Thinking about the book "Atlas Shrugged"

"Atlas Shrugged" ("Atlas Shrugged"), Ayn Rand.

Read. From the third attempt. A long story came out. In 5-6 years.
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2008 I bought somewhere an electronic text version. Did not go. Okay, I think, "young ishsho." Postponed.

In 2010, I came across one (one!) Chapter in mp3. Well, I think, okay - let's take a freeze. I'll listen in the car. Figo. There were no other chapters anywhere. In stores like ozone either. Neither the publisher could not then find anything. But what is this, I think. Okay. Another year has passed.

In 2011 or 2012 , or rather I don’t remember, I came across a thick paper edition. Bought. Began to read. The same garbage as a couple of years ago. Well, not going. Well, the same boring.

In 2012 found the movie . More precisely the screen version of the first part of the novel. It is easier to watch. Although not also shot very. The second part was not found in a good translation. Yes, and in the comments suggested that the second part suffered from a change of cast.

Finally, a week ago, by chance, I found a complete version of the book in audio format. Audio performance. He poured on the armorphone and while he drove the elder to the school, listen to one or two chapters. And then there is the road to Kharkov and back: 10 hours in headphones. Read it. Listen, more precisely.

Only now I realized what was wrong. Writing a book from a literary point of view is not that bad ... None. It is clumsy. Characters are straight like doors. If a man and he is good, then he has a plate on his chest - "A good hero, 1 pc." His solutions are not that simple, but straightforward. Stupidly straight. No options. he laughs loudly. Tolerate all until it stops and all such Atlant-Atlant. And around him, furies with harpies, so that everyone could understand how good he is, since the bad do not appreciate him so much. But he tolerates them - it means good. Clear? If the man in the novel is bad, then in the end he shouts “I am bad!” And goes crazy and runs away from it. Bad, but with a fine mental organization, Yeah. Just growled “Kill him!” And cheated on his lawful spouse, and then once and for him he became very aware of how bad he was. Br-rr-r. Already plastic smells of such characters.

It makes no sense to go through everyone in the novel, but if the pirate is a noble, a woman is strong-willed, but she is still weak, and at the time of the shootout, armed soldiers instead of throwing down the man who breaks the window and jumps into the room, almost Chorus ask him "What is your name ?!". And he is: "I am Robin Hood!". And they are: "Forgive us, Robin Hood" and all of them froze in a daze. The soldiers With weapon. Bollywood, damn it, some. Panopticon with a priest in the bathroom.

And the book is efficient. In some places just the same ... punches. Contrary to the wooden artistry of the word. But "breaks through" some kind of protective layer of cynicism of the surrounding world. As if you look at how children in the sandbox play in the store, and when someone doesn’t have enough ice cream from the sand, they still “sell” a portion to him. And it seems that we are all kind of callous. And here they are ...

I do not know whether it is right to compare the heroes of the novel with the children in their caricature of the correctness of the truth. Maybe this is the idea of ​​the author. Maybe I became angry. Or, besides business literature, I also read the art literature and have something to compare with. But ... do not listen to me. Better just take and read. I have already warned you as much as possible and now you will not be afraid. Good book. Or maybe I got it in time. I do not know.

Logics

The book is all black and white. Here ours, across the river are not ours. Fighting. Self-denial. Everything is as it should be. But this has its own charm. Simplicity. Comprehensibility Logics. No - not the logic of plotting (there is none there - the plot line is straightforward like a closet door), but LOGIC, conclusions, consistency, irreversibility of the results that the author put into the head of all good characters. The logic on which the old world is built. Logic, which as a tool, the heroes reveal this old world like a tin can. The logic that helps ours and does not destroy ours. Logic, as the protagonist of the novel - this is the first plus because of which it is worth reading Atlanta.

People

Ordinary people who often in the novel act as background, decoration, before which the main characters speak memorized phrases. And then the scenery comes alive. And people stand along the railway. At will. Helping change. Expressing your will. Giving respect. People who want to shake hands for the fact that they stood up and went to defend their point of view. The second reason to read the book is people. Good, simple, right people. Wisely nonviolent. Wisely.

Perseverance

Perseverance in what you need to do. Sometimes perseverance in the novel turns out to be Kryptonite for their heroes, but it is Persistence that is what I think now is not enough for all of us. To me.

Perseverance to do their work and go the chosen way. Like a machine that just works. Like a locomotive. A simple and understandable locomotive that turns power into speed and performs intelligible Work in order to deliver the train from point A to point B. An action that is irreversibly occurs after understanding ... For understanding.

If you tend to think a lot and do little - Atlas is full of other heroes. Try it. They charge. Irreversible sequence of actions and results.

Job

The very idea of ​​honest business relationships. Relations do not “get”, but “earn”, it seems to me so prominently spelled out in the novel in order to scratch again and again those of us who “expect it to be itself.” In the novel, of course, win those who do. Build. Launch. Earn. It needs to be reminded.

Something clever at the very end

I was lucky. In those moments when the fast train in the novel rushes through the Colorado desert at a speed of 100 miles per hour, I rode in the capital express train, all with the same speed that is spelled out in the novel as the speed of life, the speed of business and decisions. The sensations of reading overlapped with the feeling of travel. With the feeling that I myself was doing my work now. It helped me to love this book.

Not to say that the book turned my world. I also met such reviews on the novel “Atlas Shrugged”. And from the people I personally respected for the results. I will not say that I will put this book on the first, second or even tenth place on my shelf of “books for business”. Also no.

But there is something in this book. With its simplicity. With bad-seeing ones in time, from which they immediately became good. With the trains and the line of John Gault, about which the whole novel now and then people ask each other. With rustic fantasy, all these "force fields" against the background of locomotives and stokers.

Read, and even better - listen in good quality. Maybe you will like it. And you also ask yourself - and who is this for me, John Gault?