Atlas Shrugged – Day 102 – pp. 1140-1149
No it ain’t.
“Long coils of wire, like the twisted arms of an octopus, stretched forward across the stone floor, from the machine to a leather mattress spread under a cone of violent light. John Galt lay strapped to the mattress, He as naked; the small metal disks of electrodes at the ends of the wires were attached to his wrists, his shoulders, his hips and his ankles…”
Sounds like an impressive creation. Wonder where Dr F bought the kit for that?
They turn on the machine and hear the buzz from the generator and the amplified sound of John Galt’s heartbeat.
Now he makes a fairly ridiculous sounding demand of Galt.
“Get this straight, … We want yo to take full power over the economy of the country. We want you to become a dictator. We want you to rule. Understand?”
Guess that’s meant to represent how upside-down everything’s become.
Galt says nothing.
“Number three.” said Ferris, raising a finger in signal.
They zap JG. His left arm starts shaking in spasms. No response.
“Number two,” said Ferris.
Galt’s right leg goes into violent spasms. Still nothing from Galt. Apparently he can endure virtually any amount of pain without showing any signs of pain.
“Number one, gradual” said Ferris.
This time the current was pumped through Galt’s chest. More violent spasms. Still no reaction from Galt.
“You’re too easy on him!” yelled Taggart staring a the naked body on the mattress.
OK, Jimmy’s getting a little antsy. Could this be the great mad scene where he goes off the deep end? That’d be cool.
“The mixed series!” ordered Ferris.
The shocks now came at irregular, unpredictable intervals, one after the other or minutes apart.
And here’s Rand going off the deep end… Galt is enduring his torture with heroic stoicism while the other three are finding watching the ordeal nearly unbearable.
They express their various levels of insanity.
Wesley Mouch yelled out,
“Oh isn’t it enough? He’ll” obey us now! I’m sure he’ll obey!”
Ferris responds domineeringly,
“No! It’s not enough! I don’t want him to obey! I want him to believe! To accept! To want to accept! We’ve got to have him work for us voluntarily!”
Taggart want’s blood,
“Go ahead! … What are you waiting for? Can’t you make the current stronger? He hasn’t even screamed yet!”
Jim’s sunk to a new low. A level of twisted, perversity that puts him above/below the rest of the looters. By now I’d say he’s lost all control over any moral faculties.
They go on zapping Galt, the buzz of the machine and his amplified heartbeat still the only sounds in the room.
Suddenly, the heartbeat stopped.
“…their horror was topped by another: by the fact that Galt opened his eyes and raised his head.”
Huh?
“Then they realized the drone of the motor had ceased, too.”
Ah ha! Dagny and Francisco pull the plug? Time for the assault?
No, I guess, from this amusing exchange, the machine just broke down.
“Well?” snapped Ferris. “Well? What’s the matter?”
“The generator’s on the blink,” said the mechanic helplessly.
“What’s the matter with it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well find out and fix it!”
Blind leading the blind. I wonder if Rand meant this kind of text to be humorous.
So the mechanic kicks the machine a little. Pulls off the back. Tightens a few bolts. He’s clueless. All three men are standing behind the machine when Galt finally speaks up.
“It’s the vibrator that’s out of order, … Take it out and pry off the aluminum cover and…”
And he proceeds to give them step by step instructions how to fix it. They’re in shock. It’s like he’s mocking them, daring them to finish the job.
The mechanic looked at Galt and “grasped the meaning of what was occurring in that cellar.” He runs out.
I get a sense that this bears some similarities to a certain crucifixion scene. Like the centurion who suddenly realized Jesus was the son of God.
Jim starts shouting.
“No, …I won’t let him get away with it. … I’ll fix it. I’ll work it myself. … He hasn’t even screamed yet. … I want to break him! I want to hear him scream! I want –”
And then it was Taggart who screamed. … The protective walls of emotions, of evasion, of pretense, of semi-thinking and pseudo-words, build up by him through all of his year, had crashed in the span of one moment. …
…it was the lust to destroy whatever was living for the sake of whatever was not. It was the urge to defy reality by the destruction of every living value, for the sake of proving to himself that he could exist in defiance of reality…
He’s apparently fully realized Galt’s philosophy. And is meeting his own unavoidable end head on.
I don’t really buy this. If a man has lied to himself so long his vision should become his reality. How does that reality crumble and “real” reality take over? I’m not sure they human psyche works that way. I mean, sure, reality will always win out, but will its victim actually understand what happened? I don’t know. Maybe.
Anyway, Jimmy’s in a heap on the floor.
“No…” he moaned, staring at that vision, shaking his head to escape it. “No … No …”
“Yes,” said Galt.
See, that’s what I’m talking about. Galt’s a mind reader. He’s all knowing. He understands completely what just happened to Jim Taggart. C’mon.
Mouch and Ferris lift Taggart up to help him out. They take him out to the car.
For a moment their only certainty was that they had to escape from that cellar — the cellar where the living generator was left tied by the side of the dead one.
Rand’s really heaping on the Christ allegories.
End of chapter IX. I think about 500 pages ago, I knew Jim’s demise was imminent. But I was really hoping for a little more drama. A little bigger flame out. Oh well.
LAST CHAPTER!! Chapter X – In the name of the best within us.
Dagny walked straight at the guard who stood at the door…
She demands to be let in. The guard refuses. She tells him Mr Thompson’s sent her. But Dr F says no. Do you want to defy Mr T? Certainly not, but Dr F said…
She’s playing mind games with an under-equipped man. But he is an under-equipped man with a gun. He decided he has to ask the chief. Dagny pulls a gun on the guard!
Yeah!
She recaps the guard’s dilemma one more time. Maybe she is from Mr T, maybe not. Maybe he’ll be thrown in jail for disobeying the head of state, or maybe he’ll be shot for letting in an enemy of the state.
Actually at this point that’s not his decision. It’s let her in or shoot her. But of course he can’t make a decision. Dagny gives him till the count of three.
“Wait! Wait! I haven’t said yes or no!”
That sounds very similar to Jim Taggart language. Actually the language of all the looters.
Anyway, one… two… three… (“If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.”)
Calmly and impersonally, she, who would have hesitated to fire at an animal, pulled the trigger and fired straight at the heart of a man who had wanted to exist without the responsibility of consciousness.”
YEAH! You go girl!
Francisco was the first to join her, coming from behind a corner of the building, then Hank Rearden, then Ragnar Danneskjold. There had been four guards posted at intervals among the trees, around the building. They were now disposed of: one was dead, three were left in the brush, bound and gagged.
Why did I just get a mental image of the scarecrow, tin man and lion going to save Dorothy?
Francisco slips into the building and confronts the first guard. Ragnar comes in right behind to subdue the other.
We’ve got an assault and rescue folks!