From recession-culture trends we’ve written about on this blog lately, a recession icon of sorts emerges, wrapped in a Snuggie, puffing on a pipe — and now with a copy of Ayn Rand‘s Atlas Shrugged on his lap.
The Economist reports that the book’s sales rank on Amazon is far above what it’s been in previous years (and briefly topped Obama‘s The Audacity of Hope).
Furthermore, says The Economist, data from TitleZ.com show recent sales spikes of the book coinciding with major political events, such as the passing of the stimulus plan.
The spikes, The Economist surmises, happen when people (including a handful of bloggers, politicians, and economists) notice the eerie similarities between real-life events — like the recent spate of sea pirate attacks — and the scenarios Rand described in her book.
As long as the halls of Congress don’t start ringing with the question “Who is John Galt?” let’s hope it’s just a case of life imitating art.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
@Danny, Rand also created a movement that mimics a religion down to the followers being closed to any other schools of thought and generally jerks toward everyone who believes something even slightly different
If you read it, enjoy the 60 page speech.
A quick check of Maine’s Statewide library catalog also shows a large number of copies in current circulation. One wonders if Rand would approve.
I picked it up because I just finished BioShock.
@Ben, doesn’t any given protagonist have a speech like that in her novels? Geez, she’s rough to read sometimes.
Disappointing post, was hoping it was an actual index of hours worked (or equivalent) by the “Atlas” class.
Ross Douthat is pretty close to my view when he describes Atlas Shrugged as “half-baked, Nietzsche-for-capitalists philosophizing” with characters who are thin (albeit useful) caricatures and prose that is “awful in patches,” even though he still thinks it’s worth your time (http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/03/the_case_for_ayn_rand.php).
Is it really worth your time? My answer: “That depends.”
To me, Rand writes little more than bang-you-over-the-head-so-I-can-shove-it-down-your-throat sermons in a thin narrative guise. These things are less stories and more parables or allegories.
If I want a sermon, I’ll go to church, and if I want excellence in storytelling — with a deeper point or without — I certainly won’t turn to Rand. I think it was W. H. Auden who said that a successful poet was someone who loved words (and, I think we could justly add, storytelling), not some one with an axe to grind. Rand is clearly in the latter category.
JH- the market was never deregulated. Less regulated? A big maybe. Deregulated? Not even close.
The economy is a big machine that no one understands, yet we can’t resist changing settings, pushing buttons, and moving levers on the machine. Then when it produces less widgets for a while after one particular lever-pull, everyone wonders why.