Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" has sold hundreds of thousands in last 18 months

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/04/27/ayn.rand.atlas.shrugged/index.html

(CNN) -- "Where is John Galt?" reads a sign in the back of a vehicle heading down Interstate 85 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The quotation is wrong. As any reader of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" can attest, the correct line is "Who is John Galt?" but the point is well taken.

In the midst of the credit crisis and the federal government's massive bailout plan, the works of Rand, a proponent of a libertarian, free-market philosophy she called Objectivism, are getting new attention.

"If only 'Atlas' were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster," Wall Street Journal columnist Stephen Moore wrote in early January.

It's obviously getting attention from the general public. Rand book sales are "going through the roof," said Yaron Brook, the president of the Ayn Rand Institute. According to Brook, "Atlas Shrugged," her most famous novel, has sold more copies in the first four months of 2009 than it did for all of 2008 -- and in 2008, it sold 200,000 copies. It's been in Amazon.com's top 50 for more than a month.

Not bad for a 1,100-page doorstop of a book that came out in 1957, by an author who died in 1982.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Gawd help us all

more Randians.

[johnfunk]

36. Worst. Novel. Ever.

Read it in high school. Boring. Implausible. Completely unlikable, arrogant protagonists. Stilted dialogue.

[KG]

56. one of the few books I couldn't be bothered to finish. not even half-way.

it was recommended to me by a lady friend when i was quite young and impressionable and would devour anything.

yeesh, it sucked.

[Enrique]

66. I literally threw it across the room in disgust

I was at work at the time.

The only other book that caused such a strong reaction in me was a John Grisham book, which I threw out of a car window on the interstate.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

83. Horrifically badly written

even given that English was Rand's second language. Probably the best selling truly horrid book of all time. I too gave up in disgust after about 300 pages. Infinitely less plausible than the most freaked out Stephen King or Michael Moorcock novel.

To quote the wonderful Dorothy Parker (albeit about a different book), "this is not a book that should be tossed aside lightly. It should be flung with great force."

[Hissyspit]

2. 'Atlas Shrugged' is not required reading for every member of Congress because...

it's a stupid piece of shit.

[urgk]

35. How about the more timely "Atlas Gorged."?

Or "Atlas Golfed." Or "It Was Atlas' Executive Assistant Who Ran the Damn Thing Anyway." Or "Atlas set the Earth down on the outstretched arms of the multitudes of middle and lower class people and, meanwhile, used the opportunity to pick their pockets."

Every time I see somebody on TV reference Atlas Gorged, it's with that, same, thinly veiled (if veiled at all) threat that the John Galts of this nation will take their brilliant, irreplaceable leadership and go home.

I say let them. Let the billionaires leave. At least every billionaire whose company has taken a dive while paying huge bonuses to its CEOS.

Let the actual brightest lead for awhile.

[JohnnyBoots]

38. How about, "Atlas Got Bailed Out" ........

[blondeatlast]

44. ...

:rofl: and my dog is looking at me funny...

[myrna minx]

48. LOL.

[urgk]

52. "Atlas Went Bungee Jumping on a Cord Anchored to Our Collective Neck." n/t

[omega minimo]

65. Atlas Securitized

[babylonsister]

3. I think people are buying it but not reading it. If they read it, they wouldn't

understand it.

I read it when I was 15 and thought it was readable-liked it never considering politics, but never read it again. Do you think people who are buying it now are actually reading it?

[murielm99]

5. If they are 15 or 16 they are reading it.

Ask just about anyone here, or a group of your friends. Most of us read it as teenagers. We thought it was great stuff. As we grew older, we realized it was crap, and very poorly written.

[babylonsister]

9. I didn't have a computer or all the other stuff kids have. I know for

a fact I don't read as much as I used to. These kids? Maybe not.

[ashling]

17. I read Rand when I was in high school

and found it interesting, but I thought her writing sucked and decided I would never read any more of her stuff.
Ashling:shrug:ed

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Had to read it in college finance class. Still have a copy.

[HughBeaumont]

18. Why would a bad fiction novel justifying selfishness be required reading in a finance class?

Kind of makes one wonder what kind of economic education colleges WANT our kids to have . . .

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Why is a science fiction writer the figure head of a "religion"? n/t

[HughBeaumont]

37. Hee hee . . . it's called "Low I.Q."

You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion. - Hubbard.

My father has always held out Scientology and auditing to be based purely on science and not on religious "belief" or faith. We regularly promised and distributed publications with "scientific guarantees". This was and has always been common practice. My father and I created a "religious front" only for tax purposes and legal protection 'from fraud Claims'. We almost always told nearly everyone that Scientology was really science, not a religion, but that the religious front was created to deal with the government.

Ron DeWolfe eldest son of Hubbard (born L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.)

[blondeatlast]

46. Who knows? I had to read The Celestine Prophecy for a grad education class.

God help me, I only WISH I were joking.

[zbdent]

25. gawd ... a 200 page monologue in the middle of it ...

that's a filibuster in itself ...

[ContinentalOp]

4. Wow, a whole 0.0006% of the population!?

Must be a mass movement!!! Let's write an article about it!!!

correct my if my math is wrong but wtf. why is this newsworthy?

[ContinentalOp]

11. To put some perspective on it...

if it were a movie it would probably be at #11 this weekend. Oh wait but that's over 200,000 copies in 4 months!

Let's be charitable and assume that over 200k actually means double that. 400k in 4 months is 25,000 copies a week. So again, if it were a movie, assuming $10 a ticket, it would have ranked at #24 this week, below Dragonball Evolution, and just a couple of spots above Hotel for Dogs (in its 15th week of release.)

Some mass movement there :eyes:

[ContinentalOp]

12. And check out the effect articles like this can have.

Two editions of Atlas Shrugged and an edition of the Fountainhead have made big jumps on Amazon's list just in the past 24 hours. The centennial hardcover edition is ranked #89 in all books (up 156% from #228), the paperback is up 112% from #478 to #225, and the Fountainhead is up 123% from #705 to #316.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/movers-and-shakers/books/ref=pd_ts_b_mte

Can anyone with access to something like Lexis Nexis track how many articles have been written promoting Rand since Obama's inauguration?

[babylonsister]

14. And then there's Mein Kempht in India? Who knows? I'd like to know why.

Hitler's Mein Kampf Inspires Indian Students Looking for Management Skills

http://www.wowowow.com/politics/hitlers-mein-kampf-inspires-indian-students-looking-management-skills-274729

[ContinentalOp]

15. Yeah, I read that story too and thought it was pretty damn weird.

But on the other hand I didn't think about it in the same way I did this one. The article in the Telegraph said 10,000 copies were sold in New Delhi in six months. I don't know what population figure to use for New Delhi though. If it's the 302,000 number for New Delhi alone, that's 3% but if it includes the 9 million or so people in the greater metropolitan area, then it's like 0.1%.

It just seems like these kind of articles can blow up a lot of hot air over nothing, or even help promote something that is actually pretty marginal.

[Blue_Tires]

43. whoa...what the shit??

:wtf:

[noiretextatique]

64. recently, our CEO said she admired hitler's management

and organizational skills :puke:
one of the reasons i will be looking for a new job in august after i vest in the pension plan.

[Jim Pivonka]

67. If you are not familiar with the influence of Hindu Fascism in Indian politics, please fix that.

The BJP, currently the party in opposition in India, is riddled with nativist fascism, with a strong component of religious fervor and intolerance. This goes back decades; the origin is contemporaraneous with and from the same roots in popular discontent and rejection of cosmopolitan modernism that Japanese, Italian, German, Spanish, British, and US fascism shared during the Great Depression.

Indian fascists are responsible for the anti-Muslim violence in India that has riven places such as Gujarat, and which is portrayed in "Slumdog".

A lot of work has been done on this in recent years. Google is your friend. Try for a kick start.

[fujiyama]

84. A lot of Indians have a very strange

fascination with Hitler.

I think it's partly ignorance in Asia in general of Hitler's evil and hatred and completely absence of knowledge of ethnic cleansing and the holocaust. Many just think he was some military leader that conquered a bunch of countries.

There was an article a few years ago about some folks that thought it'd be "cool" to have a restaurant in Mumbai or Delhi named after Hitler. Hell, on a social website (similar to facebook) a relative back in India had a Hitler avatar. After being informed that's a real no-no by me and another cousin, he changed it - ironically to Albert Einstein.

[ContinentalOp]

16. Hahaha, oh wow was my math wrong.

What can I say, it's late. It should have been 0.06%. Still.

[Warpy]

7. yeah, but how many people are actually going to get through it?

I know it was a monstrosity of a novel, hard bitten, cardboard characters delivering long winded polemics at each other, page after page after page of it.

I barely got through it at 16 and finished it in gales of silly giggles over the ridiculousness of it all.

Unless they're wealthy, most people can buy Rand's line of bullshit only until they exit their twenties. The antidote for Rand is real life.

[yawetag]

21. You're right, Warpy!

Hey, you gotta help me out with something!

Three of my (right wing, naturally) co-workers frickin' SWEAR by Any Rand and when one time I said to them something similar to what YOU just said, which is that Ayn Rand makes perfect sense until you're out of your mid-20s, after which you realize she's an idiot, one of them came back at me with a quote from Winston Churchill that I had no particular rejoinder for...but man oh man how I'd love to hit them with one tomorrow (a rejoinder, that is).

So here's the quote. Y'ready? It's: "If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart, and if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no head."

Now, I am trying to reconcile the brilliant Prime Minister's quotation (which he made BEFORE he turned senile, evidently -- LOL!!!) about conservatism being a function of age and wisdom, with what you and I both believe about "the cult of Ayn Rand" -- which is that LIBERALISM's a philosophy that develops with age and wisdom.

Help me get this right, Warpy -- please -- because first thing tomorrow morning, I wanna nail those motherfuckers!

Thanks a lot!

Yawetag

[drm604]

30. I'm not Warpy, but here are some thoughts on that quote.

First off, just because Churchill said it doesn't mean that it's some sort of unquestionable gospel.

Secondly, his actions seem to have been at odds with that statement. I think this is your real killer response.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Budget

The 1909 (UK) People's Budget was a product of H.H. Asquith's Liberal government that introduced many unprecedented taxes on the wealthy and radical social welfare programmes to Britain's political life. It was championed by Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George and his strong ally Winston Churchill, who was then President of the Board of Trade. Churchill's biographer William Manchester called the "People's Budget" "a revolutionary concept" because it was the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth to the British public. It was a key issue of contention between the Liberal government and the House of Lords, ultimately leading to two general elections in 1910 and the enactment of the Parliament Act 1911.

To be fair, he turned 35 that year so he wasn't 40 yet, but given the radical nature of The People's Budget it doesn't seem like he had even begun moving in the direction of conservatism.

Finally, we're talking about an imperialist who opposed independence for India. Is that really someone they want to use as an exemplar of personal freedom?

[JohnnyBoots]

40. Some Conservatives, I think suffer from arrested development. They will forever be

a snotnosed young adult with no real perception of the real world or empathy for people who suffer its problems. Hence how you get callous and immature Randers who have no problem justifying their greed as ok because they feel that they are better and smarter than everyone else. My $.02

[Warpy]

57. Even smart men occasionally say very stupid things.

This is so poorly stated as to be a very stupid thing, although I'm sure he didn't envision conservatives being represented by the empty headed Palin and her sidekick Joe the Bummer. Had he been able to see that far into the future, he'd never have used the word,"conservative."

The truth is that youth is a time for radicalism and what is passing for conservatism these days is definitely reactionary radicalism. Age requires tempering that early radicalism with reality, meaning most of us have a softening of the passions of our youth over time.

Tell him it's time he put away childish things and grew a brain. Empty heads aren't worth much.

[yawetag]

70. I'm gonna tell him that, Warpy!

Because you are certainly right on all counts!

And when he comes back at me with some kind of sophist bullshit like, "Oh, so 'youth is a time for radicalism', eh? And 'what's passing for conservatism these days is definitely reactionary radicalism', eh? So how exactly do you account for the fact that a surpassing percentage of our nation's youth -- who by your definition ought to be 'conservative radicals' -- went ahead last year and voted for Obama?"

He's just BOUND to say something pseudo-smart like that so please, Warpy -- PLEASE give me some kind of .44 caliber rejoinder so I can NAIL that son of a bitch (and his two compatriots) where he lives!!!

Thanks!

P.S: These three f*ckers are always saying how we liberals rarely use facts to support our arguments -- only emotion -- because the facts for the most part simply aren't on our side so we end up resorting to name-calling and, finally, to running away like scared rabbits and I know this isn't true and I do NOT want to be that guy Warpy! I gotta sharpen my debating skills.

I wish I could wear an earpiece at work with you and some other of my whip-smart DU homies chattering in my ear and telling me what to say! Because then I know I could trash those mofo's Brooklyn style!

Peace.

yawetag

[Warpy]

71. There comes a time in every radical youth movement

when the excesses become so great that sensible youth reject it completely. It happened in the late 60s when enough people got pissed off at left wing fringe groups and is happening now that the GOP has radicalized so much that people are rejecting it.

Youth took a look at Palin and did just that, and I'm damned proud of them.

[yawetag]

72. Warpy you're my hero!

You are insightful, and true wordsmith, and one righteous dude! Thanks a lot!

[progressoid]

77. If they are Christians, ask them what they think about Rand being an atheist.

For Rand, values do not come from God but are objective. That usually stumps most Christian RWers. Most of them who want her to be their beacon don't even know what she's about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand)

[napoleon_in_rags]

8. "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders'

"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity -- myself, especially -- are in a state of shocked disbelief," Greenspan told a congressional hearing in October.

Yet strangely, their pursuit of their own self interest lead to the failures, which led to the bailouts, which are leading toward more nationalized banks. It all sort of boggles the mind.

Also, On Rand:

http://michaelprescott.net/hickman.htm

[saltpoint]

10. I'm not a fan of that author. Sorry to be a party-pooper.

I'd rather see book sales soaring for other titles instead, including but not limited to works by Reynolds Price, Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, and Gore Vidal.

And poetry. I wish one hundred thousand people would order, read, and love Anne Sexton's TRANSFORMATIONS (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry).

[anonymous171]

13. Ayn Rand's "philosophy" is just another conservative attempt to justify the status quo. nt

[MrScorpio]

20. Rand was one of the worst writers ever

Why her crap is getting this sort of revival treatment is way beyond my simple understanding

[Sabriel]

22. That's it. I'm changing my name to Dagny.

I like to get in on the ground floor of nine-day trends.

[BlooInBloo]

23. It's doubly funny because (a) The purchasers will never read it...

and (b) it's fucking stupid anyway.

[Solomon]

49. I've never read it so I bought it a couple of months ago and can't

seem to get into it. Just because the sales numbers went up doesn't mean people agree with it. I'm an example.

[BlooInBloo]

51. Don't worry about it. Go pick up Philosophy And The Mirror Of Nature...

if you want a serious page-turner. And one of the best pieces of thought ever penned, at that.

[ixion]

24. freepers may buy it, but no way in hell do they have the wherewithal

to actually read the tome.

I mean, it's pretty easy reading -- Rand doesn't use many 'big' words -- but the sheer length of the story, and the fact that it's pretty dry for the most part, and the fact that most of them apparently read at a sixth-grade level, will deter most from ever really finishing it.

I think it's more of a fad for them, to simply have a book laying around the house. :evilgrin:

[zbdent]

26. it would be hilarious to apply the "Atlas Shrugged" principles to the U.S. ...

the number of RWers who fail to live up to the standards would be astronomical ...

they couldn't put together enough to make the 3 cents ... gold ... to pay for a cigarette ...

[sendero]

27. Libertarian douchebag Greenspan.

... is in the top 2 of people culpable for this mess. It's amazing that anyone would buy into that crap when it is such a proven failure.

[Captain Hilts]

28. Spare us the 'douchebag'. nt

[blindpig]

29. It hardly matters how lame it is.

It's appeal is to the self-absorbed(teenagers & those whose social development is retarded), it is justifying, good enough for them. And anything glorifying capitalism and demonizing socialism suits the status quo.

The reference to L Ron Hubbard up thread is appropriate, both are truly horrible writers.

[Joe Chi Minh]

31. No. Not the general public. The degenerates among your monied

classes. And that quite a small percentage.

Moore is taking through his hat. And why wouldn't he as a Wall Street columinst? It's not the bail-outs he and his anarcho-Republican kind are worried about. It's a One-Nation, Roosevelt-type President.

This from Wikipedia:

"Rand has remained controversial. Left-wing linguist and analytic philosopher Noam Chomsky declared Rand to be "ne of the most evil figures of modern intellectual history."<114><115> Conservative commentator and founder of the National Review William F. Buckley declared: "Ayn Rand is dead. So, incidentally, is the philosophy she sought to launch dead; it was in fact stillborn."<116>"

[Lorien]

32. Alan Greenspan called Rand his "mentor"

'nuff said.

[timtom]

33. I WANT to read Ayn Rand...

Really I do. It's just that, right now, I simply don't have the time. I just ordered what appears to be a kick-ass translation of Plato's complete dialogues for $35 from Amazon. I also ordered Reader's Encyclopedia by Stephen Vincent Benet. Surely you all can see my dilemma.

And, I TRIED to read her before. Forty years ago, or so. But, you see, the same thing: I found that I just didn't have the time.

(Sigh!) Noblesse oblige, I suppose. What with all the reading to which I'm already committed, along with life's other exigencies, I'm afraid I'll never quite have the time...

Sincerely,

The Mighty (But Slackadaisical) TimTom

[MedleyMisty]

34. Another possible reason is BioShock

The game's villain is Andrew Ryan - take away a few letters and rearrange what's left. And look up some videos on YouTube - he spends the game shouting Randian things. And a lot of the comments will be from teenage boys who agree with him but then considering how savagely capitalist hardcore WoW raiders, who tend to be the same demographic, are (which is funny because it's not like they're working and contributing IRL) that doesn't surprise me.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

54. Most of them miss the point of that...

BioShock is a perfect example of Randian philosophy taken to it's ultimate conclusion: Total chaos...science "without the constraints of morality" (At least I think that's what it said in the intro movie for the game)

Even though the primary developer of the game is a bit of a Randidiot himself, the game is a perfect example of how not to run a society. And what disaster will come from it.

[Occulus]

60. "I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question:

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

No, says the man in Washington: it belongs to the poor.
No, says the man in the Vatican: it belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow: it belongs to everyone.

I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something
different. I chose the impossible. I chose...

RAPTURE.

A city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

-Andrew Ryan, founder, Rapture

And this, my absolute favorite lead-in to a boss fight ever:

"What can I DO with this one, Aphrodite? She won't... stay.... still! All I want to do is make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong!

That one... too fat! This one... too tall! THIS one.... too symmetrical! And now..... what's this, goddess? An intruder! He is ugly.... ugly..... UGLLLYYYYY!

-Dr. J.S. Steinman, plastic surgeon, Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals

"Look, Mr. Bubbles. It's an angel! I can see light coming from his belly. Wait a minute... he's still breathing. It's all right... I know he'll be an angel soon..."

-Little Sister to Big Daddy, Rapture

Someone stop me. I just adore Bioshock. What a great game.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

62. Psst.

"It's not like System Shock 2. It is System Shock 2. The psi powers are now plasmids, the hybrids are now splicers, and the wrench is...well...a wrench. But it's a different kind of wrench."

:P

I still agree with Yahtzee. It's okay, but...shallow.
But the writing was spot on, and anyone who thinks Bioshock is some great screed of Randism really, really needed to pay attention to the game they were playing. Including the lead developer of the game.

[HughBeaumont]

39. Ah, Stephen Moore . . . the Heritage assclown who once wrote a book called "Bullish on Bush".

Written in 2004: Bullish on Bush: How George Bush's Owenership Society Will Make America Stronger Uh . . . yeah. How's that working out for ye?

His newest book is called "The End Of Prosperity" . . . co-written with discredited Laissez-fail court jester Art Laffer. It's more or less about how "teh 4% increase in tax rate r gonner DESTROYYYYY US@!!!1!!!"

So a flat taxer charlatan praising a con artist. Classic. I'd expect NOTHING less from Conservatives.

[Liberal In Texas]

41. I've noticed a lot of repub aquaintences I have have gone from calling themselves

conservatives or Republicans to Libertarian. They all voted for Bush twice but now their somewhat embarrassed (and they should be REALLY embarrassed) over the failure of little boots administration and now claim to be in the libertarian camp. Rather than this philosophy of laissez-faire being a failure they think it didn't go far enough and embrace the Randian/Ron Paul ideas. They don't think anybody needs to pay taxes or want the regressive "fair tax". They practically worship rich people.

I remember in the '50s my parents thought "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" were great books. I believe I read one of them as a teenager and thought it was OK. After I got to college and read better books I came to think of it as simplistic out-dated dogma. There has been no shortage of advocates of the "I got mine, you get yours" ideas: Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Robert Ringer (Looking out for #1), or even Taylor Caldwell (Bright Flows the River).

This philosophy seems logical enough, on an simplistic level, which is why it usually appeals to young people who haven't experienced much life yet. But when you start to analyze what happens if you get sick or injured, or if these idealistic moral people they write about turn out to be crooks, or if the mega-corporation decides not to play by "fair market" rules, it starts to break down.

When actually put into practice, it hasn't worked anyplace in the world.

Edit to add: As Michael Moore says are we going to have a "me" society or a "we" society.

[urgk]

55. Perhaps the Randians should read another great economic work...

Called "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg."

I believe they can find it in most Children's Book sections. It's far more applicable to the current economic situation than Rand. In fact, I may start calling myself an Aesopian.

I have one version here:

The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg
An Aesop Fable

A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.
"Just think," said the man's wife, "If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster."

"You're right," said her husband, "We wouldn't have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day."

So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.

Too much greed results in nothing.

[Blue_Tires]

42. lol at the WSJ columnist quote

does the WSJ op-ed page have ANY credibility left?

[joeybee12]

45. The infantile philosophy espoused by Rand got us into this mess...n/t

[MrMickeysMom]

47. Yes, right along with those ...

... assault weapons!

I don't believe that this book is being read as much as it appears it's being marketed.

Are all the out of touch free market economists actually thinking they can restore this dribble?

[southpaw]

50. Both 'Atlas...' and 'The Fountainhead'

Have recently been published in 'Anniversary Editions' featuring the cover art that adorned the first editions.

I'd have to look them up to see when exactly they hit the shelves, but consider that these new collectable editions are probably selling in large numbers to people who already like Rand.

No guarantee that her philosophy of selfishness is finding lots of new readers.

[eShirl]

53. I recieved a copy of "Atlas Shrugged" as a h.s. graduation present in 1983

never masde it past the first few pages
:shrug:

[Mari333]

58. LOL what has possessed people to do this LOL nt

[dugaresa]

59. Wonder why her book "The Virtue of Selfishness" isn't taking off?

She wrote that piece of drivel and it is more fitting for the times. Enron, Ponzi schemes...you name it, it can be reduced to selfishness.

[baldguy]

61. "Where is John Galt?"

He just knows he's better than all these other parasites around him.

[brentspeak]

63. Yeah, and each and every Rand fan considers themselves to be "John Galts"

Stephen Moore is a world-class weasel.

[TheMightyFavog]

68. What about Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

69. Don't look at me...

Until recently I still thought her name was pronounced "Ann"... :evilgrin:

[RTFirefly]

73. It fits right in with the conservative worldview.

Old and fictional.

[ismnotwasm]

74. Ewww

That is one long boring, dumbass book. I still regret reading it.

A subtitle could be "Confessions of an Economic Asswipe".

[ContinentalOp]

75. And the one day sales boom is over.

Check out post #12 from yesterday where I pointed out that Atlas Shrugged was one of Amazon's movers and shakers for that 24 hour period. Now today it's gone from the list and has dropped down the ranks. Articles like these CREATE these trends, they aren't reporting on them. How many similar articles have been written by Randoids since Obama's inauguration? They're are intentionally attempting to create some kind of movement where none exists.

[ContinentalOp]

76. Another good point of comparison.

The Audacity of Hope sold 182,000 copies in less than a month when it was released in 2006.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/books/09obam.html

200,000 copies sold in 4 months is not exactly the mass movement that these Rand backers are trying to portray.

[Quantess]

78. Back in the early 90s my retail supervisor was proudly reading it.

She always bragged about whatever lame book she was reading (and they were all lame), and encouraged me to check them out. I didn't know and I didn't really care what it was about, because reading a random page was enough to lose my interest. I enjoyed reading classics, but whatever this Atlas Shrugged book was about, this Ayn Rand was a mediocre writer.

My supervisor was a tightly-wound, know-it-all, see you next tuesday, who liked to tell racist jokes. She thought she was so smart (such a voracious reader of crappy pablum books!), and she liked to belittle me. Unfortunately at that age I lacked confidence to stand up to her, even though she was just a year older.
It was just me and her working in that tiny store, so I quit after about 4 miserable months and went back to college, where I read good books.

[Quantess]

79. In case any freeps are criticizing my grammatic usage of "me and her" in that last sentence...

It is correct.
Look it up if you have to.
:)

[Greyhound]

80. Oh goody, maybe all those deluded "John Galts" really will go into hiding and withhold their

insanity from the rest of the world. Good riddance to bad rubbish, we will be much better off without them.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

81. what next? Father Coughlin repeats on the radio?

the right tries to dig out every relic from their past to save their irrelevant asses

[OmahaBlueDog]

82. Just wondering, how many copies of "The Audacity of Hope" sold in the same timeframe?

I'm betting more

[Norrin Radd]

85. I stoked a fire with a copy of Atlas Shrugged, once.

Cooked a veggie dog over it. A Randian at our cookout was visibly perturbed, but didn't have the courage to express it out loud.

[TankLV]

86. The premise of Ann Rand is correct if taken at it's "core" "logic"...

If we had let "capitalism" run WITHOUT GOVERMENT INTERFERENCE, then ALL these corporations, and many more, would have FAILED, and their CEO WOULD BE LEFT WITH NOTHING - and I totally support that!

we should have found a way to GET RID OF THESE CORRUPT CEOS, and SUPPORTED the WORKERS...

BUT

what these ignorant fools COMPLETELY IGNORE, is that, WE - THE TAXPAYERS - are SAVING THESE INCOMPETANT CEO'S ASSES by GIVING THEM OUR MONEY!!!

These assholes want us to PRIVATIZE the REWARDS of a SELECT FEW, and SOCIALIZE the RISKS and COSTS!!!

[mwb970]

87. Then there are hundreds of thousands of disappointed Americans.

Each with a new doorstop! Given the attention span of the average American, especially the ones that are probably gravitating toward this book, plus the dense turgidity of its prose, I doubt that many of those copies will get read past page 50.