Posted on 04/11/2009 7:40:36 AM PDT by Publius
See the videos at this thread; I found them very enlightening. They constitute an interview with Ayn, and what is so surprising is that the interview takes on a surreal form as if the interviewer, Mike Wallace, were a character straight from Atlas Shrugged interviewing Dagny.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2172674/posts
Rest assured, the twists in the plot ahead will quite eclipse any thought of a particular currency used in a particular place.
Bill, you have brought so much valuable insight to this discussion that I look forward most of all each week to your essays. And while I can certainly understand objectively (thanks, Ayn;-)) the criticisms of so many of her writing style, for myself, I wouldn't cut a word. Not even the somehow tawdry sex scenes.
You see, I look on this book as a novel first, which surely conveys hugely important moral, economic and political ideas, but is first and foremost an entertainment. Otherwise it would consist of carefully terse statements of each of her points, with lots of boring footnotes to back her up. But it's a novel, meant to be enjoyed for the reading of it, and as such I can't get enough. Perhaps that is why I've read it so many times, even though I know what she has to say, know how it turns out. The very fact that she finds so many different ways to say what she says, that sometimes she says things which seem at first to be contradictory (Francisco as a character, for instance), provides me with a huge measurement of plain entertainment. I find myself sub-vocalizing Francisco's Money speech each time I read it, as if rehearsing it to present to other people as an explanation for what they don't understand. So if others would like it cut, or edited, I say fine, but leave me my copy of the original!
Kirk
In watching those old tapes, I saw Mike Wallace as Bertram Scudder.
Well gosh and golly, Boats. Now you're making me jealous.
One difficult thing about this is separating fictional events from formal propositions in philosophy, of which there are an abundance, and about which Rand was very serious indeed. Even at this late date her *close* acquaintance Nathaniel Branden, who is in his late 70's, finds Rand's ethics well-founded. He's had half a century to look them over and he's a pretty bright guy. It's just a little jarring, though, to be following a character through the dramatic narrative and suddenly have him or her step in front of a podium, where the rules of criticism change. I'm going to get caught time and again for not being agile enough to change with them.
Great stuff. Next week d'Artagnan takes the Holy Grail to the very crack of Mount Doom...if I'm reading the right book. Publius? Throw me a bone here...
Is that why you took me off the ping list? ;-)
I didn't get this week's notice. :-(
Kirk
I just checked the ping list, and you’re on it. I wonder what’s going on.
I thought that Parsifal took the Ring of Power to Versailles.
Parsi’s a FReeper. LOL!
Dunno...but no prob. "We know where you live."
Kirk
“Rand is attempting something bold and ambitious (some would say arrogant as well) by literally rewriting philosophy from first principles. “
How many maths exist, that do not depend on I Euclid 5?
(Parallel lines never meet)
Ain’t philosophy fun?
>>This is John Galt Speaking
I finished the book, except for that chapter.
Too dense, I’d start nodding off every other page. I’m going to force myself to sit with a couple cups of coffee and get through it.
Or, you could just read it 3 or 4 pages at a sitting. That way you can really digest it, and not just start reading “words”.
Considering the speech's size, this is something that could be spread out over a week.
“I am John Galt, and I’m VERY long winded.”
I just started the speech, about four pages in, and if you want to FreepMail me those suggestions, I’d be obliged.
Or worse, an insane person, in need of "re-education" in a gulag somewhere, until he sees the light. Might not even need the gulag; constant haranguing for political correctness and raising of consciousness might do the trick.
Thanks again Bill and Pub.
Kirk
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