Anthem

Is it strange that I was expecting more from this? Everyone has always been like “Oh! Ayn Rand, she is a genius!”

But, well, I just didn’t get that from this book. Granted, this may not be her most famous, it’s Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead that you hear all the rave reviews about… but when I found this book for super cheap, I was all about it. I wanted to see the hype of Ms. Rand.

My first reaction when I picked the book up was that it was so tiny. You look at some of her other works and it makes you contemplate weight lifting before you pick them up. This one was more like a pamphlet in comparison.

So, let me just say that I’m a pretty big fan of Dystopian Novels. Books like The Giver, 1984, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, etc. They make me a happy camper. This one… it was just a little too one dimensional for me to even get into it. It took all of about two hours for me to get through it, and when I was done I just sort of set it down and was like, “Alright. On to the next one.”

Basically Anthem is about a society that has no individuals. They don’t know the word “I”, they don’t understand any concept but “We”. There are no names, there is no individuality. The story line is similar to a lot of dystopian novels… basically Equality 7-2521 begins to write down his thoughts (which is illegal) in a hidden tunnel he found one day (something from The Unmentionable Times), he falls in love with a girl named Liberty 5-3000 (which is illegal), he begins to discover things and think for himself (which is illegal), he tries to enlighten the rest of the people with his discoveries and is sentenced to be punished. He runs away. Liberty 5-3000 follows. Then they find a house and it has books (which are illegal) and they read, and their minds are expanded, and then they know the word “I”.

I don’t know. I probably will not read this one again. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t read Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead at some point.

On to reading!