Irina's review
Anthem by Ayn Rand
The book is about human identity and freedom, and how one can degrade under the chains of collectivism.
A lot of reviews on this book, which are posted on this site, use the word “futuristic” events. I intentionally put the quotes around this word as I tend to totally disagree with the choice of this word. I used to live under socialist regime, a collectivistic society. So I can relate and completely understand the events described in the book, where the word “I” doesn’t exist, when it is a shame to stand out and be different from the rest.
However, you don’t need to come from the socialist country to understand that this is about NOW, and not the future. We face this “phenomenon” (again I am using the quotes to underline that this actually is a normal event that we face every day), when we need to struggle to form our own opinions to think this is white, when everyone else thinks this is black. We struggle to stand up and not to get under the influence of the medi...more
A lot of reviews on this book, which are posted on this site, use the word “futuristic” events. I intentionally put the quotes around this word as I tend to totally disagree with the choice of this word. I used to live under socialist regime, a collectivistic society. So I can relate and completely understand the events described in the book, where the word “I” doesn’t exist, when it is a shame to stand out and be different from the rest.
However, you don’t need to come from the socialist country to understand that this is about NOW, and not the future. We face this “phenomenon” (again I am using the quotes to underline that this actually is a normal event that we face every day), when we need to struggle to form our own opinions to think this is white, when everyone else thinks this is black. We struggle to stand up and not to get under the influence of the medi...more
message 1:
by deleted member
02/22/2008 08:25PM
Hi Irina,
Thanks for your perspective. America does such a poor job of educating our people to think and for some reason we seem to have no historical memory from generation to generation. I've been reading Ayn Rand reviews on this site and no one seems to remember the cold war, stalinism and the soviet regime. It sort of amazes me. It wasn't so long ago! I need to talk to my 27 year old daughter tonight and see if she knows anything about world history in the last 50 years. Her name is Kira, after Rand's We the Living.
Thanks for your perspective. America does such a poor job of educating our people to think and for some reason we seem to have no historical memory from generation to generation. I've been reading Ayn Rand reviews on this site and no one seems to remember the cold war, stalinism and the soviet regime. It sort of amazes me. It wasn't so long ago! I need to talk to my 27 year old daughter tonight and see if she knows anything about world history in the last 50 years. Her name is Kira, after Rand's We the Living.
