FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, Afterword and Suggested Reading

A Billthedrill Essay | 15 August 2009 | Billthedrill

[r-q-tek86]

It occurred to me that this has been a LOT of work for Pub and Bill. They might prefer to let someone else “lead the read” for the next book, or at least to take a break in between.

The only problem is that they set the bar so high, I'm not sure anyone would be brave enough to try to follow.

[r-q-tek86]

Thanks. I will look for that one.

[stylin_geek]

Thanks for all the work.

It’s been great following your lead and building off both of your observations and insightful commentary.

I look forward to the next book club discussion.

[Still Thinking]

Well, we started this one in January, maybe another idea would be to take a few months off and start something new the first of next year. I certainly don’t mean to speak for them. If they’re ready to go I certainly am, but I don’t want for us to treat them like Rand’s producers get treated. ;-)

[ml/nj]

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals – Immanuel Kant.

Maybe I read this? I don't know. I just know I was never impressed by Kant. Leonard Peikoff slams him in his Ominous Parallels to which Rand wrote an introduction and which I highly recommend.

ML/NJ

[r-q-tek86]

I don’t want for us to treat them like Rand’s producers get treated. ;-)

Nicely put. I'm with you on the "let them get their strength back first" approach.

Pub and BtD... we are ready when you are.

[Publius]

Our agent plans a blitz of the publishing houses after Labor Day when all the various players come back from the Hamptons. If we get a sale, the publisher will assign an editor to our project, and we're going to have to revisit everything to suit his needs. This is why we're not jumping in immediately with another project.

As I said earlier, I'm leaning toward an interleaved approach to the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers in chronological order so as to follow the thrust and parry of the debate over the Constitution. I'm also looking at reformatting the papers into Structured English with the intent of making them more accessable to the modern reader.

However, any FReeper can start a FReeper Book Club dedicated to reading a book. There are only three rules:

1. Let Jim Robinson know in advance as a courtesy.
2. Use "freeperbookclub" as a keyword.
3. Once started, stick with it to the end.

Pretty simple.

[r-q-tek86]

Pretty simple.

You are too modest. We know that what you guys did was anything but "simple".

Once the blitz starts, keep us posted of the progress. And tell your agent that you have at least one "pre-sold" copy already signed up.

[TradicalRC]

Since this IS the anniversary year of the Moon Landing and Woodstock, I would also recommend reading Apollo and Dionysus in The New Left: the Anti-industrial Ideal.
Let us not forget the skeleton in Ayn Rand’s closet: St. Thomas Aquinas.
And for all of her raving against Plato, the purism she sought out in her own ideology marks her as a peculiarly Platonic anti-Platonist. Just MHO.

[Publius]

You might get a chuckle out of this.

[r-q-tek86]

James Madison promised himself he would never drink again.

What a great story. Thanks for sharing.

[ladyvet]

Of coarse! They have done such a fantastic job it was meant as a compliment to them.

[depressed in 06]

Without your help this book would have been just another door stop. Could not have made it without you.

[Taxman]

Let me add my heartfelt thanks to both of you for your dedication and hard work these past months. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading, thinking about and contrasting AS with contemporary America, once again. I still remain astonished at how prescient Ms. Rand was.

Good luck with your publishing effort — I’ll certainly add your book to my collection!

On a related note, I noted on this thread several months ago that I had spotted a “Who is John Galt” billboard in Georgia. I was asked where it was, and was not able to specifically ID it’s location on I-95.

Well, I saw it again yesterday. It is located on the Southbound side of I-95 about one mile north of Exit 1 in Georgia.

Southbound FReepers might be on the lookout for it. It is a very visible and attractive billboard, I might add.

[TASMANIANRED]

Kudos on completion. Excellent body of work .

At 18 I'd have never picked up a philosophy book without it being a requirement for a class. Instead I picked up a novel and it shaped the rest of my life.

Thanks for the reading list..

[TASMANIANRED]

Thanks for your wonderful contribution too.

I got derailed from Saturday participation due to a croaked computer, a major illness and then a flood but I always went back and read every line of commentary as time allowed.

[tstarr]

Publius,

I’d also like thank you and BilltheDrill, as well as everyone else on the list who has made my re-reading of Atlas Shrugged much more enjoyable and illuminating than it was the first time through. I enjoyed the background information, the expansion of many of the points beyond what I would have gotten on my own, and the general high level of discourse on the subject. I only made a few comments, primarily because I invariably found whatever point I might have had already made by the time I checked in to the thread. I look forward to the next book!

- Ted

[Clinging Bitterly]

I have to echo everyone else - thanks for all the good work in this, and I'll be ready and waiting for the next session.

Good reading suggestions too.

Everyone, be sure and check the gutenberg.org website for etexts (or audiobooks) of the older works in the public domain. Most of them are there and for folks trying to hang on (as I am at least) you can save some cash.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks for all of your hard work! I came to the party late, but it has been a pleasure to revisit this ‘old friend.’

“The arc of the plot ascends through a desperate effort of the industrialists to reignite the country’s production, countered by moves on the part of the established powers in academia, bureaucracy and culture, descending in the final third of the book to the ravaging of the country and the escape of its creative elements.”

Anyone with a working mind, looking at the state America is in today should either cry in despair or be mad as hell and be ready to fight!

I choose the latter. :)

[sig226]

Wow. I wish I was involved earlier. I waited for each Saturday’s thread, knowing I would read insights I hadn’t suspected and that I would have to think carefully to be able to offer anything that would add to the conversation.

Thank you Publius and Billthedrill. This was enlightening and fun.