Anthem: The Process of LiberationMany years ago, I read my first Ayn Rand book, Anthem. I completed the book in about four hours. At the time, I wasn't mature enough to fully appreciate Anthem's powerful symbolism. My attitude as I read the beginning of the book was one of indifference and confusion, only later ripening into concern and vigorous interest. This experience began a new phase in my intellectual development that soon led me to reading Atlas Shrugged. Then I started with the non-fiction works of Ayn Rand. My understanding of Rand's philosophical system, however, came step by step. There wasn't a single moment of recognition, not a single "aha." Until recently, I wasn't fully aware that I had been affected so deeply. My progress was gradual and I had never looked back. When I started reading Anthem for the second time, I found myself in sharp pain, even at the first paragraph. I continued reading it feeling like a person visiting a concentration camp, because, in fact, that was exactly what I was doing. There wasn't a hint of lightness in my mood; I don't even remember breathing. I was really looking back in time. At the end of chapter nine, when Equality 7-2521 is alone, in the deepest sense of the word, with his Golden One, he slowly says, "We are one... only... and only... and we love you who you are one... alone... and alone,'' I feared I could no longer tolerate the book. I had finally understood that deep sense of loneliness and desperation that a person can feel when he wants to say “I love you” but can't say it “I.” I couldn't understand how my previous reading could seem so easy. Proceed, in forced march, to chapter eleven. I had never experienced the concept of strenuous reading before. When I read the words "I am," I realized that I had become Equality 7-2521 and that his