Anthem

It came in nice shape and was a good read for an assignment

I listen to rush a lot and I know rush wrote a lot of songs regarding her writings so I had to get this book and it was an easy reading. It was a pretty interesting story if you ever wanna read Anything from her grab this book it’s a quick read and it’s a pretty good book

"It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!"Equality 7-2521 tells us he is a sinner and criminal. But what crimes has he committed? Being alone, writing, having personal preferences. He is “cursed” with an active, questioning mind in a society where every institution aims to crush independence and instill obedience to the authority of the collective.In Anthem’s totalitarian society every aspect of life is dictated by the state. People are told when to wake, when to eat, when to work, when to sleep. Enslaved to all mankind, they have no freedom to choose their work or anything else. But these political evils are possible, in Rand’s view, only because the people in Anthem accept collectivism as a moral ideal: It’s not just a crime to be alone or to have personal values, it’s a sin — a moral transgression.They’ve adopted collectivism so fully they can’t even see themselves as individuals, only as members of a group. And by embracing this as an ideal, they’ve become accessories to their own enslavement.One striking feature of Anthem’s world is the corruption of language: the loss of singular pronouns. This linguistic deterioration is not just an expression of the philosophy of collectivism, but also a method by which that philosophy is inculcated and enforced.Anthem is set in a distant future more primitive than Europe’s Dark Ages. Technology and scientific knowledge have been lost. The tallest building is only three stories, sundials keep time, and the newest modern invention is the candle. The “Old Ones” make vague reference to “towers which rose to the sky,” “wagons which moved without horses,” “lights which burned without flame” and other “strange things” from the past.What accounts for this collapse? Rand’s explanation is that scientific and technological progress is incompatible with the collectivist mindset of passive obedience to the group. Progress requires individuals who are willing to exercise independent, rational thought and are free to innovate based on that thought.Historically, the replacement of reason with faith caused the achievements of Greece and Rome to be buried and forgotten during centuries of stagnation and starvation. Rand projects the same cause leading to Anthem’s fictional Dark Age.

Make this required reading for all your children by the time they're fourteen at the latest. Great to combine with other books such as The Road to Serfdom, 1984, The Time Machine, and eventually Atlas Shrugged.

The review is to the low quality of the print edition, it does look like a bootleg copy of the book, the back of the book the letters are completely pixelated.

This was a required reading for one of my professors and unlike the first book he assigned I actually enjoyed Anthem. I love a good story and this was not only a good story but a good book to stop and think about long after you put the book down. I read the book in three brief sittings of about 20-30 minutes each as it is only 48 pages long. The length of the book made it feel nonthreatening to read on a deadline. I especially love that the story not only followed our protagonist Equality 7-2521 but also Liberty 5-300, in fact, I think having her character be present really made the book for me. It was the kind of book I could sit with a cup of tea in bed with my bedside table lamp on and read and just simply enjoy it. A lot of books (especially required readings) can be dull, monotonous feeling or an overload of information. This was relaxing, yet thought provoking. If you're looking for a nice way to spend an afternoon I recommend Anthem.

After reading Ms Rand' s more famous tomes, “Atlas Shrugged" and “The Fountainhead", I was little surprised to find a similar libertarian tone in this story, set in a distant and disturbing future where individuals sacrifice their identities for the collective will. While it may remind some readers of other early twentieth century dystopian scenarios such as "1984", "Brave New World", or “We", Rand' s story seems to stand out as one of the few where collectivism reverts mankind into an almost primal state; where the protagonist actually embraces technological advances as a progressive ideal rather than a sin against the natural order. The language was difficult to understand at first; it reads as a diary of a collective member referring to himself as “We" rather than “I", but after this setback it is a short and sweet introduction to the philosophies of Ayn Rand. And how could I say no to a free version?