A new look at old books: "Atlas Shrugged"

"Atlas Shrugged is a hateful book, deserving of hatred, which contains nothing between its covers but adequate writing and deplorable ideas."
- Sarah Szabo, Variety Editor for the student newspaper of the University of Tulsa

In her review of Atlas Shrugged, Szabo savages Ayn Rand as a sad, bitter, second-class writer still shell-shocked from starving in Russia. Szabo asserts that Atlas Shrugged is full of material that makes Stalin look tame, claiming Rand had "ideas that were just as bad, just as cruel, and somehow even more painful to read than the ideologies of her enemies."

Somehow failing to notice any characters beside Dagny and John Galt, and overlooking the necessity to objectively critique any idea, principle, or passage contained in its pages, Szabo opens herself up to the suspicion that she either never read the book, or she's the progeny of Betram Scudder.

In her own words, "None of this would be all that offensive if it were not just idiotic in every conceivable way."

(Note: I started reading Atlas Shrugged a few weeks ago, and just reached the 600 page mark. As soon as I finish, I will publish my own review (warning: expect analysis of actual content)).

(Note 2: The University of Tulsa recently received $750,000 in federal funding for a yet unproductive experiment trying to refine algae into gasoline. Government funding accounts for 59% of the school's research budget.)

Pardon me as I transition from laughing to weeping.

Echo spun around the room,
Cacophony.
Echo danced, molten sound,
teasing, “Remember,”
Then quiet as smoke and cruel as summer,
Echo slipped away.

Neither created
nor destroyed
I stand,
inheritor
of worlds.

Quotables

"As academics in a university we don't have to confront religion if we're not religious, but in the world, they will have to." -Alison Simmons, a Harvard philosophy professor who co-chaired the committee which added "Reason and Faith" as a required course at Harvard

Ah, the poor bitter masses, clinging to faith in a just God, unaware that the professors have done away with the need for justice. The answer to every broken heart is not redemption, but apathy.

A pocket guide to Life at a Desk

no matter what time of morning, afternoon, or evening,
coffee is the greater good.

Begin the diplomatic dance,
spin away from anything that
suggests mankind is at fault,
or sin is possible, even though
the very music you are dancing to
is full of broken harmonies.

The Established Politician

Out of my way, you drooling, dagger-clumsy fool!
Your squalling insults perturb me less
than your squear-eyed, catkin'd brain can comprehend -
I'm off to battle with real men.

Stop your prating - your ideas of justice are dwarfed by mine of power.
You are unsuited to the fray - the stakes are higher than the heights of your most moist,
miserable, fantastic dreams. Step aside.

Are you familiar
with the slicing edge of a thinking man's tongue? STEP ASIDE!!!
Or is annihilation not resident in your vocabulary?

Fie! My blood lineage alone ought to quell your advance! Shame, you churl-spawned beggar. You yet proceed with mock-challenges to war? You have the manners of an Englishman, the breeding of a cow, and the intelligence of a dreamer.
Move on.

What? All men equal? All gold? Bah.
Step aside! Down! Heel!
In one month's time
I'll put you in your place
six feet underground.