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Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by
Ayn Rand. Rand's fourth and final novel, it was also her
longest, and the one she considered to be her
magnum opus in the realm of
fiction writing.
Atlas Shrugged includes elements of
science fiction,
mystery, and
romance, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of
Objectivism in any of her works of fiction.
The book depicts a
dystopian United States
in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws
and regulations. Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and her lover, steel
magnate Hank Rearden, struggle against "looters" who want to exploit
their productivity. Dagny and Hank discover that a mysterious figure
called John Galt is persuading other business leaders to abandon their
companies and disappear as a "strike" of productive individuals against
the looters. The novel ends with the strikers planning to build a new
capitalist society based on Galt's philosophy of
reason and
individualism.
The theme of
Atlas Shrugged, as Rand described it, is "the
role of man's mind in existence". The book explores a number of
philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop
Objectivism.
In doing so, it expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, and
capitalism, and depicts what Rand saw to be the failures of governmental
coercion.
Atlas Shrugged received largely negative reviews after its
1957 publication, but achieved enduring popularity and consistent sales
in the following decades.
History
Context and writing
Rand's
stated goal for writing the novel was "to show how desperately the
world needs prime movers and how viciously it treats them" and to
portray "what happens to the world without them".
The core idea for the book came to her after a 1943 telephone
conversation with a friend, who asserted that Rand owed it to her
readers to write fiction about her philosophy. Rand replied, "What if I
went on strike? What if all the creative minds of the world went on
strike?" Rand then began
Atlas Shrugged to depict the
morality of rational self-interest, by exploring the consequences of a
strike
by intellectuals refusing to supply their inventions, art, business
leadership, scientific research, or new ideas to the rest of the world.
To produce
Atlas Shrugged, Rand conducted research on the
American railroad industry. Her previous work on a proposed (but never
realized) screenplay based on the development of the
atomic bomb, including her interviews of
J. Robert Oppenheimer, was used in the portrait of the character
Robert Stadler
and the novel's depiction of the development of "Project X". To do
further background research, Rand toured and inspected a number of
industrial facilities, such as the
Kaiser Steel plant, rode the locomotives of the
New York Central Railroad, and even learned to operate the locomotive of the
Twentieth Century Limited (and proudly reported that when operating it, "nobody touched a lever except me").
Rand's self-identified literary influences include
Victor Hugo,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
Edmond Rostand, and
O. Henry. In addition,
Justin Raimondo has observed similarities between
Atlas Shrugged and the 1922 novel
The Driver, written by
Garet Garrett,
which concerns an idealized industrialist named Henry Galt, who is a
transcontinental railway owner trying to improve the world and fighting
against government and socialism. In contrast,
Chris Matthew Sciabarra found Raimondo's "claims that Rand plagiarized ...
The Driver" to be "unsupported", and
Stephan Kinsella doubts that Rand was in any way influenced by Garrett.
Writer Bruce Ramsey said both novels "have to do with running railroads
during an economic depression, and both suggest pro-capitalist ways in
which the country might get out of the depression. But in plot,
character, tone, and theme they are very different."
Atlas Shrugged was Rand's last completed work of fiction.
It marked a turning point in her life—the end of her career as a
novelist and the beginning of her role as a popular philosopher.
Publishing history
Random House CEO Bennett Cerf oversaw the novel's publication in 1957.
Due to the success of Rand's 1943 novel
The Fountainhead, she had no trouble attracting a publisher for
Atlas Shrugged.
This was a contrast to her previous novels, which she had struggled to
place. Even before she began writing it, she had been approached by
publishers interested in her next novel. However, her contract for
The Fountainhead gave the first option to its publisher,
Bobbs-Merrill Company.
After reviewing a partial manuscript, they asked her to discuss a
number of cuts and other changes. She refused, and Bobbs-Merrill
rejected the book.
Hiram Hayden, an editor she liked who had left Bobbs-Merrill, asked her to consider his new employer,
Random House. In an early discussion about the difficulties of publishing a controversial novel, Random House president
Bennett Cerf
proposed that Rand should submit the manuscript to multiple publishers
simultaneously and ask how they would respond to its ideas, so she could
evaluate who might best promote her work. Rand was impressed by the
bold suggestion and by her overall conversations with them. After
speaking with a few other publishers, of about a dozen who were
interested, Rand decided multiple submissions were not needed; she
offered the manuscript to Random House. Upon reading the portion Rand
submitted, Cerf declared it a "great book" and offered Rand a contract.
It was the first time Rand had worked with a publisher whose executives
seemed truly enthusiastic about one of her books.
Random House published the novel on October 10, 1957. The initial
print run was 100,000 copies. The first paperback edition was published
by
New American Library in July 1959, with an initial run of 150,000. A 35th-anniversary edition was published by
E. P. Dutton in 1992, with an introduction by Rand's legal heir,
Leonard Peikoff. The novel has been translated into more than 25 languages.
Title and chapters
The working title throughout its writing was
The Strike, but thinking this title would have revealed the mystery element of the novel prematurely, Rand was pleased when her husband suggested
Atlas Shrugged, previously the title of a single chapter, for the book. The title is a reference to
Atlas, a
Titan
of Greek mythology, described in the novel as "the giant who holds the
world on his shoulders". The significance of this reference appears in a
conversation between the characters
Francisco d'Anconia and
Hank Rearden,
in which d'Anconia asks Rearden what advice he would give Atlas upon
seeing "the greater [the titan's] effort, the heavier the world bore
down on his shoulders". With Rearden unable to answer, d'Anconia gives
his own response: "To shrug".
The novel is divided into three parts consisting of ten chapters each.
Robert James Bidinotto
said, "the titles of the parts and chapters suggest multiple layers of
meaning. The three parts, for example, are named in honor of Aristotle's
laws of logic ...
Part One is titled 'Non-Contradiction' ... Part Two, titled
'Either-Or' ... [and] Part Three is titled 'A Is A', a reference to 'the
Law of Identity'."
Synopsis
Setting
Atlas Shrugged is set in a
dystopian United States at an unspecified time, in which the country has a "National Legislature" instead of
Congress and a "Head of State" instead of a
President.
The government has increasingly extended its control over businesses
with increasingly stringent regulations. The United States also appears
to be approaching an
economic collapse, with widespread
shortages, constant
business failures,
and severely decreased productivity. Writer Edward Younkins said, "The
story may be simultaneously described as anachronistic and timeless. The
pattern of industrial organization appears to be that of the late
1800s—the mood seems to be close to that of the depression-era 1930s.
Both the social customs and the level of technology remind one of the
1950s". Many early 20th-century technologies are available, and the steel and railroad industries are especially significant;
jet planes are described as a relatively new technology, and
television is significantly less influential than
radio. Although other countries are mentioned in passing, the
Soviet Union,
World War II, or the
Cold War are not. The countries of the world are implied to be organized along vaguely
Marxist
lines, with references to "People's States" in Europe and South
America. Characters also refer to nationalization of businesses in these
"People's States", as well as in America. The economy of the book's
present is contrasted with the capitalism of 19th century America,
recalled as a lost
Golden Age.
Plot
Dagny Taggart, the Operating Vice President of railroad company Taggart Transcontinental, attempts to keep the company alive against
collectivism and
statism amid a sustained
economic depression.
While economic conditions worsen and government agencies enforce their
control on successful businesses, people are often heard repeating the
cryptic phrase "Who is
John Galt?",
in response to questions to which the individual has no answer. It
sarcastically means: "Don't ask important questions, because we don't
have answers"; or more broadly, "What's the point?" or "Why bother?".
Her brother
James,
the railroad's president, seems to make irrational decisions, such as
preferring to buy steel from Orren Boyle's unreliable Associated Steel,
rather than
Hank Rearden's
Rearden Steel. Dagny attempts to ignore her brother and pursue her own
policies. She is nevertheless disappointed to discover that the
Argentine billionaire
Francisco d'Anconia, her childhood friend and first love, appears to be destroying his family's international
copper company without cause by constructing the San Sebastián
copper mines, despite the fact that
Mexico is planning to
nationalize
the mines. She soon realizes that d'Anconia is actually taking
advantage of the investors by building worthless mines. Despite the
risk, Jim and his allies at Associated Steel invest a large amount of
capital into building a railway in the region while ignoring the more
crucial Rio Norte Line in
Colorado,
where the rival Phoenix-Durango Railroad competes by transporting
supplies for Ellis Wyatt, who has revitalized the region after
discovering large
oil reserves.
Dagny minimizes losses on the San Sebastian Line by placing obsolete
trains on the line, which Jim is forced to take credit for after the
line is nationalized as Dagny predicted. Meanwhile, in response to the
success of Phoenix-Durango, the National Alliance of Railroads, a group
containing the railroad companies of the United States, passes a rule
prohibiting competition in economically-prosperous areas while forcing
other railroads to extend rail service to "blighted" areas of the
country, with seniority going to more established railroads. The ruling
effectively ruins Phoenix-Durango, upsetting Dagny. Wyatt subsequently
arrives in Dagny's office and presents her with a nine-month ultimatum:
if she does not supply adequate rail service to his wells by the time
the ruling takes effect, he will not use her service, effectively
ensuring financial failure for Taggart Transcontinental.
In
Philadelphia,
Hank Rearden, a self-made steel magnate, has developed an alloy called
Rearden Metal, which is simultaneously lighter and stronger than
conventional steel. Rearden keeps its composition secret, sparking
jealousy among competitors. Dagny opts to use Rearden Metal in the Rio
Norte Line, becoming the first major customer to purchase the product.
As a result, pressure is put on Dagny to use conventional steel, but she
refuses. Hank's career is hindered by his feelings of obligation to his
wife, mother, and younger brother. After Hank refuses to sell the metal
to the State Science Institute, a government research foundation run by
Dr. Robert Stadler, the Institute publishes a report condemning the
metal without actually identifying problems with it. As a result, many
significant organizations
boycott
the line. Although Stadler agrees with Dagny's complaints over the
unscientific tone of the report, he refuses to override it. Dagny also
becomes acquainted with
Wesley Mouch, a
Washington lobbyist
initially working for Rearden, whom he betrays, and later notices the
nation's most capable business leaders abruptly disappearing, leaving
their industries to failure. The most recent of these is Ellis Wyatt,
who leaves his most successful oil well spewing
petroleum and
fire into the air (later named "Wyatt's Torch"). Each of these men remains absent despite a thorough search by politicians.
Having demonstrated the reliability of Rearden Metal in a
railroad line named after John Galt, Hank and Dagny become lovers, and
later discover, among the ruins of an abandoned factory, an incomplete
motor that transforms atmospheric
static electricity into
kinetic energy,
of which they seek the inventor. Eventually, this search reveals the
reason for business leaders' disappearances: the inventor of the motor
is John Galt, who is leading an organized strike of business leaders
against a society that demands that they be sacrificed. Dagny's private
plane crashes in their hiding place, an isolated valley known as Galt's
Gulch. While she recovers from her injuries, she hears the strikers'
explanations for the strike, and learns that Francisco is one of the
strikers. Galt asks her to join the strike.
Reluctant to abandon her railroad, Dagny leaves Galt's Gulch. But Galt follows her to
New York City,
where he hacks into a national radio broadcast to deliver a long speech
(70 pages in the first edition) to explain the novel's theme and Rand's
Objectivism.
As the government collapses, the authorities capture Galt, but he is
rescued by his partisans, while New York City loses its electricity. The
novel closes as Galt announces that they will later reorganize the
world.
Themes
Philosophy
The story of
Atlas Shrugged dramatically expresses Rand's
ethical egoism, her advocacy of "
rational selfishness",
whereby all of the principal virtues and vices are applications of the
role of reason as man's basic tool of survival (or a failure to apply
it): rationality, honesty, justice, independence, integrity,
productiveness, and pride. Rand's characters often personify her view of
the archetypes of various schools of philosophy for living and working
in the world. Robert James Bidinotto wrote, "Rand rejected the literary
convention that depth and plausibility demand characters who are
naturalistic replicas of the kinds of people we meet in everyday life,
uttering everyday dialogue and pursuing everyday values. But she also
rejected the notion that characters should be symbolic rather than
realistic."
and Rand herself stated, "My characters are never symbols, they are
merely men in sharper focus than the audience can see with unaided
sight. ... My characters are persons in whom certain human attributes
are focused more sharply and consistently than in average human beings".
In addition to the plot's more obvious statements about the
significance of industrialists to society, and the sharp contrast to
Marxism and the
labor theory of value,
this explicit conflict is used by Rand to draw wider philosophical
conclusions, both implicit in the plot and via the characters' own
statements.
Atlas Shrugged caricatures
fascism,
socialism,
communism,
and any state intervention in society, as allowing unproductive people
to "leech" the hard-earned wealth of the productive, and Rand contends
that the outcome of any individual's life is purely a function of its
ability, and that any individual could overcome adverse circumstances,
given ability and intelligence.
Sanction of the victim
The
concept "sanction of the victim" is defined by Leonard Peikoff as "the
willingness of the good to suffer at the hands of the
evil, to accept the role of sacrificial victim for the '
sin' of creating values". Accordingly, throughout
Atlas Shrugged,
numerous characters are frustrated by this sanction, as when Hank
Rearden appears duty-bound to support his family, despite their
hostility toward him; later, the principle is stated by
Dan Conway:
"I suppose somebody's got to be sacrificed. If it turned out to be me, I
have no right to complain". John Galt further explains the principle:
"Evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from
us", and, "I saw that evil was impotent ... and the only weapon of its
triumph was the willingness of the good to serve it".
Government and business
Rand's
view of the ideal government is expressed by John Galt: "The political
system we will build is contained in a single moral premise: no man may
obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force", whereas
"no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into
reality—to think, to work and to keep the results—which means: the right
of property". Galt himself lives a life of
laissez-faire capitalism.
At the end of the book, when the protagonists get ready to return
and claim the ravaged world, Judge Narragansett drafts a new Amendment
to the
United States Constitution: "
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade". He is also "marking and crossing out the contradictions" in the Constitution's existing text.
In the world of
Atlas Shrugged, society stagnates when
independent productive agencies are socially demonized for their
accomplishments. This is in agreement with an excerpt from a 1964
interview with
Playboy
magazine, in which Rand states: "What we have today is not a capitalist
society, but a mixed economy—that is, a mixture of freedom and
controls, which, by the presently dominant trend, is moving toward
dictatorship. The action in
Atlas Shrugged takes place at a time
when society has reached the stage of dictatorship. When and if this
happens, that will be the time to go on strike, but not until then".
Rand also depicts
public choice theory, such that the language of
altruism is used to pass legislation nominally in the public interest (
e.g., the "Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule", and "The Equalization of Opportunity Bill"), but more to the short-term benefit of
special interests and government agencies.
Property rights and individualism
Rand's
heroes continually oppose "parasites", "looters", and "moochers" who
demand the benefits of the heroes' labor. Edward Younkins describes Atlas Shrugged
as "an apocalyptic vision of the last stages of conflict between two
classes of humanity—the looters and the non-looters. The looters are
proponents of high taxation, big labor, government ownership, government
spending, government planning, regulation, and redistribution".
"Looters" are Rand's depiction of bureaucrats and government
officials, who confiscate others' earnings by the implicit threat of
force ("at the point of a gun"). Some officials execute government
policy, such as those who confiscate one state's
seed grain
to feed the starving citizens of another; others exploit those
policies, such as the railroad regulator who illegally sells the
railroad's supplies for his own profit. Both use force to take property
from the people who produced or earned it.
"Moochers" are Rand's depiction of those unable to produce value
themselves, who demand others' earnings on behalf of the needy, but
resent the talented upon whom they depend, and appeal to "moral right"
while enabling the "lawful" seizure by governments.
The character Francisco d'Anconia indicates the role of "looters"
and "moochers" in relation to money: "So you think that money is the
root of all evil? ... Have you ever asked what is the root of money?
Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods
produced and men able to produce them. ... Money is not the tool of the
moochers, who claim your product by tears, or the looters who take it
from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce."
Genre
The novel includes elements of
mystery,
romance, and
science fiction. Rand referred to
Atlas Shrugged as a mystery novel, "not about the murder of man's body, but about the murder—and rebirth—of man's spirit". Nonetheless, when asked by film producer
Albert S. Ruddy if a screenplay could focus on the love story, Rand agreed and reportedly said, "That's all it ever was".
Technological progress and intellectual breakthroughs in scientific theory appear in
Atlas Shrugged, leading some observers to classify it in the genre of science fiction. Writer Jeff Riggenbach notes: "Galt's motor is one of the three inventions that propel the action of
Atlas Shrugged", the other two being Rearden Metal and the government's sonic weapon, Project X. Other fictional technologies are "refractor rays" (to disguise Galt's Gulch), a sophisticated electrical
torture device (the Ferris Persuader),
voice-activated door locks (at the Gulch's power station),
palm-activated
door locks (in Galt's New York laboratory), Galt's means of quietly
turning the entire contents of his laboratory into a fine powder when a
lock is breached, and a means of taking over all radio stations
worldwide. Riggenbach adds, "Rand's overall message with regard to
science seems clear: the role of science in human life and human society
is to provide the knowledge on the basis of which technological
advancement and the related improvements in the quality of human life
can be realized. But science can fulfill this role only in a society in
which human beings are left free to conduct their business as they see
fit." Science fiction historian
John J. Pierce describes it as a "romantic suspense novel" that is "at least a borderline case" of science fiction.
The chapter entitled "The Utopia of Greed", depicting Dagny
Taggart's experiences in Galt's Gulch, follows precisely the format of
Utopian Literature, as ultimately derived from
Sir Thomas More's 1516 book
Utopia.
As in other works falling within this genre, a visitor (in this case,
Dagny) arrives at an Utopian Society and is shown around by denizens,
who explain in detail how their social institutions work and what is the
world view behind these institutions.
Reception
Sales
Atlas Shrugged debuted on
The New York Times
Bestseller List at No. 13 three days after its publication. It peaked
at No. 3 on December 8, 1957, and was on the list for 22 consecutive
weeks. By 1984, its sales had exceeded five million copies.
Sales of
Atlas Shrugged increased following the
2007 financial crisis.
The Economist
reported that the 52-year-old novel ranked No. 33 among Amazon.com's
top-selling books on January 13, 2009, and that its 30-day sales average
showed the novel selling three times faster than during the same period
of the previous year. With an attached sales chart,
The Economist reported that sales "spikes" of the book seemed to coincide with the release of economic data. Subsequently, on April 2, 2009,
Atlas Shrugged ranked No. 1 in the "Fiction and Literature" category at Amazon and No. 15 in overall sales. Total sales of the novel in 2009 exceeded 500,000 copies. The book sold 445,000 copies in 2011, the second-strongest sales year in the novel's history.
Contemporary reviews
Atlas Shrugged was generally disliked by critics. Rand scholar
Mimi Reisel Gladstein
later wrote that "reviewers seemed to vie with each other in a contest
to devise the cleverest put-downs"; one called it "execrable claptrap",
while another said it showed "remorseless hectoring and prolixity". In the
Saturday Review, Helen Beal Woodward said that the novel was written with "dazzling virtuosity" but was "shot through with hatred". This was echoed by
Granville Hicks in
The New York Times Book Review, who said the book was "written out of hate". The reviewer for
Time magazine asked: "Is it a novel? Is it a nightmare? Is it Superman – in the comic strip or the Nietzschean version?" In the
National Review,
Whittaker Chambers called
Atlas Shrugged "sophomoric" and "remarkably silly", and said it "can be called a novel only by devaluing the term". Chambers argued against the novel's implicit endorsement of
atheism
and said the implicit message of the novel is akin to "Hitler's
National Socialism and Stalin's brand of Communism": "To a gas
chamber—go!"
The negative reviews produced responses from some of Rand's admirers.
Alan Greenspan wrote a letter to
The New York Times Book Review,
in which he responded to Hicks' claim that "the book was written out of
hate" by calling it "a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is
unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and
rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently
avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should." In a letter to the
National Review (which they did not publish), Leonard Peikoff wrote, "... Mr. Chambers is an ex-Communist. He has attacked
Atlas Shrugged in the best tradition of the Communists—by lies, smears, and cowardly misrepresentations."
There were some positive reviews. Richard McLaughlin, reviewing the novel for
The American Mercury,
described it as a "long overdue" polemic against the welfare state with
an "exciting, suspenseful plot", although unnecessarily long. He drew a
comparison with the antislavery novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin, saying that a "skillful polemicist" did not need a refined literary style to have a political impact. Journalist and book reviewer
John Chamberlain, writing in the
New York Herald Tribune, found
Atlas Shrugged satisfying on many levels: as science fiction, as a "philosophical detective story", and as a "profound political parable". In a tribute written on the 20th anniversary of the novel's publication,
John Hospers, a leading philosopher of aesthetics, praised it as "a supreme achievement, guaranteed of immortality".
Influence and legacy
Atlas Shrugged has attracted an energetic and committed fan
base. Each year, the Ayn Rand Institute donates 400,000 copies of works
by Rand, including
Atlas Shrugged, to high school students. According to a 1991 survey done for the
Library of Congress and the
Book of the Month Club,
Atlas Shrugged
was mentioned among the books that made the most difference in the
lives of 17 out of 5,000 Book-of-the-Month club members surveyed, which
placed the novel between the
Bible and
M. Scott Peck's
The Road Less Traveled.
Modern Library's 1998 nonscientific
online poll of the 100 best novels of the 20th century found
Atlas rated No. 1, although it was not included on the list chosen by the Modern Library board of authors and scholars.
Rand's impact on contemporary
libertarian thought has been considerable. The title of one libertarian magazine,
Reason: Free Minds, Free Markets, is taken directly from John Galt, the hero of
Atlas Shrugged,
who argues that "a free mind and a free market are corollaries". In
1983, the Libertarian Futurist Society gave the novel one of its first
"Hall of Fame" awards. In 1997, the libertarian
Cato Institute held a joint conference with
The Atlas Society, an Objectivist organization, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of
Atlas Shrugged. At this event, Howard Dickman of
Reader's Digest
stated that the novel had "turned millions of readers on to the ideas
of liberty" and said that the book had the important message of the
readers' "profound right to be happy".
Former Rand business partner and lover
Nathaniel Branden has expressed differing views of
Atlas Shrugged.
He was initially quite favorable to it, and even after he and Rand
ended their relationship, he still referred to it in an interview as
"the greatest novel that has ever been written", although he found "a
few things one can quarrel with in the book". However, in 1984 he argued that
Atlas Shrugged
"encourages emotional repression and self-disowning" and that Rand's
works contained contradictory messages. He criticized the potential
psychological impact of the novel, stating that John Galt's
recommendation to respond to wrongdoing with "contempt and moral
condemnation" clashes with the view of psychologists who say this only
causes the wrongdoing to repeat itself.
The
Austrian School economist
Ludwig von Mises admired the unapologetic
elitism
he saw in Rand's work. In a letter to Rand written a few months after
the novel's publication, he said it offered "a cogent analysis of the
evils that plague our society, a substantiated rejection of the ideology
of our self-styled 'intellectuals' and a pitiless unmasking of the
insincerity of the policies adopted by governments and political
parties ... You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician
told them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions
which you simply take for granted you owe to the efforts of men who are
better than you."
In the years immediately following the novel's publication, many
American conservatives, such as
William F. Buckley, Jr., strongly disapproved of Rand and her Objectivist message. In addition to the strongly critical review by Whittaker Chambers, Buckley solicited a number of critical pieces:
Russell Kirk called Objectivism an "inverted religion",
Frank Meyer accused Rand of "calculated cruelties" and her message, an "arid subhuman image of man", and
Garry Wills regarded Rand a "fanatic".
In the late 2000s, however, conservative commentators suggested the
book as a warning against a socialistic reaction to the finance crisis.
Conservative commentators
Neal Boortz,
Glenn Beck, and
Rush Limbaugh offered praise of the book on their respective radio and television programs. In 2006,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas cited
Atlas Shrugged as among his favorite novels.
Republican Congressman
John Campbell said, for example, "People are starting to feel like
we're living through the scenario that happened in [the novel] ... We're
living in
Atlas Shrugged", echoing
Stephen Moore in an article published in
The Wall Street Journal on January 9, 2009, titled "
Atlas Shrugged From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years".
In 2005, Republican Congressman
Paul Ryan said that Rand was "the reason I got into public service", and he later required his staff members to read
Atlas Shrugged. In April 2012, he disavowed such beliefs however, calling them "an urban legend", and rejected Rand's philosophy. Ryan was subsequently mocked by
Nobel Prize-winning
economist and liberal commentator
Paul Krugman for reportedly getting ideas about
monetary policy from the novel. In another commentary, Krugman quoted a quip by writer
John Rogers: "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life:
The Lord of the Rings and
Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession
with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted,
socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The
other, of course, involves
orcs."
References to
Atlas Shrugged have appeared in a variety of other popular entertainments. In the first season of the drama series
Mad Men,
Bert Cooper urges
Don Draper
to read the book, and Don's sales pitch tactic to a client indicates he
has been influenced by the strike plot: "If you don't appreciate my
hard work, then I will take it away and we'll see how you do." Less positive mentions of the novel occur in the animated comedy
Futurama, where it appears among the library of books flushed down to the sewers to be read only by grotesque mutants, and in
South Park, where a newly literate character gives up on reading after experiencing
Atlas Shrugged.
BioShock, a critically acclaimed 2007 video game, is widely considered to be a response to
Atlas Shrugged.
The story depicts a collapsed Objectivist society, and significant
characters in the game owe their naming to Rand's work, which game
creator
Ken Levine said he found "really fascinating".
In 2013, it was announced that Galt's Gulch, Chile, a settlement
for libertarian devotees named for John Galt's safe haven, would be
established near
Santiago,
Chile, but the project collapsed amid accusations of fraud and lawsuits filed by investors.
Film and television adaptations
A film adaptation of
Atlas Shrugged was in "
development hell" for nearly 40 years. In 1972,
Albert S. Ruddy
approached Rand to produce a cinematic adaptation. Rand insisted on
having final script approval, which Ruddy refused to give her, thus
preventing a deal. In 1978, Henry and Michael Jaffe negotiated a deal
for an eight-hour
Atlas Shrugged television miniseries on
NBC. Michael Jaffe hired screenwriter
Stirling Silliphant to adapt the novel and he obtained approval from Rand on the final script. However, when
Fred Silverman became president of NBC in 1979, the project was scrapped.
Rand, a former Hollywood screenwriter herself, began writing her
own screenplay, but died in 1982 with only one-third of it finished. She
left her estate, including the film rights to
Atlas, to her student
Leonard Peikoff, who sold an
option to
Michael Jaffe and
Ed Snider.
Peikoff would not approve the script they wrote, and the deal fell
through. In 1992, investor John Aglialoro bought an option to produce
the film, paying Peikoff over $1 million for full creative control.
Atlas Shrugged: Part I
In May 2010,
Brian Patrick O'Toole and Aglialoro wrote a screenplay, intent on filming in June 2010.
Stephen Polk was set to direct. However, Polk was fired and principal photography began on June 13, 2010, under the direction of
Paul Johansson and produced by Harmon Kaslow and Aglialoro.
This resulted in Aglialoro's retention of his rights to the property,
which were set to expire on June 15, 2010. Filming was completed on July
20, 2010, and the movie was released on April 15, 2011. Dagny Taggart was played by
Taylor Schilling and Hank Rearden by
Grant Bowler.
The film was met with a generally negative reception from
professional critics, getting an 11% (rotten) rating on movie review
aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes, and had less than $5 million in total box office receipts. The film earned an additional $5M in DVD and Blu-ray sales, for a total of about half of its $20M budget. The producer and screenwriter
John Aglialoro
blamed critics for the film's paltry box office take and said he might
go on strike, but ultimately went on to make the next two installments.
Atlas Shrugged: Part II
On February 2, 2012, Kaslow and Aglialoro announced
Atlas Shrugged: Part II was fully funded and that principal photography was tentatively scheduled to commence in early April 2012. The film was released on October 12, 2012,
without a special screening for critics. It suffered one of the worst
openings ever among films in wide release: it was 98th worst according
to
Box Office Mojo.
Final box office take was $3.3 million, well under that of Part I
despite the doubling of the budget to $20 million according to
The Daily Caller.
Those figures should be treated as tentative as the Internet Movie
Database estimates Part 1 budget at $20 million and the Part II budget
at $10 million, while Box Office Mojo says Part 1 cost $20 million and
Part 2 data are "NA". Critics gave the film a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews.
Atlas Shrugged: Part III: Who Is John Galt?
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