The title and its author seemed to hover on the fringe of my entire life, but I resisted the embrace. It was written in 1957. My high school history teacher at Mount St. Charles Academy, Brother Leon Cyr, talked about Ayn Rand in class; I remember the name because it was so unusual, but I don't recall what he said about her. In ensuing years, I occasionally heard about this book, but never quite made the leap to buy and read it, or even take it out of the library for free. I knew the significance of the title - what a tantalizing image it brings to mind! - but not the significance of the title to the book.
Despite the resolve in 2008, when I got it home, I was intimidated by its 1,350+ pages with relatively small print... it felt heavy in my hands. I used to read a lot, but the habit had been broken somewhere along the way. This would represent an ambitious return to reading for pleasure. I... hesitated.
Consequently, the megamonster volume sat on my bookshelf for two years. I felt a vague guilt as I packed it into a box when I moved; there was a possibility it could languish in the dark for years.
Last Christmas, my children bought me a complete 12-book series I wanted to read. Those volumes had thick, hefty pages with large type - inviting to read - and, although it took me a while to get started, I zipped through them. The habit was re-established! So much so, that when I closed the cover on the last book in mid-March, I felt an emptiness.
The cure niggled at my consciousness. I was ready. I ransacked the boxes in the attic and retrieved Atlas Shrugged. I actually heard the pages sigh, "It's about time," when I pried open the stiff cover.
Ironically this week, I learned that the first third of the book (it is divided into three parts) has been made into a movie - Atlas Shrugged Part 1. (Does anything really happen by accident?) It's an independent production with a small budget by Hollywood standards - $25 million - the first in a planned trilogy.
It makes one wonder why - if this is the second most influential book ever, after the Bible* - hasn't it been made into a movie before? LOL, the answer lies within its pages, of course! Wikipedia describes the interesting 40-year "development hell" of this film. Note some of the names.
Atlas Shrugged Part 1 will be released on April 15, most fitting if you know Ayn Rand's philosophy about taxation. It is not scheduled to come to Providence in its initial release; the closest it will come is Bellingham, Massachusetts. (Bellingham??) But, according to the Web site, we the people have an opportunity to influence distribution by "demanding" Atlas Shrugged Part 1 come to a theater near us. Of course, this is a nothing more than a grand viral marketing scheme for free publicity and build buzz, but I will gladly participate because it is in my self-interest to do so. (Ayn Rand would be pleased.)
Visit the official Atlas Shrugged Movie Web site.
[UPDATE: Atlas Shrugged will, in fact, be screened in Providence! Providence Place Mall, here I come. :)]
*1991 survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club
