When I first read atlas shrugged in 8th grade it took me roughly 9 months to finally finish it. I read it so I could understand Bioshock better and I gotta say, the writing of the last third of bioshock and the first third AS are pretty similar

I still genuinely enjoy both, I like the writing style of Rand (which many people don’t like, which I understand as well) and while the controls for Bioshock are clunky and primitive, they are improved upon in its sequel, much like how Atlas shrugged’s writing is improved later

Atlas shrugged is not the best text out there by any means, he’ll it isn’t even the best book by Rand (that title goes to Anthem), also much like Bioshock, it’s not the best narratively driven FPS but it’s certainly not bad

In your search for libertarian political text I recommend reading it after you’ve already read 2 or 3 other books, much like Bioshock, you should probably play it after you’re done with other FPS games as it’s one of those games you have to know you’re going to enjoy

Writing about atlas shrugged is probably the most fun I’ve ever had reviewing something, whether it be this thread or the mini essays I had to write about it 8th grade. It’s fun to dissect and only tells you about philosophy. The characters aren’t meant to be-

fleshed out 3D characters, they’re meant to be vessels inside which the philosophy can be expressed through, which is very evident when regarding a character LITERALLY NAMED MIDAS, WHO USES GOLD AS THE IDEAL CURRENCY IN ATLANTIS. If you read the book more as a guide-

then I feel you’ll get much more out of it. That being said, you can also ignore the philosophy entirely and read a book about a business woman thirsting after three different dudes.

Bioshock is similar in the way you can ignore everything and play an FPS where you kill huge robot-ish monsters, zombies, and kill/spare little girls, or you can play it as an artists critique of capitalism.

Atlas Shrugged is divisive for many reasons, for obvious reasons, advocating for personal greed is always gonna be controversial especially in a world where people are hoarding wealth like dragons

However, Objectism doesn’t protect billionaires, as they had to steal money, kill workers and exploit their labor in order to get as wealthy as they (billionaires) are. Objectivism advocates for EARNED wealth, which is why it opposes taxation, but argues against stealing

Hell, there’s literally a pirate that takes back the money stolen from people (which I guess is stealing but not really) and returns to the people it was stolen from, and it’s clear he doesn’t only do this for the rich, as, in the very beginning we see a rail car-

operator who is privy to information that only people in direct contact with this pirate would know, it’s just that people ignore this detail and instead say that objectivism hates workers, which I firmly believe it doesn’t.

Atlas shrugged is one of the most important novels of the 20th century, and I encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about libertarianism to read it, if just for the context of its theory at the time