Atlas Shrugged – Day 054 – pp. 529-538
“You know, of course, I won’t allow this to continue. . . I won’t permit you to have her. Not her. Anyone but her. . . . I won’t permit it! You’ll give it up!. . . You’ll give it up, you’ll leave her, you’ll never see her again!”
Hank has a calm reply.
Atlas Shrugged – Day 053 – pp. 519-528
My God! How long have I been gone! Well the move is about done. Pictures to hang and a few more things to organize, but for the most part, I’m all in. I think I set a world record for how much crap one guy can have. Seriously. The whole damn thing took 4 weeks. I know a guy down here who claims he can throw all his stuff in a duffel bag. I’m jealous.
So where were we? Oh yeah! “another death was all but assured…”
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 051 – pp. 499-508
All hell has broken loose. The apocalypse is at hand. And the G is still screwing things up.
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 048 – pp. 469-478
That bit was sooooo good, I think we need a little follow up and clarification from Hank. . .
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 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. . .
(Chuck’s note: I’ve gotten a little behind these days. Grrrrr. But I had to stop and muse for a bit on some recent news that seemed to be so appropriate to the Atlas message. . .)
I’ve been accused of being cynical, paranoid and occasionally even a captain in the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie Brigade (perhaps, on occasion, justifiably so.)
But sue me if I think that taking everything at face value is naïve.
Like this. What’s the point of this nonsense?
Atlas Shrugged – Day 044 – pp. 429-438
Busted.
“He stood like a man in military uniform at some official proceedings where emotions could not be permitted to exist.”
“Aren’t you going to try to justify yourself?”
“No.”
“Aren’t you going to start begging my forgiveness?”
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 040 – pp. 389-398
And on and on he’d ramble. About how good Dagny, his “ruthless, conceited bitch” of a sister and Hank Rearden and all the rest of them are at making money. Why wouldn’t they acknowledge his spiritual superiority.
Don’t know Jim. Maybe if you were living in a monastery. . . but you’re president of a railroad.
Cherryl on the other hand, really had no idea what he is talking about. She does see that he’s in pain, however, and her youthful sympathy, like finding a rabbit or something equally cuddly caught in a trap makes you cry, draws her to him.
Actually did more than that.
Atlas Shrugged – Day 039 – pp. 379-388
Chapter II — The Aristocracy of Pull
Finally a title that makes sense! This is the world we’re living in right now. Where if you are positioned correctly in the right office and know the right people, you can get – do – say – screw just about anyone or anything. H-E-L-L-O Washington.
The calendar in the sky beyond Dagny’s window said September 2. OK. We’re one year into the book — it read exactly the same when Eddie looked up at it on page 2 or 3.
Incidentally, I recently found out that Sept 2 is “Atlas Shrugged Day.” Happy Belated Atlas Shrugged day to all!
The calendar that timed her race to get the JG line built was now “clocking her race against an unknown destroyer.”
Atlas Shrugged – Day 038 – pp. 369-378
While she’s waiting she recalls all the incredible gifts he’s given her. . .
“The single pear shaped ruby that spurted a violent fire on the white satin of the jeweler’s box. It was a famous stone which only a dozen men in the world could properly afford to purchase; he was not one of them.”
“On the evening of a blizzard, she came home to find an enormous spread of tropical flowers standing in he living room against the dark glass of windows battered by snowflakes.”
“. . .he brought and put over her shoulders was a cape of blue fox that swallowed her from the curve of her chin to the tips of her sandals.”
Out for a secluded dinner one evening, he again confesses what he believes to be his sin.
Atlas Shrugged – Day 037 – pp. 359 -368
“He would not work for me, so is probably the kind of man you want”
A young physicist from the Utah Institute of Technology…
His name . . .
Atlas Shrugged – Day 036 – pp. 349-358
It’s Dagny Taggart.
She’d like a meeting.
Monday?
Why he can be there this afternoon. . .
Dag and the Doc didn’t leave things on good terms after the SSI put out that paper or Rearden Metal less than a year before. Wonder why he’s so excited to see her.