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...
I thought that Parsifal took the Ring of Power to Versailles.