
Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Current Financial Crisis - tortilla
http://mcsweeneys.net/2008/11/20tucker.html
======
mmmurf
More accurately, there would be a shmarmy Wesley Mouch advocating Fannie and
Freddie, and the need to repeal the Glass Stiegel act.

The most productive people in the world have never cared about finance or
banking.

The only similarity between anything YC related and the credit crisis is that
some business models are purely designed to catch a bubble. If you do that you
are just speculating with code rather than financial instruments.

True entrepreneurship adds value and builds businesses that you can self-fund
and that people will pay for, without trying to lure in a million visitors and
a few investors with some sort of undisclosed, roulette-wheel business model.

~~~
sethg
By failing to recognize that this is the funniest parody in the entire history
of literature, you unwittingly condemn yourself as irrational and anti-life.

~~~
unalone
The funniest parody in all of literature is Ulysses, and it's so funny nobody
gets it.

McSweeney's is misinterpreting Rand. Rand isn't about making money. She's
about creating good products and making money because people like what you've
got. Kind of like how 37Signals does today: they're the "Atlas heroes." They
do what they want, they don't compromise, and they're reporting doing well
despite the crash because they're making something that people want.

McSweeney writers aren't bad, but they're immature. They take low shots and
they're willing to be lame for laughs. In a way, kind of like Dave Eggers,
who's quite good but who could be a lot better if he stopped the annoying
little games. I like reading them on occasion, but this was one of their
weaker moments.

~~~
bdr
How is Ulysses a parody?

~~~
unalone
Well, it's not entirely a parody. But there are absolutely parodic incidents.
It takes the name Ulysses to allude to a grand epic, and then focuses on three
people living a day in their lives. And it's not a parody in the sense that
Joyce is making a bigger point, which is that the human mind is so complex and
beautiful that the mere fact of living a day is an epic unto itself.

However, Joyce still absolutely has a comedic mindset. The opening, when Buck
Mulligan descends and shaves, is written as if it were a religious ritual.
There's the excellent newspaper scene, where headlines announce the goings-on
of the characters. There's a chapter where every few paragraphs Joyce takes on
the style of a new writer, moving from extremely obtuse ancient writing up to
Irish slang. There's the penultimate chapter, which takes a scientific
approach to two characters having sex. Stephen's chapter is a parody of the
overthinking genius. Really, every chapter is as silly as it's straight. It's
one of the things that makes Ulysses so fascinating.

Technically, I'd call Finnegans Wake an even greater parody, but that's not
fair, because it parodies itself.

~~~
bdr
If you'd said "Ulysses is funny" I wouldn't have questioned that. :) It's
certainly not a parody of the Odyssey, despite the partially ironic title and
the echoes in the episode structure.

~~~
unalone
I think those echoes are what make me call it a parody. It's a serious parody
- I think that it mirrors it to prove a serious statement - but at the same
time, it's saga-length and absolutely epic, yet it focuses on the mind rather
than on great actions and deeds. Perhaps it's not a direct parody - it does
much more than parody - but I think that parody's still in there.

The part near the very end - the Sinbad the Sailor monologue - still cracks me
up. What excellent writing.

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boredguy8
Laughing at the write-up almost made reading that steaming pile of a book
worth it.

"Why leave such an achievement to rot here? It's the greatest thing I've ever
laid eyes on, made by a monumental genius, the sort of mind that's only born
once in a century ... Dagny, why are you fondling your breasts?"

------
s_baar
This reminds me of the lack of AS fanfiction on the web right now. Someone
really needs to rewrite this book once the it goes to the public domain,
because there is potential, but so much is lost on her personality quirks and
non-native English writing. (Note that the ARI essay contests have NEVER
delved into the romantic situations in this book because they really are so
contradictory and add nothing).

tldr: I lold

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dgordon
Eh, it wasn't that funny, mostly because it utterly misses the point. The
Spudworks one was OK.

