Lord of the Rings versus Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged after reading Tolkien?
Did you read either of these books as a teenager? I did.
This review by author John Rodgers sums it up pretty well.
“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.“
[Kung Fu Monkey — Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
I have enjoyed and remembered these lines from the Tolkien series:
“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
Now, Ayn Rand. The author, in hindsight, I wished I had never read. The influence of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged impacted me greatly as a young adult – in a negative way. I destroyed a relationship that meant everything to me, because I believed her hard-ass philosophy of going it alone.
Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosphy, looking back at it, is and was, at odds of who I am as a person. I would never suggest that any young person read her books, or for that matter, anyone read her books.
I won’t even go into the horrific screen adaptions of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. They are truly, unwatchable.
If I had read and understood Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, as a youngman, I would have been much further along in understanding people, career and what is important in life.
Quote about reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I found this on Good Reads.
“This book is the equivalent of a drunk, eloquent asshole talking to you all night at a bar. You know you should just leave and you could never explain later why you didn’t, …….”