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Atlas Shrugged in Contest for Best Book...VOTE!

Posted by $ Suzanne43 5 years, 11 months ago to Books
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During a program on May 22nd, PBS introduced the 100 best loved books in America. Atlas Shrugged was one of them. This is to be a contest. Voting is to take place all summer with the winning book announced in the Fall. You can vote for A.S. every day all summer long. So Gulchers vote and tell your friends to vote. It just takes a few seconds of your time each day. Even if A.S. does not win, we can at least try to keep it in the contest and maybe make it a finalist. The American people need to know that this book exists and is an important part of our culture. Maybe even a few snowflakes will read it. Remember to vote every day so that it is not eliminated. Let's do this! Go to :
PBS.org/greatamericanread


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  • Posted by Ben_C 5 years, 11 months ago
    Just voted or A.S. I also will vote for Hunger Games on occasion because I like the message of :"how will a tyrant control the population." Hmmm. Control one sixth of the economy and the goal will be achieved. I think its called Obamacare.
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    • Posted by $ CBJ 5 years, 11 months ago
      If you want your favorite to win, voting for any other books lowers its chances. I like Hunger Games too, but I don't want to increase its chances of beating Atlas Shrugged in the poll.
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  • Posted by kddr22 5 years, 11 months ago
    Gladly voted for it, I also am surprised that PBS included it as a choice. Read for first time soph in high school and many times since...
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    • Posted by $ 5 years, 11 months ago
      The night of the program, they went over it very quickly as if they were embarrassed it made the list. Well, let's show them it can win!
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      • Posted by ewv 5 years, 11 months ago
        They promoted lengthy, meaningless testimonials of several fad books, many of them multiculturalist appeals to ethnicity, but dismissed Atlas Shrugged in a few seconds as a book that was panned by the reviewers but nevertheless has a dedicated following -- no mention of it's quickly becoming a best seller despite the establishment reviews attacking it and no mention of why it is still popular now.
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  • Posted by $ CBJ 5 years, 11 months ago
    The website has a section, "Which novel has had the biggest impact on your life?" At least four of the respondents have chosen Atlas Shrugged. (You have to click "Load More Content" several times to find them.) Respondents can also talk about books that are not on the top 100 list.
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  • Posted by a59430802sojourner 5 years, 11 months ago
    I re-read Atlas Shrugged regularly. I enjoy it every time. It is a timeless book and gives me a very good idea of where this country has been heading; and that President Trump's leadership has begun turning around.
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    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
      Have you read any of Ayn Rand's other books? I have to ask because your off-hand comment about President Trump's "leadership" makes me think that you do not understand the philosophy underlying Ayn Rand's fiction.
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  • Posted by $ prof611 5 years, 11 months ago
    I am of two minds about whether to vote at all. PBS is a government organization, and as such, does not merit my even going to their website. I certainly don't want to sanction their existence. What do other objectivists think about this?
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    • Posted by $ CBJ 5 years, 11 months ago
      Voting for Atlas Shrugged is telling PBS that it has no right to a single penny of taxpayer funds. And if AS wins, it would encourage some if its more open-minded viewers to read it. Also, it would be fun to see the PBS pundits try to cope with the results.
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  • Posted by ycandrea 5 years, 11 months ago
    WOW! There are soooo many good books in this list! But my all time favorite is Atlas Shrugged and I voted for it. And I will keep voting for it.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 5 years, 11 months ago
    I don't think it let me confirm my email address.
    Me dino don't do Facebook.
    The Gulch is as close to social media as I care to get.
    Never read Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Maybe I should.
    Not listed is Dracula which I read decades ago.,
    Me dino liked the fictitious way Bram Stoker strung together a letter, a ship's log, journals and so forth in a row and managed to make a creepy novel out of that.
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  • Posted by dnr 5 years, 11 months ago
    I will certainly vote every day, even though I recognize that AS will never be as popular as many other books. Thus, it is the same reason that I vote Libertarian. The candidates will never win, but I am telling everyone what I want.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 5 years, 11 months ago
    I guess "The Bible" is not a..."great American read"...interesting...nor anything from earlier than the 20th century....
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    • Posted by ewv 5 years, 11 months ago
      There are several classics from before the 20th century. The Bible is not a great American read. A lot of people still pander to it -- such as Trump loudly proclaiming it's his favorite book, waving around his childhood copy after dusting it off for the campaign -- but hardly anyone actually reads it.
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 5 years, 11 months ago
    I read Atlas Shrugged when I was too young to really understand it...but I did! I re-read it from time to time and watch the movie(s). I never tire of it. At times, I think my acquaintances don't understand me, but I don't care! n
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    • Posted by $ 5 years, 11 months ago
      Good for you. I never tire of it either, I have the book in paperback, on my Kindle, the movies, and the CDs.
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      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
        Well, that's nice. I just replaced my "everyday carry" copy with a newer used copy. I have a first PPB on my shelf that I never open. But have you read any of Ayn Rand's other works? Have you read her non-fiction? I just bought my third copy of ITOE to mark up. (It is the newer edition with the seminar discussions by "professors.")
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        • Posted by ewv 5 years, 10 months ago
          'Professionals" is more accurate than "Professors". Most were not yet professors. The great value was Ayn Rand's responses.
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          • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
            Thanks. I went back and read the Foreword. "The workshops were opportunities for professionals in philosophy, plus a few in physics and mathematics, to ask Miss Rand questions about her theory of concepts, which had first appeared in print in her own magazine."

            In the Appendix, they are all called "Prof." from "Prof. A through Prof. M." Are you familiiar with Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers?
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            • Posted by ewv 5 years, 10 months ago
              It wasn't a dining club, there was no spoon-rattling for silence and no one was grilled to justify his existence.
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              • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
                But everyone was called "Doctor" for the purpose of the meeting. That was my only point.
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                • Posted by ewv 5 years, 10 months ago
                  Non-doctors weren't called "Doctor" there either.
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                  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
                    Dr. Thomas Trumbull, as the evening's host, brings a Doctor Doctor Arnold Stacey to dinner. (Note: the rules of the club dictate that all members and guests receive the title of "doctor," so all with doctorates are known as "doctor doctor.") Upon questioning by James Drake, it is revealed that Stacey's "lesser doctorate" is in chemistry, and that he teaches at the university where Drake got his doctorate. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph_as_i...

                    That was the second Black Widowers story. The courtesy of calling everyone "Doctor" does not appear iin the first one, "The Acquisitive Chuckle." It may be repeated in later episodes. We have a complete set, but I am not going to go on with this.
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                    • Posted by ewv 5 years, 10 months ago
                      None of it has any relation with the epistemology workshops.
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                      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
                        They were all called "Professor" even though (as you pointed out) some of them were not.

                        For the purposes ot fhe book, it was first a courtesy, but also served to further anonymize them.
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                        • Posted by ewv 5 years, 10 months ago
                          All the participants were not called "professors". They were referred to as "professionals in philosophy, plus a few in physics and mathematics". Some were professors; most or all the rest were advanced level graduate students. "Prof" does not mean "professor". Only two, who were professors, were called "professor" in the text. Neither the workshops nor the account of them had any relation at all to Asimov's Black Widowers. and would not even if all the participants had been professors.
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                          • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
                            In the transcripts they were called "Prof. A... Prof. M." Maybe I should start calling mysefl Prof. M. and when people call me "Professor" I should correct them and make them call me "Professional." That is ridiculous, of course.

                            My reference to the Black Widowers was only a cultural aside to show that calling them all "Prof" when some were not was itiself not so peculiar.
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                            • Posted by ewv 5 years, 10 months ago
                              The abbreviation was for "professional", not "professor", as already explained from the quote. You first claimed that the participants were called "doctor", which isn't true, then "professor", which isn't true, and now strain to reinterpret an abbreviation despite the explanation why that is not true. Why?
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  • Posted by minesayn 5 years, 5 months ago
    Did anyone watch the final show to see where Atlas Shrugged ended up?
    Number 20! And it moved from number 43 to 20 in the last few days, or so Meredith Viera said during the broadcast.. Of course, I wanted it to be number one (as it remains my favorite all-time book), but overall, I think it did well.
    I know I voted nearly every day for it. I suspect that this community certainly helped it climb.
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    • Posted by ewv 5 years, 5 months ago
      I think they said it moved to 20 in about about a month.
      A lot of Atlas Shrugged fans dropped the ball. The rules allowed for voting 6 times a day using 4 different mechanisms for about 5 months. https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

      I think they said the winning book got about 56,000 votes. At just one vote a day that is only a few hundred people. At maximum voting frequency it is equivalent to only about 60 people.
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  • Posted by BCRinFremont 5 years, 11 months ago
    Brave New World should be on this list. Solzhenitzen had several good books.
    Maybe, 2001 A Space Odyssey?
    Something from Camus or Nietzche?
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    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 5 years, 10 months ago
      Apparently, you do not understnad the philosophy that created the fiction. Camus and Nietzsche are antithetical to Objectivism.
      Also, 2001: A Space Odyssey was actually a short story called "Sentinel." The so-called "novel" was just a result of the screenplay of the movie. And, to the point, while the movie had its important moments, and while "The Sentinel" has an interesting plot, the fact is that not much in them can make your life better. They are far out-classed by Atlas Shrugged..

      Have you read any of Ayn Rand's other works, such as her non-fiction?
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  • Posted by exceller 5 years, 11 months ago
    I gladly vote for AS but as members pointed out below, it is a difficult choice.

    Surprised that PBS included it in the selection, as one of the most PC liberal entity.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 5 years, 11 months ago
    While I would like to vote for AS, I won't sign up for farcebook to do so. That is biased PBS way of excluding a multitude of AS fans.
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    • Posted by $ 5 years, 11 months ago
      I'm not on facebook, and I have been voting every day.
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      • Posted by freedomforall 5 years, 11 months ago
        I misunderstood the instructions. Thanks for bringing my error to my attention. I do have a throwaway email address at yahoo for their coming deluge of propaganda ;^)
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        • Posted by $ 5 years, 11 months ago
          Gosh, I'm so glad that has been taken care of.
          You can also vote for other favorites. Happy voting!
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          • Posted by freedomforall 5 years, 11 months ago
            Well, the list has a lot of toilet paper. I'm delighted AS was included, but there is little science fiction-Dune and Foundation are included but they are not the best of science fiction by a long shot. Foundation is a classic, but almost unbearably boring to get through. Dune is ok but can't compare to 20 titles by Heinlein who is completely omitted.
            Most Loved Books - Ha! By liberals at the NYT?
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            • Posted by $ nickursis 5 years, 10 months ago
              The Moon is a Harsh Mistress gets called out a lot in discussions of great sci fi, so I would have thought it would have been in there.
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              • Posted by freedomforall 5 years, 10 months ago
                The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is anti-statist, so there was not a chance it would have appeared on a PBS biased list of books.
                It should be taught in public school along with Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
                (PBS statists must have included AS as a token of diversity.)
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                • Posted by minesayn 5 years, 5 months ago
                  Again, did you submit the title of your chosen book? If you didn't, then it wasn't going to appear on the list. PBS requested readers to submit their favorite books. Books on the list were submitted by readers. I KNOW I submitted Atlas Shrugged. This was way back in April, May, or June.
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                • Posted by $ nickursis 5 years, 10 months ago
                  Starship Troopers as well, as the discussions of war, citizenship and morality are great discussion points, and might encourage a little thinking along the way.
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            • Posted by Rex_Little 5 years, 11 months ago
              I disagree about Foundation. Those books were among the first SF I read, around age 9, and I enjoyed them. I don't think they were Asimov's best work, but I guess they're his best known.

              Now, Lord of the Rings. . . there was a tough slog.

              But no Heinlein? That's ridiculous. If I could have the collected works of only one author, it would be Heinlein, even ahead of Rand (though AS is my single favorite book). At the very least, Stranger in a Strange Land belongs on their ballot.
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              • Posted by freedomforall 5 years, 11 months ago
                I started Lord of the Rings when I was in high school and didn't finish. Later I tried again as an adult and it was a pretty easy read.
                Foundation started off interesting, but after the first book it became less so- for me;^)
                Completely agree on Heinlein. He would be the author for desert island relaxation if I had a choice.
                Just voting for AS when I think of it.
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                • Posted by $ nickursis 5 years, 10 months ago
                  Agree with both of you, although I got through the first three Foundation books and then petered out. As I understand it, there were a few more after that with the Gaia concept added in.
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              • Posted by minesayn 5 years, 5 months ago
                Did you submit the book title when PBS was asking for input? I know I submitted AS, and I am sure I wasn't the only one. The 100 books on the list were chosen by readers, not PBS.
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