Atlas Shrugged – Day 104 – pp. 1160-1169
This is it!! (Apparently I miscounted.) The final installment!
“The locomotive of the eastbound Comet broke down in the middle of a desert in Arizona. … Eddie Willers called for the conductor…”
The beginning of the end?
Atlas Shrugged – Day 99 – pp. 1110-1119
What does John Galt want?
Dagny’s return from paradise
Atlas Shrugged – Day 077 – pp. 832-841
“The buildings seemed worn by weeks of summer heat, but the people seemed worm by centuries of anguish.”
Dagny’s back in the Big Apple. Apparently things have gone down hill in just the last month. These ten pages are more or less catch up so I’m just going to hit the highlights. (I want to get moving on that Project X — or Thompson Harmonizer plot twist.)
So she got dropped in Watsonville NE. Made her way to the train she took to the airport. While on the train she realized that her return from the dead was going to be a public affair. (Wait’ll you see how she covers her bases on that!) At the airport boarding the plane she stops a reporter, identifies herself and tell’s him she’s alive before boarding her flight.
The news is out all over by the time she lands.
Another broken heart
Atlas Shrugged – Day 059 – pp. 649-658
Hey! Hey! You! What’re you doin’ over there. Get back to work. . .
Oh, man. It’s been like week since I’ve written anything here. Been busy with the business though. Hank and Dagny would both be proud. But now that things are caught up on the work side, time to get caught up a little here too.
Going to try to double up for a few days. Not only to catch up, but because this book is getting really damn good! Now, where was I?
Ah yes, Quentin Daniels, the motor physicist, has turned in his resignation on the motor project. Dagny is pushing her trip to Colorado up a day and leaving now.
Hank has snuck out – and Eddie’s come over to take some final notes for while she’s gone.
Two new faces enter the fray
Atlas Shrugged – Day 058 – pp. 569-578
Eddie continues with his description of the follies. (I’ll condense.)
Beating yourself with the blackjack
Atlas Shrugged – Day 057 – pp. 559-568
To climb into Hank’s head for the moment, I’d guess that he thinks they have some evidence about his black market dealings or over-pouring Rearden Metal or something like that.
Dr F pulls a stack of copies out of his brief case. Hotel registries with the name of Mr. and Mrs. J. Smith. (I guess you didn’t need to be so creative back in those days.)
“You know, of course,” said Dr. Ferris softly, “but you might wish to see whether we know it, that Mrs, J. Smith is Miss Dagny Taggart.”
A mystery visitor
Atlas Shrugged – Day 045 – pp. 439-448
Now we cut back to the Taggart Trans commissary where Eddie is chatting with his anonymous friend once again.
I like Eddie Willers. He’s a good guy. I wonder if there’s going to be a bigger role in this whole story for him.
Anyway, Eddie’s troubled. Hank and Danagger are busted and going on trial next month. Eddie had spoken to Dagny about the coming trial. She’s afraid for Danagger. That he won’t be able to stand the pressure. She believes that as these economic and personal stresses shift from man to man, they each disappear in turn. As if they’re marked men. . .
Divvying up the empire
Atlas Shrugged – Day 022 – pp. 214-223
The Equalization of Opportunity Act, as I recall, stipulated that businessmen could not own more than one business. It was designed so that others could have a chance at some success. Hank, who owns pretty much his whole line of production from the ore mines to the steel factory is facing some serious trouble.
As usual, he’s working past midnight. And a first glimpse of human weakness.
The two non-followers
Atlas Shrugged – Day 018 – pp. 174-183
And what about the school teachers in New Mexico? It’s their opinion that children should not be permitted to ride on trains running on Rearden Metal.
It seems that public outrage has hit some kind of fever pitch.
I want to just pause here for a sec and think about a couple parallels I can see, as Rand describes the events.
Eddie, Jim and the Rio-Norte Line!
Atlas Shrugged – Day 001 – pp. 2-12
Ayn Rand is a libertarian prophetess along the lines of George Orwell. You know what gives a prophet the ability to see into the future? It’s nothing divine, nothing mystical.
Continue reading “Eddie, Jim and the Rio-Norte Line!”