Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Intermission: A love scene from Atlas Shrugged.

Dagny: "Oh, Hank! Your wondrous bridge of Rearden Metal has saved my railroad!"

Hank: "Ha ha ha. Dagny, don't talk like a looter! What do I care for your railroad? I built the bridge to advertise my metal."

Dagny: "Take me."







Yeah, I'm re-reading Atlas Shrugged. Philosophically, it's as close to Holy Scripture for me as anything on my bookshelf, but... Jeez-o Pete! Is Ms. Rand one ham-handed novelist, or what?

11 comments:

  1. Reminds me of South Park on Barbrady learns to read and reads Fountainhead:

    I read every word. Every horrible word


    -SayUncle

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  2. Heh. I haven't read her books, but from watching The Fountainhead it seems more accurate to call Rand a propagandist than a novelist.

    - Les

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  3. I agree. I did read We The Living well enough. I'll admit that I just couldn't get through Atlas, though. Rand lays it on pretty thick.

    Bryan

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  4. Readers may be divided into two classes: those who have read Atlas and the lucky ones.

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  5. Nicely put. Ms. Rand raises some good points, but for the love of God, does Galt's radio address really need to go on for fifty-seven pages?!

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  6. Once is educational. Twice is masochism.

    FIVE times? It would require this.

    I barely made it through the first time. Rand wrote good essays. As a novelist...

    There aren't words.

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  7. Tam,

    Does that mean I'm the only person in the world who likes Rand's writing style?

    Dayum. You were my last hope, too.

    pax

    Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends. -- S. Weir Mitchell

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  8. pax,

    Robin likes Rand's writing style too. She says it's kind of Hemingway-esque...well, at least the parts that are not monologues.

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  9. pax,

    Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite books. I even like the dialogue. It's just that when, for instance, D'Anconia blurts into a three page monologue in the middle of a party, or Dagny has a three paragraph epiphany right before gettin' jiggy wit' it with Hank... well... It can be a little easy to poke fun at at those times, too.

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  10. Rand could never quite pull off romance. The Fountainhead was just as bad.

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  11. I never made it to Atlas Shrugged, since Fountainhead damn near killed me. She is one of the most stylistically challenged authors going. What really bugs me is the tendency, about 3/4 of the way through the book, to beat us over the head with her message by giving the main character a forum to preach objectivism at us for 40-odd pages.

    That's why I like Anthem. It's just as obnoxious in that regard, but so much shorter.

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