Atlas Shrugged – Day 050 – pp. 489-498
Just as an aside, I happened across an article in an open tab I was reading about the death of Tony Curtis. A beautiful man if there ever was one. It read:
“As a performer, Mr. Curtis drew on his startlingly good looks. With his dark, curly hair worn in sculptured style later imitated by Elvis Presley and his plucked eyebrows framing pale blue eyes and full lips, Mr. Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 50’s”
“A vigorous heterosexual in his widely publicized (not least by himself) private life, he was often case in roles that drew on a perceived ambiguity. . .”
Hank and Francisco are about to engage in a little “boy talk.” I think I’m going to try to keep that image of Tony Curtis in my mind.
Anyway, back to the book.
Hank is having a real problem reconciling the Francisco he’s come to know with the Francisco of the media.
“. . .what a man does out of despair, is not necessarily a key to his character. . . .the real key is in that which he seeks for his enjoyment. . . .how can you find any pleasure in spending a life as valuable as yours on running after cheap women and on a imbecile’s idea of diversions?”
Francisco’s gonna ‘fess up.
“Do you know of your own first-hand knowledge that I spend my life running after women?”
“You’ve never denied it.”
“Denied it? I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to create that impression.”
“Do you mean to say that it isn’t true?”
“Do I strike you as a man with a miserable inferiority complex?
“Good God no!”
“Only that kind of man spends his life running after women.”
And now Rand launches into 3-plus pages of Francisco describing how only men with no self-worth chase after women. They are men who think. . .
“. . .that sex is a physical capacity which functions independently of one’s mind, choice or code of values.”
“. . .the man who is convinced of his own worthlessness will be dawn to a woman he despises — because she will reflect his own secret self,she will release him from that objective reality in which he is a fraud. . .”
(Good news for Hank.)
And women?
“. . .those women are after but the same thing as the chaser — the desire to gains their own value from the number and fame of men they conquer? . . . Do you think they want to sleep with me or with any man? They wouldn’t be capable of so real an honest a desire.”
So why did he do it? Why did someone so gifted as Francisco let himself be debased in the media?
“Camouflage.”
Ahhhh.
Let the world think he’s a loose cannon, spendthrift and all his actions are suddenly and easily explained. But he goes on. . .
“I’ve never loved but one woman in my life and still do and always will! . . . I’ve never confessed that to anyone . . . not even to her.”
“Have you lost her?”
“I hope not.”
(Bad news for Hank.)
But enough of all the girl talk. Back to business. Hank decides he can trust Francisco enough to let him in on a big secret.
“I’m going to continue selling Rearden Meal to customer of my own choice in any amount I wish, whenever I see a chance to do it.”
He’s got an order for 20-times what they wanted to throw him in jail for waiting to be poured.
“To which one of your friends in the copper industry are you going to give the valuable privilege of informing on you this time?
“Not this time. This time I’m dealing with a man I can trust.”
“Really? Who is it?”
“You.”
Hank has contracted through a number of “stooges” under phony names. But a huge order of d’Anconia copper is being shipped from San Juan to New York in days.
(More bad news for Hank.)
“I told you not to deal with d’Anconia Copper!”
Uncomfortable silence and pained expression on Francisco’s face.
“Mr. Rearden. . . I swear to you — by the woman I love — that I am your friend.”
Three days later, Hank heard the news that three ships sailing from San Juan to NY loaded with d’Anconia copper were sunk by Ragnar Danneskjold. . .
Chapter V — Account Overdrawn
“It was the first failure in the history of Rearden Steel.”
Winter has set in and now the domino effect begins. The coal which Danagger Coal cannot deliver to Taggart Trans caused a three day delay in shipping 59 carloads of lettuce and oranges which all rotted during the wait.
The delays elsewhere caused other companies to close their doors. One day delay here, turned into three days there and suddenly the implications of a managed and malfunctioning economy are becoming clearly evident.
The government apologists are blaming the weather — an act of God. Nothing can be done. Rationing has become a way of life. Bertram Scudder wrote. . .
“Privations strengthen a people’s spirit and forge the fine steel of social discipline. Sacrifice is the cement which unites human bricks into the great edifice of society.”
Francisco d’Anconia likewise chimed in the media. . .
“The nation which had once held the creed that greatness is achieved by production, is now told that it is achieved by squalor.” said Francisco d’Anconia in a press interview.
But this was not printed. . .
Go figure.