* * * * *
                                        
         … and after nobody noticed, Atlas took his toys and went home.
                                        
I know some of the people reading this have read _Atlas Shrugged_ [1]; even
fewer have read _Anthem_ [2] (and fewer still are actually fans of Ms. Rand,
but I digress), but this is something I never realized about the two books:

> I don't know how many of you realize that Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's
> science fiction classic, is actually only book 1 of a trilogy? Hardly
> anybody knows this, because she never got around to writing the missing
> middle volume. She wrote book 1 in the series. She wrote book 3 in the
> series, but didn't explicitly label it a sequel to Atlas Shrugged, she and
> her agent marketed it as a stand-alone volume. She never got around to
> writing the middle volume that bridges the two. It's probably because she
> found it too depressing, the way that Heinlein never got around to writing
> The Stone Pillow, the missing volume in the Future History series that
> comes between “All You Zombies” and “If This Goes On.”
> 

“The Infamous Brad—Atlas Shrugged 2: Shrug Harder [3]”

Interesting. And it makes sense (then again, so does this [4], but again, I'm
digressing).

If only [DELETED-it were true-DELETED] Atlas Shrugged 2: Shrug Harder really
existed … [sorry if that last sentance wasn't clear — Editor]

[1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452011876/conmanlaborat-
[2] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452281253/conmanlaborat-
[3] http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/393124.html
[4] http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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