Three times in one week = trend

I came across these three mentions last week:

1. As he sat on the bed, I stayed in the doorway and pointed. "I read that." The book was Atlas Shrugged.
"It's interesting, but it's way too long," he said.
"Yeah, I wouldn't say it was my favorite."
—Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife

2. "A utopia is a perfect civilization, which generally means there isn't a government to interfere with the lives of its citizens. This, of course, is an impossible dream. There is, however, an extremely long book called Atlas Shrugged that's about what would happen if all of the most brilliant individuals in the world separated themselves frm the flotsam and jetsam of society and built a utopia. Rebecca, you should read this book. You'd probably relate to it, especially if you're interested in trains."
—Chuck Klosterman, Downtown Owl

3. "Have you read her? Rand, Atlas Shrugged. That's the one...Take $1.99 out of that $2,500 and buy yourself a copy."
—Mad Men (season 1, ep. 9)

American idle

In the NYT Book Review, Joyce Carol Oates began her review of Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife by asking: "Is there a distinctly American experience?" She adds:

“The American,” by Henry James; “An American Tragedy,” by Theodore Dreiser; “The Quiet American,” by Graham Greene; “The Ugly American,” by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick; Philip Roth’s “American Pastoral” and Bret Easton Ellis’s “American Psycho” — each suggests, in its very title, a mythic dimension in which fictitious characters are intended to represent national types or predilections.

Hmmm...Maybe this answers the question? (Punchline ca. 1:30 mark)



(Via Termite Art.)