Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
I have sh*t to say, so I am going to try a different format here and bold the points I am trying to make. I read Atlas Shrugged because I believe in reading all sorts of influential works, even though I know the direction in which the book has been influential and I know that it does not reflect my philosophy nor my views on society. All the same, I’ve found that reading things like this helps me form better arguments for my own points. […]
Anthem by Ayn Rand
I’m not going to say much about this one, because I think tomorrow I’m going to finally write my Atlas Shrugged review, and for that one I have OPINIONS. They will largely cover my thoughts on Anthem as well so I’ll take the opportunity to be lazy because it will keep me from being redundant. Anthem plus low-quality 1970s acid equals the movie Zardoz with Sean Connery. Take from that what you will. I do not recommend this book.
Point to Point Navigation by Gore Vidal
A Sorrow beyond Dreams by Peter Handke
For Colored Girls... by Ntozake Shange
Madea by Euripides
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Beowulf by Trans. Heaney
Beowulf by Trans. Headley
Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Point to Point Navigation – 4/5 This is a second and shorter memoir by Gore Vidal published a few years before he died. It wasn’t right before his death, but you get the impression that he is saying a last few things at least before he begins to wrap up his writing career. His career began when he was about 19 or so when he began writing what would become his first novel, Williwaw, a WWII short novel about a boat in the North Pacific […]
I maybe reviewed this last year. But I like to read Anthem with students because it’s more or less interesting, the themes are super bold-type obvious, and the novel is short. Here’s what 12th graders thought of it. “hate the book, and now that it’s my third time reading this i hate it just that much more. basically i would use this book as a fire starter.” “I liked the book. It was very interesting the whole time I was reading it. It was different from […]
Whatever, I liked this. I think I wouldn’t trust anybody who LOVED this or anybody who HATED this. And that’s because as a novel, it’s more or less just a soap opera. It’s just some screwed up sexual politics to it, but really what book doesn’t. I wouldn’t super trust a novel that really discusses a progressive stance on sexual politics to be all that good since our society is so screwed up on the issue, it would read like fantasy. But otherwise, I find […]
I feel like there are two types of people in the world: people who have read Atlas Shrugged, and people who would rather be eaten alive by maggots than read Atlas Shrugged. I’m joking, slightly, of course, but I was possibly the last indifferent person on earth to read it. To be clear, upfront: I have neither the intention, nor the energy, to pick apart and debate Rand’s actual objectivist philosophy within the scope of this review. (To poke the bear slightly, Mallory Ortberg sums […]
