hippocratic Oath is a kind of curse." "remarkably silly" and "can be called a novel only by devaluing the term" ... "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To the gas chambers — go!'" Is opgenomen inBevatIs verkort inInspireerdeHeeft een naslagwerk/handboekHeeft als een commentaar op de tekstHeeft als studiegids voor studentenBevat een handleiding voor docentenPrijzenOnderscheidingenErelijsten
This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world, and did. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemys but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? You will learn the answers to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, "Atlas shrugged" is Ayn Rand's magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. "Atlas shrugged" emerged as a premier moral apologia for Capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners) who have never heard Capitalism defended in other than technical terms. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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There are many strikes of labor. This is a story about the strike of the mind. When those with a mind are persecuted and blamed for all problems while still forced to be productive, they have a few options. They can continue letting their brain to be looted, or can stop thinking, or leave to use their skills elsewhere. Some cannot help but work harder, even as the outcomes of that effort is looted. Others cease to think for themselves, and start to just take orders, and then blame the decision makers for the problems caused. But over time, many of the decision makers vanish. It is as if a mysterious destroyer keeps taking away those with the ability to think. Leaving only those who loot, and do not take responsibility.
Although the looters want to keep looting other, they hate being looted. They do not perceive themselves as looters, for all their actions are claimed and justified as being for the higher good. Taking the moral high ground and gaining the support of the public, which the public suffer the consequences of the looting. With social support, they keep looting which enriches themselves. But what happens when there is no one left to loot? No one left to think or produce? Whom are they to blame? Within the story, such questions that have uncertain answers are themselves answered with the question: Who is John Galt?
There is a lot of economics and philosophy weaved within this book. The narrative is more background for the economics. Seeing the impact of policies. The impact of competition has consequences for those unwilling to compete. For some, rather than compete, they write laws to remove the better competitors. Claiming that it is for competition, and what is best for society. With the irony of creating a monopoly that destroys the services the public needed.
There are many characters in this book, some of which appear to act inconsistently. But those contradictions only appear like contradictions, as the reader is asked to check the premises in making those character judgments.
Caveats?
The book is polarizing. Although many of the consequences of public policy in this book have historic precedents, they are exaggerated for effect. But they also hint at the authors views on public policy. The protagonists are major industrialists who are persecuted for their greed, but do not seem to be willing to engage politics. With the implication that it is their greed that causes them to be productive. There are fallacies within the economics presented.
The world in this book has different cultural values, which the protagonists seem not to understand. It seems that the protagonists have not been engaging with the culture for that long. They seek to understand that culture, and when that understanding comes, they gain power.
To embed the philosophy, there are very long speeches that people make, within the conversations. These long speeches are more essays on particular topics, and reduce the flow of the narrative. The long speeches seem to ask a lot of the listeners, and the reader, but have more succinct meanings. ( )