Anyone here with a philosophical nature ever stumble across Ken Krawchuck’s book Atlas Snubbed? It’s labeled as a ‘pastiche parody’, and so I thought it would be taking a comedic look at what happened after Atlas Shrugged. It certainly started off looking it would go that way. The valley got flooded with friends and relatives of strikers who were fleeing the destruction of the world and were invited along, and none of them had taken the oath. Gwen’s dad was there, and was a cantankerous old union man who rejected Galt’s philosophy and who wouldn’t leave his union buddies. There was a mystery man who worked at the State Science Institute who was saved by Owen Kellog, and who followed his plane to the valley. Gwen and hand started questioning Galt’s philosophy. Hank Reardon was taking steps to get his mill up and going, and he had a humorous, terse tone in all his dealings as he made arrangements for supplies and a place to get started. It had the makings of a story where all Galt’s plans would fall apart and Reardon would crush everyone and take over.
But that didn’t happen.
Instead, all the problems went away. Gwen’s dad died in an avalanche. The friends and family of the strikers were given a few months to make their decision, and those who didn’t take the oath were shipped out, presumably to their deaths as when the airfield they were taken to was later visited there were no signs of life. Hank got his factory up and running with no hassles to anyone. Everything went along just fine.
On Eddie’s story line, he got the train up and running and went to Vegas where he set up a libertarian utopia through trial and error. Which is what I realized halfway through the book - it’s not supposed to be a humorous take on Atlas Shrugged, but rather Atlas Shrugged rebranded to show how wonderful a libertarian society would be.
I’m not great at picking apart arguments, and there’s stuff in there that I have problems with but have trouble articulating why. Since I’ve seen Atlas Shrugged discussed and torn apart here before, I was wondering if anyone else who had read Atlas Shrugged had stumbled across it and given it a try? I’m curious what others have to say about it.