If I were to start a reading of Atlas Shrugged in the vein of Slacktivist's Left Behind series, would you read it?
I've never been able to bring myself to read AS, but knowing yer enemies is generally wise, and libertarianism is the new refuge for image conscious conservatives. And I figure I can survive 15-20 pages a week, I hope. But I ain't gonna do it just for my own health, so let me know if you think this would be a worthwhile idea.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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19 comments:
I thought it was a load of crap.
I'd read about you reading it. I wouldn't ever try to read it myself, ever again.
I vote 'fuck yeah'. But then again, brad, dude, I kinda like you. I would never let you do that to yourself.
I read that shit-fest when I was 22 having no idea at all what it was about. I'd heard that a lot of people like Rand's books so I read it. OMG, it was horrible. I pushed through though. There are a lot of pretty amusing bits. My favorite is when she says it's ok that hundreds of people died in a train wreck because they had political ideas that differed from hers.
Also, she apparently things energy just magically appears out of nowhere.
Oh hell yeah I'd read that. Kind of like how there was no way I was not going to watch that dude who hammered six-inch nails up his nostrils at the fair.
Because, you know, they're not *my* sinuses.
There's homework? Nobody said there was going to be homework.
(I'll read it too.)
A. Anything Rand wrote was a big shit-fest, as noted.
B. Even if McBrainless read any of Rand, it's not like there is any cohesive thread to her thoughts. I don't think she has understand anything she has read--or even anything she writes.
Has understood, excuse me.
Understand it or not, she embodies the solipsistic narcissism that Rand thought was a "philosophy."
So how about this: brad's going to read it and write about it and the rest of us will form a support group.
Yeah, well, if you start calling yourself "Jane Galt" after you're done, well, we'll kick your ass on general principles (decent ones!).
In principle I'm in, but are you aware that at 15pp/week, this is going to last well into 2010?
I know it'll be a load of crap, but I made it all the way through Slander (tho I broke the spine throwing it at a wall first), so I'll survive. It's something I feel like I should have a basic awareness of, in a Socratic "know a common bad argument so as to know how to best shit all over it" sense. I will, of course, get a copy from the library, n not give anyone money for this crap.
Dsquared brings up a good point, but if it ends up being boring no one will notice or mind if I give up on it. And I might take slightly bigger bites at a time, we'll see how it plays out.
N perhaps you can guest host sometimes, Susan, when I'm bored with the project or otherwise engaged with slacking.
right wing institutions hand those out by the shitloads at high schools so i'm sure you could pick one up for free somewhere.
If you're going to do it, I think you should go all the way and try to re-create an approximation of the context in which McArdle first read it: Post break-up, stoned and listening to the Chili Peppers' "Breaking the Girl" and "Under the Bridge" over and over again, with occasional trips to the bathroom to purge.
I'd be delighted.
And here I thought my vague intention to read it--just to "see"--was in a vacuum. Come sir, let's too't.
By the way, check this out.
OMG, that McSweeney's is the funniest thing ever!
For those who've managed to slog through the entire thing, this passage is the best satire ever.
""Our money represents our spirit's values," Galt said. "When the government takes our profits, it is literally robbing us of our souls. I will not apologize for my wealth to a nation of looters. We who live by the mind could've been engineers, scientists, doctors, extreme-sports enthusiasts, but there is no purer pursuit than the pursuit of money. A is A. Money begets more money, and ..."
Galt went on like this for what seemed to Dagny like hours, until, finally, something he said piqued her interest. "
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