I picked up a dusty copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and began reading. It’s not the first Rand novel I’ve read; but it is the first in many years. And I nearly cast it aside, multiple times, in the first 100 pages. There’s much that irks me about this novel -- or, more to the point, about Ayn Rand’s skills as a writer of fiction. I think maybe it’s a good thing she devoted her subsequent and remaining years to the nonfictional development of the philosophy of Objectivism.
So why have I kept reading? There's more than one answer to that question. But this evening the most immediate one dawned on me.
The heroes of Atlas Shrugged (as of page 382 out of 1168*) are the men and the woman driven by a clear vision of what they want to accomplish, in a society where every law and custom is stacked against them, where it seems utterly futile to even try to achieve their goals, little more expect any success. The novel is a fable about the struggles of these super heroes, this pantheon of Individualism, against the sledgehammers of entropy smashing society’s foundations and the accelerating apathy which is driving mankind into a new Dark Age of weed choked highways and utter poverty.
Why would that be an appealing read?
Well, I’m an individual with a life-long vision of things I urgently hunger to accomplish. And recent months find me at a financially challenging crossroads, where the things that need to get done (in order to stay afloat, repair my finances and move towards my goals) are many, yet outnumbered by the obstacles that loom in my way. I feel like I’m too late -- much too late -- to “confront the difficult while it is still easy”. Reading about Ayn Rand’s compulsively driven protagonists facing challenges so utterly monstrous as to be implausible, not only makes my problems seem comparatively small, but -- more to the point -- inspires me to continued action, to go on working diligently, in the lengthening shadow of intimidating obstruction.
So, every few days, as a reward for my hard work, I read several more pages of Atlas Shrugged, while I eat my dinner or get ready for bed. And that inspires me to keep on keepin’ on.
* It goes without saying, any attempt to summarize a book of this length -- which I haven’t even finished reading -- in just a sentence or two, is going to lead to vast over simplifications. If you’d like to correct or add to my summary, use the “Add a comment” link below.
