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Article: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: from romantic fallacy to holocaustic imagination.
- Article from:
- Modern Age
- Article date:
- September 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Intercollegiate Studies Institute Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"The only authentic epoche is ... victory over desire, victory over
Promethean pride."
--Rene Girard (1)
"When the SStorturer becomes the villain of the war film, he is
turned into a sacrificial figure, a scapegoat, [he becomes the]
structural equivalent of the Jud Suss in Nazi cinema."
--Eric Gans (2)
I
NO ACCOUNT OF Ayn Rand's (1905-1982) sprawling, morally incoherent end-of-the-world story Atlas Shrugged (1957) (3) can begin elsewhere than in an acknowledgment of the way in which the novel's fascinating spectacle can draw a reader in despite himself. This spectacle is the book's secret, which the present essay aims to investigate.
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