Cover of Anthem
    Science Fiction

    Anthem

    by LovelyMay
    Anthem by Ayn Rand is a dystopian tale of a man's rebellion against a collectivist society that suppresses individuality, leading him to rediscover the power of self and freedom.

    Days turned to many before we could again cross paths with Lib­er­ty 5–3000, whom we’ve secret­ly named the Gold­en One. It was a pecu­liar day when the sky resem­bled a vast spread of flames, mak­ing the fields appear breath­less under its eerie glow. On such an after­noon, as the women slug­gish­ly tend­ed to their chores, dis­tanced from the road, we encoun­tered the Gold­en One, soli­tary by the hedge as if await­ing us. Their gaze, ordi­nar­i­ly harsh and reluc­tant to yield to the world, soft­ened upon meet­ing ours, reveal­ing an unspo­ken readi­ness to heed any word from us.

    With a new­found bold­ness, we con­fessed, “We have giv­en you a name in our thoughts, Lib­er­ty 5–3000. You are the Gold­en One to us.” Curi­ous, they inquired about the name we’ve attrib­uted to them and upon learn­ing it, they dis­closed they had­n’t thought of us as Equal­i­ty 7–2521 either but as “The Uncon­quered.” This exchange left us momen­tar­i­ly speech­less, for it was a for­bid­den plea­sure to indulge in such per­son­al thoughts.

    Acknowl­edg­ing the dan­ger yet unable to refrain, we admit­ted to our for­bid­den mus­ings and implored, “Our dear­est one, do not obey us.” This sen­ti­ment, so rare and taboo, stunned the Gold­en One, prompt­ing them to request we repeat those words. Our dec­la­ra­tion, “Our dear­est one,” sym­bol­ized an unprece­dent­ed breach of norms, nev­er before had men addressed women in such a man­ner.

    The Gold­en One’s reac­tion was a solemn sub­mis­sion; they stood before us, tran­quil and col­lect­ed, their body lan­guage a tes­ta­ment to their accep­tance and per­haps, a silent pledge of rec­i­p­ro­ca­tion. This moment marked a piv­otal and per­son­al rev­o­lu­tion in our tale, as two beings dared to con­nect beyond the con­fines of their dic­tat­ed exis­tences.

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