I fell in love with the story in Bioshock, and today during study hall at school I looked up Atlas Shrugged on Wikipedia because Bioshock is base off of it. The books seems TOTALLY different. I was wondering if anyone actually read it, and if you would recommend it.

Fuck Ayn Rand.  She was a Red.  Fyodor Dostoyevsky...now THAT'S an author!!!  Crime and Punishment + The Brothers Karamazov = Heaven in literary form.

My friend has read it and has said it's a fantastic read for those who love BioShock, though it is a bit different.

I think the book has been hijacked a bit recently by neo-cons.

I thought Bioshock shat all over Atlas Shrugged, from beginning to end.

Wasn't there a thread on this already?

Atlas Shrugged? Simpsons did it.

Bioshock is a critique of Rand's political positions (her idealized non-state society proves to be unstable), but it seems to agree on a deeper level with her view of humanity and what gives us value and makes us human.

Rand was an atheist libertarian, and as such, has to be considered one of the godfathers of internet culture.

Atlas shrugged was a pain to finish for me. The characters with the ideals she supported were too perfect, on the verge of being ayran ubermen.

I read part of it, but I had to return it. It seemed pretty good.

Ayn Rand was the personified example of what happens when a mind is stretched so taught (as though it were a rubber-band) in one direction that when it snaps in the other, it goes just as batshit-fucking-insane as it was before, just negatively charged (assuming that the original was positively charged, not reflecting on the positive or negative statuses of any philosophies though.) Crazy bitch.

Yeah I read it a few months ago. I thought it was quite the book.

Eh, fuck it.  I'm too tired to even try to point any of it out.  All I'm saying is that Rand claimed to be anti-communist tons of times...but there is plenty in her writings under the surface that suggests otherwise.  Unfortunately, I've been up until 7 in the morning for the last two weeks trying to get ready for this trip to Ohio that I'm taking on Wednesday, so I'm basically useless in both arguments and in real life at the moment.  Hell, I'm supposed to be doing my closing duties at work right now.  Slacking on that because I just wanna fall asleep...

I started reading the book when I read that Angelina Jolie will play Dagny Taggart in the film version and that was it for me. I really don't like her acting and I have yet to watch a movie with her where I was impressed with her acting abilities. 

As with most interesting fiction, the violent opinions people have one way or the other usually means it's worth the experience of forming one for yourself. You'll either think her idealism is intriguing or that it's something that sets an unfair standard for emulation. I'd recommend reading differing philosopical books so you can compare and contrast from as many viewpoints as possible. As for myself, I very much enjoyed her novels. A lot of the story is pretty fantastical, but the root ideas of individualism she proscribes are something I can still get behind.

Dave makes a good point.  I would say that the book does a good job of presenting a political philosophy in the form of a very readable novel that's both entertaining and thought-provoking.  A word of caution, though: it's REALLY LONG.  I found an abridged audiobook version and listened to that during walks to and from class.  That's definitely the way to go if you're interested but don't want to invest months of time reading.  I highly recommend it.

Bioshock is not based on atlas shrugged or Ayn rand, Andrew Ryan the character is based off Ayn Rand. Bioshock is a criticism of Ayn Rand philosophy, one of extreme capitalism (ever wonder why med-stations cost money to use). Essentially the points (or at least some of them) Bioshock is trying to make is that a society that so idealist is bound to fail because people are humans rather than heroes. Andrew Ryan's concept of a city where people are judged only by their practical merits and captialist successactually is quite tempting, but ultimately it fails not because of "the parasite" (Ayn Rand's word for the poor, weak and anyone else who couldn't live independantly) but because of Fontaine, an incredibly smart, shreud buisnessman and con-man. If you listen to all the audio records in the game you can piece together that eventually Andrew Ryan resorts to using excutive power (or government regulation is you can really consider rapture a government) to protect his own assets and his takes over Fontaine futuristics.

This is "at least what i think" what Bioshock is trying to talk about, just like communism, objectivism (rand's philosophy) sounds great on paper and would be great if everyone followed the rules, but to expect people to do so is not only stupid, it's irresponsible and will end up hurting all of society. This criticism in itself is not actually that new but it is one that constantly need to be brought up to remind philisophers, psychologists, sociologists, scientists and everyone with any power, you are not always right and even if you are in the real world things are always more complicated, to create strict rules based on ideolgies alone only constricts society and makes it more vunerble to corruption.

I'm in the process of reading the book (or, attempting to for the third or fourth time...) but it really is an interesting read. One just needs unbelievable willpower to finish it.

Its a very good book (you should read no matter what anybody sais because it's quite obviously thought provoking) and at least as far as i understand it Ayn Rand's philosiphy is a great idea, essentially there is no inherant reason for unhappiness all one has to do is decide what stands between themselves and their happiness and overcome it. if everyone looks out for themselves and their own happiness everyone will prosper, obviously like any system this one has problems. The main one being when one is simply unwilling to be selfish and can't stand the thought of some other person failing then unions appear and become corrupted muscle organizations, tax money is wasted on nationalized healthcare and welfare, and laziness is promoted as a cause of all of it.

Not to be a grammar nazi, but I find all of the typos when talking about this book to be deliciously contradictory.

But I do agree with the general sentiment that the book is worth the read.  If you don't think you can muster the required focus to be able to process the book (and survive the occasionally awful dialog), then there are plenty of summaries available.

I'm upset that the mainstay of gaming plots since space invaders has been "ALIENS/MUTANTS/ZOMBIES/SOMETHING has invaded, here's a bullshit reason, now go kill them all." Thank goodness for well read game designers like Ken Levine for bringing a little depth to the table.

I've considered reading some of Rand's work, but my reading list would have to be pretty dry before that actually happens.

If you want to read some good old fashioned Ayn Rand objectivist philosophy but don't wanna read 1000 pages, go for Anthem. That should satisfy any Bioshock induced pseudo-intellectuality.

its better to think of Andrew Ryan as a person who probably agreed with Ayn Rand as opposed to being based upon the book.

Theres really only a few similarities

The only really prominent similarity is the taking of all the great minds of the world into a sanctuary (which in Bioshocks case didn't work out). I guess there are some underlying Soviet themes also, but whatever.

I finished all 1,100+ pages. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

" I finished all 1,100+ pages. I enjoyed it quite a bit. "

For those interested in the role that objectivism plays in BioShock, this is a pretty neat article: 
http://kotaku.com/354717/no-gods-or-kings-objectivism-in-bioshock

Levine wondered what sorts of people might live in an underwater city, what would drive someone from the rest of the world.

"I started thinking about utopian civilizations," he said. "You have these traditional utopian notions. I've always been a fan of utopian and dystopian literature.

"The more I started thinking about making a compelling place and compelling villain, someone who had a real concrete set of beliefs made sense."

Enter Objectivism. Levine said he had been reading Ayn Rand's books over the past few years and was fascinated with her "intensity and purity of belief."

"The surety she has in her beliefs was fascinating," he said. "She almost spoke like a super villain, like Dr Doom."
And her characters, Levine believed, projected that same intensity.

"I started to wonder, what happens when you stop questioning yourself? It becomes a set of accepted truths, instead of something you're constantly using in the lab of reality."