Thinking About Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand.

I read it. On the third attempt. A long story came out. At 5-6 years old.

2008 year . I bought somewhere an electronic text version. I didn’t go. Well, I think, "young ishsho." Put it off.

In 2010, I came across one (one!) Chapter in mp3. Well, I think, okay - let's starve. I’m listening in the car. Nevermind. The remaining chapters were nowhere to be found. In stores like ozone, too. I could not find a publisher then, nothing. Well, what is it, I think. Okay. Another year has passed.

In 2011 or 2012 , more precisely, I don’t remember, I came across a thick paper edition. I bought it. I started to read. The same garbage as a couple of years ago. Well does not go. Well, boring.

In 2012 found a movie. More precisely, the adaptation of the first part of the novel. Watch is easier. Although the filmed is also not very. The second part was not found in a good translation. And in the comments they suggested that the second part suffered from a change in the cast.

Finally, a week ago, by chance, I found in audio format the full version of the book. Audio performance. He poured it on the armored phone and while taking the senior to school, listen to one or two chapters. And then there's the road to Kharkov and back: 10 hours with headphones. I read it. I listened, more precisely.

Only now I realized what was wrong.A book is written from a literary point of view, not so badly ... Not at all. Clumsy. The characters are straight like doors. If a man and he is good, then on his chest there is a sign - “A good hero, 1 pc.” His decisions are not that simple, but straightforward. Stupidly straight. No options. he laughs out loud. Tolerates all the way and all such Atlant-Atlant. And around him there are furies with harpies, so that everyone can understand how good he is, since the bad ones do not appreciate him that way. But he tolerates them - it means good. Clear? If the man in the novel is bad, then in the end he shouts directly, “I'm bad!”, Goes crazy and runs away from it. Bad, but with a fine mental organization, yeah. I just growled “Kill him!” And cheated on his lawful wife, and then he felt bad because he realized how bad he was. Br-rr Already plastic smells of such characters.

It makes no sense to sort out everyone in the novel, but if the pirate is noble, the woman is strong-willed, but she is still weak, and at the time of the shootout, armed soldiers instead of knocking down a man who breaks a window and jumps into the room, almost in chorus they ask him, "What is your name ?!" And he is: "I am Robin Hood!" And they are: “Forgive us, Robin Hood” and without a trace all froze in a daze. The soldiers. With weapon. Bollywood, damn it, some kind. Panopticon with a priest in the bathroom.

And the book is sensible. In places, right ... it breaks through. Contrary to the wooden artistry of the word. But “breaks through” some protective layer of cynicism of the surrounding world. It is as if you are looking at how the children in the sandbox play in the store, and when someone does not have enough ice cream from the sand, they still “sell” a portion to him. And it seems that we are all kind of callous. And here they are ...

I don’t know if it’s right to compare the cartoon characters of the novel with the children who are right in their correctness. Maybe this is the author’s idea. Maybe I became angry. Or, besides business literature, I also read fiction and have something to compare. But ... don't listen to me. Better just grab it and read it. I already warned you as best I could and now you will not be scared. Good book. Or maybe I got caught in time. I do not know.

Logics

The book is all black and white. Here ours, across the river - not ours. We are fighting. Self-denial. Everything is as it should be. But this has its own charm. Simplicity. Clearness. Logics. No - not the logic of plot construction (it is not there - the storyline is straightforward like a cabinet door), but LOGIC, conclusions, sequence, irreversibility of the results that the author put into the head of all good heroes. The logic on which the old world is built. The logic, which as a tool, the heroes open this old world as a tin can. The logic that helps ours and destroys not ours. Logic, as the protagonist of the novel, is the first plus because of which it is worth reading Atlanta.

People

Ordinary people who often appear in the novel as the backdrop, the scenery, in front of which the main characters speak memorized phrases. And then the scenery comes to life. And people stand along the railway. Of your own free will. Helping change. Expressing your will. Arousing respect. People who want to shake hands for standing up and going to defend their point of view. The second reason to read the book is people. Good, simple, right people. Wisely nonviolent. Wisely.

Tenacity

Perseverance in the need to do business. Sometimes the persistence in the novel turns to Kryptonite for their heroes, but it’s Perseverance, which now seems to me that all of us lack. To me.

Perseverance to do their job and go the chosen path. Like a machine that just works. Like a steam locomotive. A simple and understandable steam locomotive that turns power into speed and performs an understandable Work to deliver the train from point A to point B. An action that irreversibly occurs after comprehension ... Understanding.

If you tend to think a lot and do a little - Atlas is full of other heroes. Give it a try. They charge. An irreversible sequence of actions and results.

Work

The very idea of ​​an honest business relationship. Relationships do not “get”, but “earn”, it seems to me so convexly written in the novel to scratch again and again those of us who “expect it to be.” In the novel, of course, those who do win. Build. Launch. Earn money. It needs to be reminded.

Something smart at the very end

I got lucky. In those moments when the fast train in the novel rushes through the Colorado desert at a speed of 100 miles per hour, I rode in the capital's express train, all at the same speed that is written in the novel as the speed of life, the speed of business and decisions. The sensations of reading were superimposed with a sense of travel. With the feeling that I myself was doing my job. It helped me to love this book.

I will not say that the book turned my world upside down. I also met such reviews on the novel Atlas Shrugged. And from people personally respected by me for the results. I will not say that I will put this book in the first, second or even tenth place on my shelf of “books for business”. Also no.

But there is something in this book. With its simplicity. With the time of sight of the bad, from which they immediately became good. With trains and the line of John Gault, about whom the whole novel is continually people ask each other. With rustic fantasy, all these “force fields” amid steam locomotives and stokers.

Read, or better yet, listen in good quality. Maybe you will like it. And you also ask yourself - who is this for me, John Gault?