Before I took my two day hiatus, I resolved to finish Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem. And I did. And it felt like an accomplishment really. I have this nasty habit of reading 2-3 books at a time, most specially if I encounter a plateau on one of the novels I am reading. But that wasn’t the case with Rand’s Anthem.
I was drawn to the novel with the first sentence she ever wrote down. Rand said ‘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.’
The story opens in a dark, futuristic world where people without a sense of identity exists in dystopia, or what is also alternately called cacotopia – characterized as a fictional society where people suffer from all sorts of deprivation, oppression and terror. Both terms were coined in contrast to Thomas More’s idea of a utopia – an ideal place.
In a tunnel, Equality 7-2521 explains bits and pieces of his bleak existence. He dwells in a place that breathes in the irrationality of socialism. The World Council is bent on eliminating any and all individualist thoughts – which is why everyone talks to everybody else using plural pronouns (we, our, they). People who assert their individuality (by mere utterance of the word ‘I’) are burned at the stake and are what Equality 7-2521 calls The Saints of the Pyre.
He was raised, like all children in the world of Anthem, away from their parents and was sent to the Home of the Students. He excelled in math and science and dreamed of being a scholar but everyone’s fate is decided upon by the Council of Vocations and he was tasked to be a Street Sweeper. For the rest of his life.
Children are conceived in the Palaces of Mating, and it is deemed a crime in this society to do anything other than what you have been sentenced to do. But Equality 7-2521 remained curious, undertaking scientific experiments when he has fulfilled his work for the day. He rediscovers electricity and creates what can be compared to a light bulb.
He meets Liberty 5-3000, a woman whom he eventually will fall in love with, an act, a thought that is nonetheless prohibited, but the protagonists’ understanding of each other’s plight draws them to one another. Equality 7-2521 calls Liberty 5-3000 ‘The Golden One’ whilst she calls him ‘The Unconquered.’
One afternoon, Equality 7-2521 spends too much time working on his experiments and was caught. He was taken to the Palace of Corrective Detention where he was kept and tortured and lashed for days without end, however, his will to live and see a better world urged him to stay alive until he was able to find a means to escape.
He takes his invention to the Council of Scholars and everyone was taken aback and appalled because it was not ‘authorized’ and would definitely tip the equilibrium of their society. They tried to seize his invention from him but before they could do that, he ran away and went to the Uncharted Forest.
There he was haunted by the idea of leaving all those who mattered to him behind. But he was never destroyed by fear. He has nothing to lose.
Then he was followed by Liberty 5-3000, and it was in this encounter they realized what they hold for each other but struggled to verbalize their emotions. In the Uncharted Forest, they stumble upon a century-old house built during the Unmentionable Times (before the creation of Anthem) and in it they found scrolls upon scrolls containing the Unspeakable Word – ‘I.’ They learned the sanctity and value of individuality and Equality 7-2521 decided to call himself ‘Prometheus’ – the Titan who stole fire from the God Zeus and gives it to mankind. Prometheus, as we all know it, was punished and was chained to a rock where carrion birds fed on his liver in the day and by night his flesh grows back so he may be devoured again and again for the rest of his life. He also grants Liberty 5-3000 a new identity – he calls her Gaea, a titan of the earth and mother of the Gods.
The narrative ends with Prometheus talking about how he wants to help his friends regain their individuality and from then on start to plan for a future where reason, values and volition are not to be considered transgressions. The last word on the book is ‘EGO’ – the same word Prometheus inscribed on the rock he was chained to.
Anthem is the second work I have read of Rand, the first being ‘The Fountainhead.’ And already, I am drawn to her thought process. Her philosophy, Objectivism is based on the principle that reality is an objective absolute, that man must perceive and understand reality in order to survive. She also said that one’s highest value is one’s ability to reason. She said that man is the means himself – this means he will never sacrifice himself for others and will never sacrifice others for himself.
I cannot wait to read her most popular novel, Atlas Shrugged. Though I would have to confess, I am daunted by the 1000+ pages.
The story opens in a dark, futuristic world where people without a sense of identity exists in dystopia, or what is also alternately called cacotopia – characterized as a fictional society where people suffer from all sorts of deprivation, oppression and terror. Both terms were coined in contrast to Thomas More’s idea of a utopia – an ideal place.
In a tunnel, Equality 7-2521 explains bits and pieces of his bleak existence. He dwells in a place that breathes in the irrationality of socialism. The World Council is bent on eliminating any and all individualist thoughts – which is why everyone talks to everybody else using plural pronouns (we, our, they). People who assert their individuality (by mere utterance of the word ‘I’) are burned at the stake and are what Equality 7-2521 calls The Saints of the Pyre.
He was raised, like all children in the world of Anthem, away from their parents and was sent to the Home of the Students. He excelled in math and science and dreamed of being a scholar but everyone’s fate is decided upon by the Council of Vocations and he was tasked to be a Street Sweeper. For the rest of his life.
Children are conceived in the Palaces of Mating, and it is deemed a crime in this society to do anything other than what you have been sentenced to do. But Equality 7-2521 remained curious, undertaking scientific experiments when he has fulfilled his work for the day. He rediscovers electricity and creates what can be compared to a light bulb.
He meets Liberty 5-3000, a woman whom he eventually will fall in love with, an act, a thought that is nonetheless prohibited, but the protagonists’ understanding of each other’s plight draws them to one another. Equality 7-2521 calls Liberty 5-3000 ‘The Golden One’ whilst she calls him ‘The Unconquered.’
One afternoon, Equality 7-2521 spends too much time working on his experiments and was caught. He was taken to the Palace of Corrective Detention where he was kept and tortured and lashed for days without end, however, his will to live and see a better world urged him to stay alive until he was able to find a means to escape.
He takes his invention to the Council of Scholars and everyone was taken aback and appalled because it was not ‘authorized’ and would definitely tip the equilibrium of their society. They tried to seize his invention from him but before they could do that, he ran away and went to the Uncharted Forest.
There he was haunted by the idea of leaving all those who mattered to him behind. But he was never destroyed by fear. He has nothing to lose.
Then he was followed by Liberty 5-3000, and it was in this encounter they realized what they hold for each other but struggled to verbalize their emotions. In the Uncharted Forest, they stumble upon a century-old house built during the Unmentionable Times (before the creation of Anthem) and in it they found scrolls upon scrolls containing the Unspeakable Word – ‘I.’ They learned the sanctity and value of individuality and Equality 7-2521 decided to call himself ‘Prometheus’ – the Titan who stole fire from the God Zeus and gives it to mankind. Prometheus, as we all know it, was punished and was chained to a rock where carrion birds fed on his liver in the day and by night his flesh grows back so he may be devoured again and again for the rest of his life. He also grants Liberty 5-3000 a new identity – he calls her Gaea, a titan of the earth and mother of the Gods.
The narrative ends with Prometheus talking about how he wants to help his friends regain their individuality and from then on start to plan for a future where reason, values and volition are not to be considered transgressions. The last word on the book is ‘EGO’ – the same word Prometheus inscribed on the rock he was chained to.
Anthem is the second work I have read of Rand, the first being ‘The Fountainhead.’ And already, I am drawn to her thought process. Her philosophy, Objectivism is based on the principle that reality is an objective absolute, that man must perceive and understand reality in order to survive. She also said that one’s highest value is one’s ability to reason. She said that man is the means himself – this means he will never sacrifice himself for others and will never sacrifice others for himself.
I cannot wait to read her most popular novel, Atlas Shrugged. Though I would have to confess, I am daunted by the 1000+ pages.
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