I read that same put-down about "The Fountainhead" when I looked into that book. But I guess you just have to get used to it, though I get very tired of that kind of insult. (reply to Irshultis).

I think that many introductions to classic novels contain "spoilers" and would be better read AFTER reading the novel rather than before.
Also, I doubt that the people in charge of American universities could be persuaded to make any of Ayn Rand's books part of the curriculum. I do understand, of course, that they are in the libraries of the colleges. But that is different from having them academically endorsed. But so what? As long as you can get the students to read them, won't that move things along for the better?

That does not mean that my post can be used for extensive advertising of a showing of Atlas. Why this post? Why not your own?

Yes, but why engulf my post in this irrelevant advertising?

Very well done WDonway.

As an electrician who has installed commercial GENERAC systems, and others, can tell you that they are squared away. Good company that has earned their position. That’s what happens when brains are allowed to function without being WOKE.

We often forget that the purpose of our Gulch was originally to publicize the movies. A lot of the flotsam and jetsam of that marketing effort is still evident if we dig.

Generac was started by Robert Kern. Donald Kern of Process Heat Transfer fame is related to Robert.

Good to hear that, about the Kern family and its activities. I own a Generac full-house generator (rated at 19 kilowatts, piped-in natural gas) that has "kicked in" quite a few times--once had to go for more than 62 hours straight. Good to know that the family behind it understands things like this.

Yes, but only for our kind of colleges. Not the Ivy League.

When someone puts down another person's intellectual contribution, it usually is because the person doing the put down has an insecurity of some sort (jealousy, offense over lack of respect).

Ayn Rand was different in this respect, however. If you didn't agree with her on every nuance of every point, she totally rejected you based on the content of your philosophy. I am sure that this attitude is part of why she got some much negative attention, but without that attitude, she would not have made the great contribution that she did. The best in any field are going to disturb the status quo.

Those who can stream from Amazon Prime, PlutoTV-App, and Tubi TV-App can watch the 3 parts free. I have watched them there a couple of times.
As for colleges having references in course work, has it changed any from decades ago when it was a NO-NO and one was penalized for such a infringement on other students. Around the time that Rand gave her talk on ethics at the University of Wisconsin Madison, I was trying to discuss her philosophy with a philosophy major. All I got was that her philosophy was naive realism and he shut up. W.F. Buckley's ex-communist W. Chamber's review for National Review summed Atlas Shrugged up as something like "From every page comes a resounding call of 'to the gas chambers go'.
In my history course the book The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman gave Rand's work it a very short put down as escapist literature for young people. The 1987 book The Closing or the American Mind by the teacher Allan Bloom says that he asked his classes what books they read. He said, "There is always a girl who mentions Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, a book although hardly literature, which, with its sub-Nietzscean assertiveness, excites somewhat eccentric youngsters to a new way of life."
That seems the way many of the comments that I saw during the last 50 years have gone. Even some who liked the books would stick in some kind of put down of Rand.

When I went to college in the late 70's, I never heard of Ayn Rand. I discovered Objectivism late in life. I wish I had known about it earlier. Getting it included in college courses is a great idea, but probably challenging in the current climate dominated by liberal thinking.

It will never happen in this leftist society and worthless leftist colleges. Atlas Shrugged could be a current day newspaper instead of the novel it was supposed to be.

Indeed, that was the high point of 'The Strike'.

Wow, I had already forgotten about that!
https://www.newsweek.com/lets-go-bran...

Very interesting read, WDonway. I'll bring https://www.thesavvystreet.com/could-... up on Friday as something for my students to explore on their own.

The big picture question of how Objectivism should be presented to a modern audience is an interesting one, particularly for university students. Conceivably it could be included in a Writing About Literature (2nd semester freshman) or a Civilizations 2 course, but almost certainly it would be in a humanities elective as philosophy courses are required for very few students any more. Because it would likely be relegated to elective status for most students, it is unrealistic for professors in science and engineering to expect that students will have a Hugh Akston experience. So the question really becomes, "How does a non-philosophy professor expose students to Objectivism in a nugget form?" Bringing Objectivism to a wider audience was the purpose of the Atlas Shrugged movies.

Especially now that students' attention spans are much shorter than they were back when Atlas Shrugged was written, digesting the message into a short form is almost as important as the Objectivist message itself.

"Young readers love defiant, nonconformist outsiders. " Indeed, they do. Having a contrarian point of view is an absolute necessity for entrepreneurship and engineering.

Indeed, far better than parts 2 and 3.

Hahahahahahahaha! Right! The question is "Who would most quickly and vocally reject it, HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, et al?"

Part I was the best done.

While I understand the context of your comment, anything that advances a wider audience of understanding should be promoted. I am disappointed that no one from the formal ranks are anywhere to be seen in the media. This is particularly a critical time to get our fundamentals out to the masses.

Your thread is about Atlas Shrugged in college courses. This is evidence that AS is actually used in college courses, and yes, I paid for the permission to be in this forum as a producer so that I could mention my university and obtained permission to show the movie in this way.

In case you forgot, this entire web site was generated to publicize the Atlas Shrugged movies.

I was disappointed with the movies. I would really like to see a Netflix series, but with the wokeies running Netflix that will never happen.