"Going a long distance out of the way, to come back a short distance correctly"
Atlas Shrugged – Day 103 – pp. 1150-1159
Now we get a little hokey.
Francisco grills the subdued guards. How many guards are there? Where? What are these rooms?
It’s military precision. (You wonder, when you’re an expert at one thing, it would seem, in Rand’s universe, you’re an expert at everything. Continue reading “The Great Escape”
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.
Continue reading “The “Passion” of John Galt (or the end of Jim Taggart)”
Atlas Shrugged – Day 101… – pp. 1130-1139
Rushing to the end….
What did Dr S see???
Atlas Shrugged – Day 074 – pp. 802-811
I can’t wait!!
“Yes or no, Miss Taggart?”
She’s at a meeting with the “heads” of state — Mulligan, Galt, Francisco and Hugh Akston.
Now I think we all know what her answer will be. The only question is whether she goes back to save the railroad or to save Hank.
So what is her decision?
Atlas Shrugged – Day 073 – pp. 792-801
Galt, Francisco and Dagny walk out to see d’Anconia Copper mine #1.
Francisco and Galt chat but Dagny is watching Francisco. She notices the “quality of his glance whenever it rested on Galt.”
Francisco obviously looks up to Galt. He’s the alpha dog in this pound.
And the way Rand is describing this, or at least the way I’m reading it, it’s leaving me with a little bad taste in my mouth. (Like a really cheap cigar.)
Atlas Shrugged – Day 070 – pp. 762-771
Cut to scene, Dagny’s at the airfield in Galt’s Gulch (that’s what they’re calling it.) Who gets off the plane but Owen Kellogg.
He brings back a bit of reality. It’s been three days since she’s been missing and the outside world thinks she’s dead. Harsh reality.
“She nodded slowly, grasping the events she had not thought of considering.”
Continue reading “St. Paul, Capitalism and Ayn Rand (a few extra thoughts…)”
Atlas Shrugged – Day 058 – pp. 639-648
The romantic moment of truth has finally arrived!
Hank demands to know what Francisco’s doing there.
Francisco’s seen the key in Hank’s hand. He knows what he’s doing there.
Continue reading “Romantic revelations (and more rough sex)”
Atlas Shrugged – Day 057 – pp. 629-638
She’s kicking ass and taking names. They’re going to start traffic back and do whatever they have to to get the new lines built. Get men from wherever. Pay ’em double. Pay ’em triple. If any of those UB bitches get in your face, give the locals authority to bribe them. Keep it off the books of course. If they want to stop us, they’ll have to sue me…
Is that true?
Atlas Shrugged – Day 056 – pp. 619-628
Dagny’s in awe. And in horror. Horrified awe? Awesome horror?
In any case, I don’t think she still fully gets it. The part about “inaction” actually being action (in this instance.)
She sees things as they are because they (her, Francisco, Hank et al) didn’t work hard enough. Francisco is trying to tell her it’s because they worked too hard. (And didn’t charge enough.)
I think this is where a lot of objection to Rand’s philosophy comes in. That her idea of “chasing money” is her moral end in itself. It’s not. . .
Atlas Shrugged – Day 055 – pp. 609-618
Chapter VIII – By Our Love…
A rather sappy title for Rand, no?
We’ve shifted scenes to Dagny’s cabin in the woods. It’s May 28. Let’s see. If she left on the day the directive was implemented – May 1 – she’s been there about a month.
Working on her mission…
Continue reading “Purposeful Inaction: When doing right seems so wrong”
Atlas Shrugged – Day 052 – pp. 509-518
High drama. In the movies I think there’s a name for this. Of course I don’t know what it is. The board wants Dagny to recommend dismantling the only profitable line in the Taggart Trans system. The line she built…
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.
Getting a little behind on my posts. Maybe blogging a 1200 page book, moving and starting business in the same month isn’t such a good idea. (Glad Hank Rearden wasn’t around to hear that.) Back to business…
Atlas Shrugged – Day 049 – pp. 479-488
Hank has just double dog dared the court to take away all his stuff. But not under the politically protective guise of punishing him for breaking the law. Come out and take it and show the world what you’re real intentions are.
Politically unappealing.
Atlas Shrugged – Day 047 – pp. 459-468
Hank and Francisco finish sealing the breach in the furnace.
They said nothing to each other when they walked together through the darkness, on their way back to the office.
Kind of like that awkward silence after . . .never mind. . .
Atlas Shrugged – Day 046 – pp. 449-458
We cut back to Hank’s office. It’s late. He got Ken Danagger’s message from Dagny when she told him the story.
He’s bummed and thinking. . .
Atlas Shrugged – Day 043 – pp. 419-428
He explains briefly to Hank
“Do you know where all those fair share vultures have invested their profits from Rearden Metal?”
“No but — ”
“In d’Anconia Copper stock. Safely out of the way and out of the country.
And then Francisco suddenly gets confused about the time-space continuum. . .
Atlas Shrugged – Day 042 – pp. 409-418
And he walks away and leaves her hanging.
What a master of suspense. But there is someone else watching him as he goes.
Atlas Shrugged – Day 041 – pp. 399-408
No it’s not a cuisinart.
It’s her husband at the reception. In the presence of so many of whom it will impress.
“Your guests are quite impressed. I can practically hear them thinking all over the room. Most of them are thinking: ‘If he has to seek terms with Jim Taggart, we’d better toe the line.”
So it’s not really a gift. More of an exchange? What’s she want?
Atlas Shrugged – Day 016 – pp. 154-163
Dagny questions the story… Can’t imagine why. However Francisco walks up and says he believes the story. The storyteller walks away in a huff — Nobody likes Francisco anymore…
He chuckled at her bursque departure. Dagny asked coldly, “What’s the joke?” Continue reading “Three strikes for Dagny”
Atlas Shrugged – Day 015 – pp. 144-153
Of course all that is lost on Jim who is a capitalist when it suits him and a “progressive” the rest.
Now Rand shifts gears once again to Dagny who is in some bit of awe of Henry Rearden. Perhaps since the d’Anconia thing didn’t work out…
But who’s this approaching Hank now? Continue reading “Hank, Ragnar and John…”