الكلمة نور
وبعض الكلمات قبور
ما دين الله سوي كلمة
ماشرف الرجل سوي كلمة
مفتاح الجنة في كلمة
ودخول النار علي كلمة
وقضاء الله هو الكلمة
أتعرف مامعني الكلمة؟
عبد الرحمن الشرقاوي - الحسين ثائرًا وشهيدًا

"ناديتُ الذهبية فأخبرتها ما قرأت وما تعلمت، أطالت النظر إلي، فكانت أولى كلماتها: أنا أحبك"
آين راند - ترتيلة.


تحكي الرواية قصة الإنسان في مجتمع تمحي فيه الذات وتحل محلها "النحن" في إشارة واضحة إلى التضييقات التي أحاطت بالفرد في زمن كتابة الرواية، وفي الزمن الذي يسبقها.
توجز الرواية قصة سقوط الإنسان من الجنة واغترابه عن ذاته الحقيقية، حيث تخلى الإنسان عن عصمته، وربوبيته، وقرر لأول مرة ارتكابه الاختيار الحر. هذا الخيار الذي كلفه جنته، وعالمه السماوي، لكنه منحه الحرية في أن يكون إنسانًا.

تدور الأحداث في عالم يسمى أفراده لا بمسمياتهم، لكن بقيم وخلق، بقيم تفرض عليهم من علٍ.
قيم تمنع، هي ذاتها، تلك المشاعر. تمنع أي قيمة تلبي رغبة الذات. أي شيء قد يمنح الإنسان إنسانيته، بمشاعره، بحريته، بأخطائه بالطبع

القصة لا تتوقف عند هذا الحد، لكنها لكنها تفجئك بالإسقاطات المتتالية.
إسقاط الخلق
إسقاط الإنقسام الذي حل بالعاشق والمعشوق
وإسقاط سارق النار الذي، رغبة في هداية البشر للنور، تكبد العذاب والسجن والشقاء.
هاهنا، وفي سردية أكثر رومانسية، وجد العاشق معشوقه، والذات أناها، وبروميثيوس غايا(ه).

Communism is bad. Ego is good, Communism is bad. Ego is good......

Please keep beating me with a hammer.

Communism is bad, Ego is good...

The good news is that this novel is available on the Goodreads page as a free Ebook. So you can get pummeled for free!

Lol wtf

أنا لست عدوًا لأخوتي ولست مواليهم، ولكن فيَّ من الاثنين لهم بقدر ما يستحقون مني. ولا يكفي أن يولد إخوتي في هذه الدنيا كي يستحقوا حبي. أنا لا أمنح حبي دون سبب، ولا أمنحهُ لأي عابر سبيل يرجو أن يستحوذ على حبي. أنا أُشرِّف البشر بحبي. والشرف مكتسب، لا مُهدى.

~على الدوام سيبقى كل من خرج عن المألوف و بحث عن التجديد، في حالة من الإنكار له، دومًا سيكون الخوف والتغيير متلازمان كالجسد وظله، على مر التاريخ والعصور، لا يحدث تغيير إلا بحروبٍ أو فقد أو هروب.
الرواية قصيرة وتحمل في باطنها معاني كثيرةً، ومقارنة بزمن كتاباتها، فإنها تسبقه كثيرًا.
تمت

see i could DEAL with rand's writing this. she says what she's gotta, then ends it. she's like, "okay let's be honest, i'm not a novelist b/c i really don't write very well BUT i have this THING i really believe in and i wanna share it and gosh darnit people like parables so HERE." why ANYONE would want to read MORE about it and suffer through the out-of-her-element (yes donnie, i said it) torture of the other beasts is beyond me.

Short, with too much focus on the message of Ayn Rand and to little on the story.

The setting of Anthem is quite similar to “We” from Yevgeny Zamyatin, with a totalitarian state whose unnamed citizens are designated by ideals and numbers (the main character for instance is Equality 7-2521) and speak of themselves as we, since I is banned. The state is however not high tech like in We, but medieval, with the invention of the candle just a few years “old”.

Rand’s language in Anthem veers somewhere between a rather plain YA and the bible, which yields some quite nice one-liners. Rather cliche like our street sweeper also finds the love of his life (”Rather shall we be evil with you than good with all our brothers.”& ”We wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with all our brothers.”) and a secret, well preserved stash of books from our time to help his elevation to a libertarian.
A bit underwhelming in my opinion.

Quotes:
”This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them.”

“And everything which is not permitted by law is forbidden.”

“But we, Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue.”

Give her credit. Rand was an effective spokesperson for the libertarian branch of conservatism for a time, before her eccentricities caused people to stop taking her seriously and others had to step up to defend libertarianism.

The defense is ongoing, but doomed, I suspect. Libertarianism feels too much like a utopian scheme that inevitably must fail in actual practice. It is too narrow, focusing on only a few things that make human lives valuable while ignoring a host of others.

I am not qualified to speak on behalf of conservatives, but it is clear that many of them sense this narrowness and that's why libertarianism has had only limited impact influencing conservative thinking. Even among conservatives, it seems that most outgrow Rand eventually, though she will always enjoy some popularity among undergraduates.

It may be the maturing influence of meeting life's struggles that leads most adults to acquire that sense of citizenship that balances gratitude for what we have with responsibility for service to others. Young people have not had that experience yet, and can be forgiven for an incomplete view of what makes a happy and productive life.

But more to the point of GoodReads is that Rand is not a talented writer. Her prose is like a bludgeon. It is mind-numbing. There is no subtlety or nuance. Nothing to excite your aesthetic sensibility. Even if you think her ideas are interesting, her books are not good art. Anthem has the saving grace of being short, but it exhibits little in the way of interesting writing.

With the subtlety of a falling safe, Ayn Rand delivers this short treatise on the subject of egotism masquerading as science fiction with only the barest rudiments of a setting, story and plot set out for the reader to classify it as a "novel".

Anthem is set in a world where individualism is dead and collectivism is the only way to live; a complete social, cultural and industrial overhaul has been conducted, and the word "I" has been eradicated from vocabulary. The story is narrated by Equality 7-2521, a 21 old man who writes it in a journal while hiding in a cave under the earth. He explains his life, background, the society around him, his actions, and finally his goal. Believe it or not, there is even a romance subplot, which is not really a surprise as Rand was once a screenwriter for Hollywood.

There is not much of a real story to speak about, as the whole novel functions as a vehicle for Rand's message. The only virtue of Anthem is that it's mercifully short; as a work of fiction it's painfully simple and transparent, the plot is predictable, weakly imagined and heavy handed. Nothing is realized, everything is forced. The same theme has been done earlier and better by another Russian writer, the relatively little known Yevgeny Zamyatin in his 1921 novel We. Read that one instead to experience a literary work which has influenced both Huxley and Orwell. Of all the dystopian novels that are out there Anthem has to be the one of the least inspired and most unimaginative, the least effective and the easiest to forget.

الكتاب يتكلم عن حرية الشخص والعبودية والفلسفة السياسية.
لا نعرف من هو بطل قصتنا ولا نعلم من أين هو وأين يعيش، يصف نفسه وكل من في الكتاب بشكل جماعي بصيغة (نحن أو هم) عوضاً عن شكل فردي، لأن هذا هو ما بُنِيّ عليه وأسسته المصالح على هذا المبدأ، ولكن كل شيء سيتغير في نهاية الكتاب حيث سيعي بطلنا ما هو كونه وشخصه ويتحرر عن جمع نفسه ويفرّد ذاته ويقرر محو العبودية وسلاسلها.

كتاب قصير جداً ويمكن إ��هائه في جلسة واحدة، جميل وكتب بنمط شعري سلسل ولكن مبهم، وفي نفس الوقت سنشعر ببعض السياسة الدستوبيّة ترأس الأحداث.
ذكرّتني بدستوبيا ١٩٨٤ لجورج أورويل ونظام الأخ الكبير، ولكن هنا في هذا الكتاب سيكون كل شيء مختلف وأصلي، حيث ستأخذك الأحداث إلى فانتازيا وخيالات مفرطة.

3.5 to 4.0 stars. Though a very short novel (actually a novella), this is a classic of libertarian science fiction and a scathing indictment against collectivism. I probably would have only given this 3 stars but I loved the last two chapters of the book where Rand's fury at the communist/collectivist system explodes on to the page. Agree or disagree with her politics/philopsophy, one thing you can always say about Rand, she wasn't subtle and didn't hide her views or her passions.

Named to the Prometheus Hall of Fame (1987)

Read 2016

I've been thinking for a while if I would ever like to read an Ayn Rand book. As both her main literary achievements are a bit intimidating in size and controversy I was undecided and confused whether I would enjoy her work. An article came to my help where I was recommended to start with Anthem in order to get a basic understanding of her ideology. At 100 pages or so, Anthem seemed the perfect place to start and I thought after reading it I will have a better idea if I want to more of Rand.

Well, tough luck because I still do not know if I want to read anything else by the author. I liked some of the ideas in the book, I can understand where she's coming from, taking in consideration her background but I also believe her individualism is a bit extreme. Although the 'I' is very important in a person's life, I do not think it is everything. Thinking only about oneself will not necessary make a person happy and fulfilled. Sometimes happiness comes from seeing that the people you love are also happy, which does not seem to matter in Rand's philosophy.

I though that in the end the main male character changed into a selfish prick especially in the way he treated the Golden One, his "true love". He proved bossy when he chose the new name for her. He talks about the power of the "I" and making individual choices but does not allow her the option to chose her own name. Hmmm.

I thought it was a bit like the Reader but maybe for a more grown-up audience.

I cannot believe I just realized now I did not have this book marked as read! I read this back in high school and loved it!

For those thinking about trying Ayn Rand, this is a good intro book considering it is only a little over 100 pages and her other popular titles (mainly talking about Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead) are quite daunting in their length.

Now, in the past I have had trouble reviewing Ayn Rand because she is controversial. Usually this leads to people not being able to separate a review of a book from a political statement. Since I don't like arguing politics and figure everyone is entitled to their opinion, I will again attempt to avoid putting any sort of political spin on this one - but it may not be completely avoidable.

For me, this book is in the same category as 1984 and Brave New World. It is a commentary on where we might be going if we are not careful. In this book, the main issue is loss of self in forced servitude to the larger governmental machine. The writing is creative and riveting enough that it is very easy to finish this in one sitting.

Check out Anthem and read it with an open mind (even if it doesn't match your politics) and I think you will find an interesting, enjoyable, and thought provoking classic.