Atlas Shrugged Week 11: Ch 1 & 2

[Primeperiwinkle]

ITS FRIDAY!!!

Atlas Shrugged Part III
Ch 1 & 2
Omg!!! Omg!!!! DAGNY GOT IN!!!!!! And of course who is the first person who carries her across the threshold of Atlantis?!?

John freaking hottie Galt!

He takes her in and gets her all patched up, she meets all her long lost friends, and falls madly in love.. with Galt who has been pining for her for years and years (while secretly working at the railroad pumping info out of Eddie)

Francisco doesn’t care who she sleeps with as long as she understands his noble sacrifice to attain for her a place of love. He’s really glad she’s alive. Rearden has no clue that she is so he’s still out there searching.

Atlantis exists because a group of men have made a moral standard. They all judge each other on that. They don’t let anyone in unless those ppl have given up all hope for the world and quit helping anyone in it. Their standard, or the standard of Atlantis, is way better than the world’s moral standard which is horribly corrupt. But unless Dagny agrees to give up all hope for the world ever changing and go on “strike” with them she can’t stay.

So she leaves.

Galt vows to watch her from the shadows so he can swoop in and carry her away when she finally sees the light! (And by light I mean that not one human exists, outside of Atlantis, who is worthy of her genius. They all deserve to die.)


My thoughts: This book is WAY better than Twilight. Way, way better. Rawr!

 

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[Primeperiwinkle]

I will commence adding in quotes soon to draw you ppl in to a rousing discussion on why Rearden is TOTALLY gonna kill Galt.

oooooo!!! Y’all forgot about Ch 1 but I didn’t!!!!

to be more serious.. what would these “producers” who live in “Atlantis” do if one of them had a handicapped kid?

I know we’ve been a bit chill over the holidays but.. it’s finally time!!

let’s attack the living crap out of this book!

 

[RazorCut]

I will commence adding in quotes soon to draw you ppl in to a rousing discussion on why Rearden is TOTALLY gonna kill Galt.

oooooo!!! Y’all forgot about Ch 1 but I didn’t!!!!

Yes, remind me please.

 

[StrikingViper69]

Where does it say that everyone outside of Atlantis deserves to die?

What do you think the characters in Atlantis would do if one of them had a handicapped kid... and why?

 

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[scottmsul]

to be more serious.. what would these “producers” who live in “Atlantis” do if one of them had a handicapped kid?

Dr. Hendricks teams up with Ted Nielsen to build the strongest yet lightest wheelchair ever made. They charge the family $20 in gold, who pays them back in pre-agreed weekly installments. The kid, although weelchair-bound, can still work with his hands. When he reaches his teenage years, he gets a job working for Lawrence Hammond. During the day he's the cashier at the grocery store, at night he helps with mechanical work in the car shop. Soon the kid is helping repair everyone's cars in the valley and making more than his parents.

The REAL question is...how are they getting oranges???

 

[scottmsul]

I found it funny that the trio's majors were philosophy and physics. I was a physics major back in the day, and it was kind of an inside joke in the physics community that philosophy was overrated (this sentiment was propagated even by Richard Feynman, who said that "philosophy of science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds"). I did take a philosophy of science course in undergrad, it was interesting but I felt there was a tendency to for philosophers to define terms and then get carried away with them in arguments to the point that the terms lost their original meaning. One of the things we "learned" was that it was apparently impossible to test theories in isolation, so for my final paper I countered that haha.

I ended up in a physics PhD program but left early with a Master's because it felt like the research I was doing wasn't really useful to society. Now that I have a job the work I'm doing does feel useful to society and I'm much happier. It's funny because in academic communities everyone seems to believe the trade-off is the opposite...that academic work is always more interesting and you "sell your soul" when you get a corporate job. Honestly it probably depends on the particulars of the work. But in my case, due to the nature of my grad research and my corporate work, my own experience aligns more with Rand's portrayal of John Galt and Robert Stadler.

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Where does it say that everyone outside of Atlantis deserves to die?

What do you think the characters in Atlantis would do if one of them had a handicapped kid... and why?

they specifically said they would give no pity to anyone on the outside, they were withdrawing their intellect from the human race.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

 

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[Primeperiwinkle]

If you’ve been following the transgender politics in America you will know this already but if not it echoes precisely the philosophy that Atlas Shrugged explains.

People will ask “Who is John Galt?” after reading this article.. and then allow more laws to be passed.

sigh.

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Yes, remind me please.

Alright because you said.. I shall.

Rand had the guts (or hubris) to entitle her first chapter “The Theme” in which she gave us a loyal, trustworthy character making distinct connections. Eddie sees corruption everywhere and a foreboding sense of doom hovers in the very air over a date, September 2nd. The world is not a good place but he quickly heads to work. He is a good man. He ignores the doomsday feeling and puts one foot in front of the other.

On his way, Eddie remembers a scene from his childhood, a massive tree, a place of safety, which, when struck with lightning, proved to be rotten in its core. The tree was dead but only proven so after the lightning struck. It was a deep shock to him. He is an innocent character who trusts unwaveringly. (But such innocence is not wise according to Rand.. who will make Eddie a witless tool who has unknowingly helped to further the destruction of TT)

The next imagery in that first chapter was Taggart Transcontinental reaching its “limbs” across America bringing red arteries of life to the economy. When Rand brought Rearden Metal into focus she used descriptive imagery again but it was all flashing, bright, metallic, shining, immediate, powerful. We saw his metal being poured from the sky.

If we are to believe that her theme chapter is truthful.. then the entire book is symbolism explained and fleshed out for us so that we become just like Eddie when he was a child.

She wants to shock us. She wants to strip away any notion of innocent safety. We become children by reading, innocent witless fools who betray our own beliefs by reading further, (KUDOS to those of you who didn’t waste their time on Rand’s novel but were busy at work instead btw!) who hold so closely to our firm values of right and wrong, that when her lightning words hit us again and again (and again because she never shuts up) our values (which now seem childish to us) will prove to be corrupt and without any strength... ultimately falling down.

And because she’s a powerful writer twisting ideas together.. if I had read this book at twenty years old, quickly, it would have seriously F*cked me up.

The ”enemy“ who is pulling out the foundation from underneath Dagny’s efforts has a golden halo, while he absconds with every good employee TT has. John Galt is glorious! We can’t possibly hate him. (But shouldn’t we?)

Meanwhile the corruption is highlighted by painting the board members as thoroughly evil, whining, weak, pathetic.. disgusting. We CAN hate them and it’s because they’re such perverted religious “Givers”. They preach Giving! (But of course that’s the truth. People who preach but don’t act ARE worthless hypocrites.)

Because the book catches you rooting for Dagny and Eddie and Rearden.. you WANT them to keep fighting. That’s how every fairy tale goes.. there’s romance and battles and in the end good wins! We want them to defeat the corrupt nature of the government and defeat the ppl who are apathetic. We want America and all its workers to CARE!

But Rand never said this was a book about caring. It’s all intellect. Intellect and rationality are god. So of course, our CARING needs to be struck down. And dramatically.

Caring for others is the corruption in our hearts. <-sarcasm.

She explained as clearly as possible in the first chapter that this book was her way of showing all of us some “Truth”.

The economic system is corrupt. It cannot exist the way it currently stands. It will fall. What’s the most efficient,—lightning fast way- to make a corrupt building fail? Why of course! To remove the righteous solid reliable strong trustworthy pins, the pins with integrity, from the structure. Boom. We hear the sound of it falling.. and we are struck dumb. Our caring is proved to be pointless! Oh woe is us! Who is John Galt? What IS the point in caring if everyone is going to suck your genius dry and mock your lifelong pursuits and all of society is going to get worse?!?

Well .. Rand says.. so quietly we don’t see it.. the point is to leave them all behind. Stop caring for them at all. Go! Start a new society by saving the ones you can, the ones who care.. about the things Rand says are Right.

Find those ppl who are trustworthy and create a place where only they are allowed in. You’ll know them because they will ONLY care about the work they do and not about strangers... not about “looters”.. not about anyone, but themselves and people just. like. them.

Because sacrifice is stupid. <-sarcasm.

Her entire premise is based on pride and a belief that most of society is utterly worthless. People are basically bad and it is only by some miraculous stroke that the geniuses walk among them. She thinks that the pins, the people who have integrity and genius, are people who are TOO kind. They should be more selfish! We must BREAK them of this notion and get them to care about themselves. Stop helping those less than you who are parasites! Stop supporting weaker members! Stop giving “life” to a “body that refuses to function, a rotten hulk that expects to exist without effort.”

^That quote is what Midas says in the chapters we read this week.

But herein lies the rub... the body is made of many and there are good and bad parts to every person. Being a looter is definitely not a good thing.. in any world. But.. Who tells another man when, precisely, they are too far gone for grace?

“Through all the centuries of the worship of the mindless, whatever stagnation humanity chose to endure, whatever brutality to practice - it was only by the grace of the men who perceived that wheat must have water in order to grow, that stones laid in a curve will form an arch, that two and two makes four, that love is not served by torture and life is not fed by destruction— only by the grace of those men did the rest of them learn to experience moments when they caught the spark of being human, and only the sum of such moments permitted them to continue to exist.”




Why, exactly, do brilliant successful men give of their time and energy to this forum? It’s called grace. Rand gets some things so close to perfection.. but she twists it in different ways.

They give on here for a myriad of reasons right? But the biggest reason the successful ppl keep giving is because they understand that we are all one word or one sentence or one paragraph or one day from CHANGING and becoming something greater!

THANK GOD all the hardworking men and women on our planet don’t go on strike BECAUSE HOW WOULD WE EVER CHANGE AND BE LIKE THEM if they gave up on us?

Yes, it feels fantastic to create something new (I’m deeply enjoying writing this post for instance) and yes it feels glorious to use your mind and battle down a problem ... but why is it a problem to you in the first place?

Because you care. Why do you care about perfect strangers.. whining and crippled with fear and lazy and stuck in the slow lane?

Because of love.

You want better for their family, better for those ppl who have suffered like you, better for them so that they might never have to suffer as much!

There is GRACE in the world and it actually does keep the world moving.

Grace is the motor of the world and you can’t shut that down because there are always people who give. We give because we love. It’s who we are. We are grateful for what has been given to us.

We all give what we can. And giving makes us better. Giving, because when you give you know deep down in your heart you have served the Art well, served Genius well. Served Love, well. It doesn’t matter if every single person on the planet thinks your art is shitty (cough Van Gogh cough) because you can’t help it.. You have to create! You were MADE to create and invent and write and give. By doing so you are doing what you were created to do. Love God, love people.

So keep doing it. And if the world hates you, mocks you, sucks you dry for your love of Art don’t ever give up and hide.. hating all men.

No! You go back to your Creator and ask for more of His power.. MORE of what makes the very world itself turn.

Ask for more grace.

Someone, someday, somehow, WILL see what you’ve done and thank God you kept on doing it. (Thank you Van Gogh, wherever you are.)

(and if you’re like me.. and you ran out of grace at one point..because someone drained you dry and stomped all over your soul.. so much so that you became like John Galt who said “I’m done here.”

Know that there is Grace for that too, that tomorrow is another day.. that we aren’t called to be made emotional rape victims or tools to be used by people who hate us.. that it’s ok to leave the ppl like Jim Taggart. Really. Dagny could have. She could have started over again without her stupid brother and without having to turn her back on the whole world. You don’t have to give every ounce of your effort for free to every scoundrel who shows up.)

It’s really rather late here as I type. But these are some of the things that have been floating through my mind as I’ve read this book.

Thank you for the opportunity to give my thoughts to you. I really appreciate how much the ppl on this forum give, every day. Hm. I’ll just post this now or I’ll think of something else.. (I need to read Hemingway next so I can pick up on his pithiness. Lol.)

Oh darn!!!

Love has to be killed! That’s my whole point! And who in the book does Dagny love?!?!?!?!?

Galt!

So if I’m right.. which I could TOTES be wrong about of course...the LIGHTNING in Rearden has to pierce the corruption in Dagny.. and destroy her from caring.

I swear I’m convinced somebody is gonna die. Rearden is the killer. Thats all I’ve got. Lol. Night!

 

[RazorCut]

Thank you @Primeperiwinkle. Very in-depth. That post was a labour of love if ever I saw one. Dagny is like a little child who can't make up her mind and wants all the deserts that are on the table. But particularly the one that is right in front of her that moment. It makes me wonder as to how promiscuous Rand was in her own life but I will resist the urge to Google her story. I'm not sure about Galt being killed off. Time will tell but I don't think Rand would sacrifice her 'legend'.

As it stands right now I have a hate, hate relationship with this book. It's way too verbose (and that's coming from a person who has difficulty with his own brevity at the best of times). It's also way too manipulative in the way it casts the looters in the most unsavoury light possible but those of 'worth' to be so righteous you can almost see the light of their halo's. I don't like to be taken down a path only to discover I've been propagandised to but I'm too invested now to be able to turn back. Because, like it or not, it's like, like a Taggart Transcontinental train wreck and I just can't 'look away'. And I can't 'unsee' what I have already witnessed. I will have to see it through to the bitter end despite all its flaws.

 

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[BizyDad]

I really didn't like finding out the "good guys" are on strike. Seriously? I mean I get it, but smh. It's a fight fire with fire approach that makes them as bad as the looters, imo. I have no problem with a group of people isolating themselves, it is the "strike" justification that bothers me. I wish they had just made it about having a better set of moral values.

Yup, I fell for Dagny in this chapter. Love the fairy tale. Love that she is going back so NYC won't starve in two days. Love that she still believes mankind wants to live. Love that she will fight.

Annoyed at her new choice of partner. Like oh crap, here we go again... But she's going to fight. Yay!

Meanwhile Francisco won't fight for Dagny (again). Also this was the first time I thought to myself, this dude is a little slow to catch on. Which made him seem more human for once. I'm happy he's "happy". But I want to see him do more. He's been built up, but now that Galt is here, I don't think we'll ever see fully actualized Frisco. He's become a bit of a do nothing. His line about being richer than his forefathers sounded like a rationalization to me.

So when Dagny talked about 3 miles of track vs transcontinental track, I smiled.

I don't know where or how Dagny is going to have her great epiphany, but I hope she never does.

There was a line by Galt where he said something like we shouldn't push our truth on others. I'm butchering the wording so I can't search and find it. But I chuckled at Rand's hypocrisy writing that.

I never want to do a book club with an audio book again. They're are so many good quotes and so much more to discuss, but I can't take the notes while driving.

I know I enjoyed Hugh's commentary.

So... Eddie never is getting into Atlantis? That's bull.

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Next week is up everybody!!!