Patrick Peterson's Reviews > Anthem

2020-10-08 I first read this book at the suggestion of a girl friend my freshman year in college. I liked it, but it was more extreme and too simple for what I preferred. I remember reading Barry Goldwater's book "Conscience of a Conservative" right around the same time and liking that better, since it actually got into the major political-economic issues of the day. I also preferred the non-fiction style for these kinds of issues, though I did see some value in this as well as Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm.

Recently, I decided to read Anthem again (probably for the 3rd time) because it is on the list of books to be discussed in a potential Reading Group that I wanted to join. I had another several motivations too:
- I was given, not too long ago, a copy of a new Graphic Novel version of Anthem, and just read that a few days ago.
- I have seen parts of one or two screen adaptations of Anthem in the last few years.
- I have read a review of a somewhat recent (2019?) stage adaptation of Anthem.
- I have liked the works of Ayn Rand generally very much and rereading such a short book after many years seems pretty reasonable - and it sure worked out well with rereading 1984 a week or two ago.

Needless to say, the book did not disappoint. In fact, my previous rating here in Goodreads for the book was only 3 stars, which I just upgraded to 5!

More soon - I took some notes that I would like to share.

Some passages I liked:

p. 18 "You shall do what the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you. For the Council of Vocations knows in its great wisdom where you are needed by your brother men, better than you can know it in your unworthy little minds. And if you are not needed by your brother men, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies." Sounds pretty Soviet Unionish, eh? Or maybe North Korean? Or Khmer Rouge Cambodian? Or Covid years American?

p. 19 "And we learned much from our Teachers. We learned that the earth is flat, and that the sun revolves around it which causes the day and night.... We learned how to bleed men to cure them of all ailments." Laughable, eh? Well, just 35 or so years ago, climate scientists were teaching that the earth was cooling so fast we were in danger of another ice age. Just 10 years or so ago we were hitting "peak oil" so the price was well over $100/barrel(bbl) and people thought we were running out. The price now is around $40/bbl (2020-10) $70 (2023-07-02, with much inflation since) and there is plenty of known reserves.

p. 29 "Everything which is not permitted is forbidden" - This is from the dystopian world in Anthem... but the parallels to today's world are too close for comfort - think Covid medical treatments!

p. 65 "We must not keep our secret (electric light) to ourselves, nor buried under the ground. We must bring it into the sight of all men." The naivete of the main character in thinking that the powers that be would welcome his revolutionary invention is a bit sad and reminded me of the main character in Ibsen's play "An Enemy of the People."

2023-07-02 edited with come Covid era updates.