I’d start with Anthem or Fountainhead (Fountainhead would be my preference). Or you could do what I did for my son…go out and get the unabridged audio of Atlas and listen to it when you are in your car. 
-XT
I assume you meant “read”, not “watch”. The movie was terrible.
I’d read The Fountainhead first. *Anthem *is kinda SciFi-ish, and if you don’t like SciFi, you won’t like Anthem. If the first few chapters of The Fountainhead don’t do anything for you, then you can just put it down and right Rand off. But that novel is much, much better than Anthem. You don’t have to agree with her philosophy to like her. And don’t listen to all the self-righteous folks who’ll tell you that she’s a crap writer. It’s as fashionable today to dislike her as it was fashionable to like her in the 60s.
The best way to quit is never to start. 
Another non-Randroid Rand fan here.
I would actually recommend reading Atlas Shrugged before The Fountainhead. I read AS when I was 13 (imagine the look on my English teacher’s face when I plunked that baby down on my desk for Friday-afternoon reading hour!) and loved it at first read. I still love it, and I don’t apologize for that. It’s a good read–a bit dense in spots, and I’ll admit that I don’t read Galt’s speech on every re-read anymore–but it’s a good science-fiction story wrapped around a philosophical treatise. Yeah, the characters are a bit one-dimensional, but they’re meant to be. And there are some fascinating ambiguous characters like the Wet Nurse and Dr. Stadler to go along with the all-good and the all-bad.
I happen to like heroic characters, and I also like stories about things as they should be, not as they are. A lot of people miss the point of Rand, trying to distill her philosophy down to “be a selfish asshole and screw everybody else over.” That’s not it at all. I see absolutely nothing wrong with defining what you value (whether that be another person, a concept, or whatever) and unapologetically pursuing it. As long as you respect others’ rights to do the same, I think it’s a perfectly logical way to live. Nobody has a right to force you to live for another person’s happiness at the expense of your own. If you choose to do so, then that’s what you value. If you’re guilted or forced into it, it’s wrong.
Rand, personally, was a bit of a whackjob, though. I almost wish I didn’t know as much as I do about her personal life (gained from reading various biographies written by people who knew her). She had some strange beliefs that didn’t jibe with her philosophy, but of course if anyone mentioned this she would attack them viciously.
Ah, well. That aside, AS is a good story. So is Anthem. So is The Fountainhead. I suggest reading them in that order, but YMMV.
Let’s not forget We the Living. Much shorter than The Fountainhead, and some interesting historical drama, too. I liked all three novels, and would recommend reading them in this order:
TF
WtL
AS
She also entertainingly deconstructed the 1946 Best Picture Oscar winner The Best Years of Our Lives, calling it communist propaganda. I’m somewhat inclined to agree.
Self-righteous if you didn’t enjoy the book? Wow. I didn’t like it because it was long and kinda corny.
I made it through the unabridged audiobook of Atlas Shrugged - all 52 hours of it, mostly while driving or doing housework. I’m not a fan of her philosophy, but I found it to be one of the more engaging audiobooks I’ve listened to.
Nah, if you don’t like the book and/or Rand and/or her philosophy, that’s fine. Lots of people don’t. But conversely I resent the efforts of many people who try to make others feel like they’re some kind of intellectual neanderthals if they like Rand.
I like Rand’s books. I like her philosophy. As I said in my previous post, I’m not ashamed of that. Nor am I deluded, intellectually inferior, or any of the other nice names that some folks (not pointing at any Dopers–just things I’ve heard in the past from various other people) like to pin on those of us who admit to enjoying them. As someone with a libertarian/classical liberal philosophical bent, a lot of her ideas speak to me. Other may (and probably often do!) differ. That’s what makes the world such an interesting place.
BTW, I thought the movie was terrible, too, and I *wanted *to like it.
Wow, how long was the speech in the audiobook?
I’ve read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and enjoyed Atlas a lot more. I liked the epic scope, found the sci-fi/speculative elements intriguing (moreso than the philosophy), and thought the characters were a lot easier to take than Fountainhead’s.
51 hours.
I’ve only read Atlas Shrugged and a few of her essays.
She’s not as horrible a writer as some make her out to be. She’s much better than Dan Brown, for instance. She’s on a par with those old writers of best sellers like Arthur Hailey and Danielle Steele, the kind of big novels you don’t really see any more. Of course Hailey and Steele didn’t interrupt their novels by having their characters deliver 100 page disquisitions on the beauty of money or why helping people is immoral.
She wants to write a novel of ideas, but she’s incoherent and absurd. She seems to regard science as this magical force that will allow those who believe in her principles to do things like hide entire valleys from view by projecting an illusion, make a roomfull of equipment turn to dust instantly, or draw energy literally out of the air. The government is completely evil, composed of men who despise the productive and wish not just to expropriate them, but to destroy them. Her heroes are god-men who make Bruce Wayne look ordinary. They’re brilliant scientists, clever businessmen, crack shots, whatever they need to be. It’s a bit like the characters in the Matrix downloading the skills needed to drive a helicopter or excel at unarmed combat. The big confrontation is utterly ludicrous, and steals so copiously from the very Bible she despises.
Basically she’s a mystic pretending to be a rationalist. In life she cultivated a cult of personality where her views were to be treated as Holy writ. This book, by a former cult member, has some pretty funny stories.
There are some arguments to be made in favor of libertarianism. Rand doesn’t really make them.
Ha! Now there’s some faint praise! My new catchphrase, to replace *“Much better than * Cats!”
So . . . deep down, I really *do * like her; I’m just lying because it’s fashionable.
:rolleyes:
And what didn’t you like about the movie, John, that you can state so unequivocally that it was a “terrible movie,” rather than the more sensible, “I didn’t like the movie”?
The director, King Vidor, who was capable of great subtlety and profundity (The Big Parade, The Crowd, Street Scene) was also capable, Sirklike, of communicating his disdain for the material through obvious camp and overstatement (Duel in the Sun; The Fountainhead).
Why would she? She isn’t a Libertarian after all and completely disagrees with them.
-XT
Out of curiosity, if you don’t like Rand (those several of you who have expressed this attitude), why the fuck would you bother wandering in to shit on this thread? I mean…wouldn’t it make more sense to start your own “I hate Rand” thread, than to come in here where the OP isn’t really asking for opinions on Rand at all?
As I said, I’m really curious why if you don’t care for Rand, you would come in here just to make sure everyone knows you don’t like her stuff…
-XT
The thread wasn’t titled “I love Ayn Rand” or “Lets start an Ayn Rand Fan Club”. The OP hadn’t read the book and seemed to be asking opinions. Before I buy a book I don’t mind people telling me they don’t like it, do you? Do you check movie reviews before you commit the $10 to buy a ticket?
I didn’t say I hated it, but I thought it was boring and the story was corny like a bad 50’s movie. I think I read it in high school like most people I know. Not that I would read it again, but maybe my opinion would change if I did read it again now.
Nope, it was “Ayn Rand: Where should I start?” Perhaps you translate this to be “Shit on Ayn Rand for me”, or “Tell me why Ayn Rand sucks”…but reading the OP it doesn’t really seem to be that way. I don’t see any pro-Rand people gushing about Rand…just answering the fucking question, i.e. Where should I start? Note…most said something like “start with this book”…as opposed to, um, lets see:
“Read it. It will annoy you. At the end, you’ll toss it across the room.” This does’t really seem to answer the question…unless you are going with the 'Shit on Ayn Rand" translation.
“Reminds me of Dorothy Parker: “This book is not to be tossed lightly aside, but to be hurled with great force.” Kinda how I feel about the Ayn Rand corpus. But I’m sure others will be along soon with other (more constructive) replies.” Again, I’m not getting how this relates to the OP
“Read it for campy howling laughter; it’s the most absurdly selfrighteous pomposity ever commited to paper and ink. It’s “Trapped in the Closet”-style ridiculosity.” How does this relate to where to start with Rand? I’m at a loss…
“I slogged through Atlas Shrugged and mildly enjoyed it. Parts of the story are interesting, and you can skim through the boring bits without losing track of the plot. It didn’t make me want to read any of her other stuff, though.” I suppose this could be said to at least touch on the actual OP (remember that?), in that maybe you shouldn’t start with AS…or something.
Anyway…the OP isn’t asking for a critique of Rand…positive OR negative. S/he is asking simply where is the best place to start reading Rand. If someone needs a diagram, that would be which of Rands works they should start with. If you don’t care for Rand at all, have never read Rand, or read one of her books and given up, then this probably isn’t the thread for you as you have nothing meaningful or even useful to add. Go elsewhere and be happy, secure in the knowledge that you are better than all of use who actually LIKE Rands works.
-XT
Because if someone asks where to start with Ayn Rand, that means they have not yet been lost. It’s a clarion call to rescue a soul on the brink of a cliff.
If someone posted a thread titled, “I’m thinking of starting smoking. Which brand should I try first?”, wouldn’t you feel a moral imperative to save their lives? Think of the children!
That’s the kind of impulse that motivates us to enter this thread, xt: a purely heroic impulse.