A new meme

There seems to be something of a new meme doing the rounds of the media at the minute. Fraser Nelson seems to have started it at the Spectator, with a short article wondering whether the similarities between Brown's Britain and the dystopian future imagined by Ayn Rand in her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, weren't just a little to close for comfort. (If you don't know the story, you are probably a stranger around these here parts, but in a nutshell it tells what happens when government gets too big and all the productive people start walking away from society. It's a famously badly written book, but despite that manages to get under your skin and inspire you).

The Speccy piece was picked up by Johnathan Pearce at Samizdata and from the comments there, I found this article at the Wall Street Journal by Stephen Moore. The title tells it all: Atlas Shrugged: from fiction to fact in 52 years.

As I said, all the good guys in Atlas Shrugged walk away and head for a sort of anarchist utopia called Galt's Gulch, where the hand of government can't reach them. And if anyone can give me directions, I'd be grateful.

Comments

[David Boycott]

Too long, certainly, but why "famously badly written"?

[Bishop Hill]

I think it's fair to say that it is widely criticised for poor characterisation and rather turgid prose, isn't it? That's my impression of it too, although I enjoyed it anyway, and I found it very inspiring. It's certainly a book that everyone should read.