Posted on 02/21/2009 8:12:02 AM PST by Publius
Thanks. I guess I am going to have to start reading it again so I can keep up with the threads.
Oo-oo-oo-h, I like that! I completely missed that. This is why I love dealing with FReepers.
Ping to Chapter 6.
“How does one dare oppose the will of the majority? Contrast Dan Conway’s use of that question with Francisco’s.”
Put simply, Dan Conway asked this question with an air of resignation, as if it was useless to fight the mob that voted to drive him out of busness. Francisco poses it to point out the folly of the idea that the distribution of wealth should be based on need rather than ability (although none of those he asks seem to understand this).
Can you please add me to the ping list as well?
My own area of expertise is classical music. This was true for Haydn and Mozart, and to some extent even Beethoven. Once you sold your music to a publisher, the gold you received was the only payment you got. All profits went to the publisher.
But then British copyright law came into being throughout Europe, and everything changed. Brahms could make money off the sales of sheet music.
Then recording came along in the early 20th Century, and composers like Rachmanninov learned how to become media businessmen.
The patronage system gave way to capitalism in various forms as far as music was concerned.
I'm going to take the wearing of the diamond band in a different way
I'm not so sure it equals sex, but I think it is a symbol for the old society and the unnecessary adornment of greatness. In a society where the outward is prized and true goodness of character is disguised, jewelry, clothing, one's residence become the way to indicate that one is 'better' than another. Reflect back to the significance of the chain Hank created. It wasn't necessarily beautiful or valuable by traditional mores, it was valuable because of what it symbolized -- it symbolized the future.
When Dagny trades her diamond band for Lilian's bracelet of Reardon metal, she makes an important step down her own path - she trades an item of traditional value for one of the new values - the value of hard work.
Hank at this point becomes kinder to Lillian because it is at this point he falls in love with Dagny, but he will feel he is bound by the old ways and will not want to leave Lillian and thus violate his bond to her he made in the past. This internal struggle will have to be reconciled, and this type of struggle is not reconciled cleanly. The society of Altas Shrugged is clearly one in transition.
When Lillian and Dagney trade the diamond band for the Reardon metal, they each seal their own fate. One will remain in the past, one will belong to the future
Certainly Lillian’s trade of Rearden Metal for a diamond tells volumes about her character. But then so does her taste in friends and intellectuals.
"Lillian moved forward to meet her, studying her with curiosity. They had met before, on infrequent occasions, and she found it strange to see Dagny Taggart wearing an evening gown. It was a black dress......The black dress seemed excessively revealing--because it was astonishing to discover that the lines of her shoulder were fragile and beautiful, and that the diamond band on the wrist of her naked arm gave her the most feminine of all aspects: the look of being chained."
Does this statement actually say more about Lillian Rearden than about Dagny? It is Lillian who thinks that a woman's feminity is defined as being a piece of property. Without question Ayn Rand had some sort of domination fetish going on.....
Although, truth be told, Ayn Rand is a bit bi-polar in her feminism. Why did Dagny have to be so beautiful? I guess that is the case with her mega-producer leading men: they are all gorgeous, as well.
So, why does Hank completely give Dagny the cold shoulder after the bracelet exchange? Does he realize that he is in love with her and must hide it at all costs? Or has he admitted it to himself?
Dagny is Ayn, or at least the way Ayn would have liked to be.
In real life, Ayn Rand was a short and rather dumpy woman. Her brainpower was amazing, and I think she looked at herself in a mirror and saw Dagny. Or at least wanted to see Dagny.
If you go back to last week's thread and watch Rand with Mike Wallace and Phil Donahue, it's a wonderful thing to behold. I'm hoping they both live just long enough to eat their words.
As far as the remark made to Dagney that she should be having babies. I immediately thought about a show I saw on Book Notes about the worst ideas/books of all time. On the list was Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystic. He explained it as expanding marxism to include the womens movement. Friedan's view was that the 1950’s housewife, while staying at home, was freed by modern technology to pursue more intellectual goals. She saw the modern housewife as the “vanguard” of marxism for women. Contrast that to Dagney, who doesn't have time for such nonsense, she has a railroad to run. Of coarse, as another poster already stated, he may have been critiquing her job performance.
As for the game to name the contemporaries of the party members, thats like shooting fish in a barrel! But what immediately comes to mind is all of these liberal movies like Redacted, Rendition & W. No one sees them, no one wants to see them, and they don't make money. The whole point is to pontificate to the masses.
I watched the first Mike Wallace clip. I will have to do those in bits and pieces.
Yup, she’s really kind of a troll, isn’t she? That is what is so strange about her heroines being so gorgeous. I’d want to make my heroine attractive, without needing the “legs like a dancer” sort of thing going on. It was Dagny’s mind that contained the true beauty. Hey, my vanity is such that I put my make-up on every day (well, except Saturdays....), so I’m not dismissing feminine attractiveness completely.
But, If I’m Ayn Rand, I’d be making my leading lady a little more in the realm of the human in terms of looks if she is going to be such a hot-shot business woman. I’d be making Dagny a little closer to the real Ayn.
Face it, there are very few Ann Coulters running around. I would have to hate Ann if she didn’t make me laugh hard enough to snort coffee thru my nose.
I'm going to say no, and not for artistic reasons, though I think that would probably be valid as well. I'm going to take as a given that people espousing big/powerful government principles is a bad thing. Then it follows that it's a bad idea to have government funding creative endeavors because if government decides who to fund who is likely to receive funding? Also, as a taxpayer I resent having to pay people to say things with which I disagree vehemently and make art I find offensive, especially when my counterparts on the other side of the political spectrum labor under no such burden.
I'm not sure about the lack of sexism. I don't know about Eubanks, but Jim was shocked at the idea of Dagny holding the post of VP Operations because she was a woman.
Sometimes great beauty and great talent/accomplishments do go hand in hand.
You mentioned Ann Coulter but also Michelle Malkin, in the field of Music..Dianna Krall.
Rand wasn’t so much trollish as she was unkempt. She had that bohemian Russian thing going on.
I wonder if there are pictures of her when she was young?
Re: Jim’s opinion about Dagney.
Jim being the brother knew Dagney was competent and would show him up as the greaser/and squeezer that he was.
No guy wants his sister showing him up.
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