First off, let me start by stating that although it is early in the book I have to say that this has been the easiest of the books so far to get into. The language and writing style is very accessible.
I am part way through chapter 6 now. I was able to listen for a couple of hours while driving to and from Vegas over the past weekend. I go to school 3x a week so it should be easy for me to listen at least 3 hours a week for the next few weeks.
It is strange how this story has affected me emotionally. As you know, one of the classes that I am taking this summer is Economic History which of course is covering the railroads, mining and how America has become the economic power that it is. I am connecting the growth of the nation along with Taggert Transcontinental like Union Pacific, and Hank Reardon like Andrew Carnegie.
The contemptible attitudes of Hank Reardon's family and James Taggert and his friends against business ventures are so scary. They are preaching for the greater good of society as a whole yet they are all riding on the rich coattails of big business. It is easy for them to take this attitude since they have the money, not earned by their own work, to donate and plenty of time as well. You can see that politics are shaping the economic landscape with the anti dog-eat-dog agreement meant to hurt the smaller railroad players and the Equalization of opportunity bill which would hurt larger companies like Reardon Steel.
To me the noblest characters of the story (so far) have been Dagny, Hank Reardon, Don Conway of the Phoenix Durango, and even Ellis Wyatt in a minor way. They are driven by business, it is clear cut and easy to see their motivations. True capitalists, if you work hard enough you can make your dreams happen, isn't that part of the American Dream? As long as it is done honestly, why should we punish those who succeed?
I'm trying to understand what Francisco's motivations are. Is he trying to single handily destroy big business? Does he have feelings for anything? Has he discovered that men like James Taggart are fundamentally driven by greed and power although they try to show otherwise? It seems as if he knew back when he was at the hotel with Dagny and asked her to leave the railroad and to forgive him for whatever he will do in the future that he was going to ruin those men and their companies. You can see how all of these companies are tied together and how easily it will all fall apart.
Dagny and her love of the music of Richard Halley seems to be one of the only things in life that she enjoys other than work. It seems to also connects her to Francisco on a deeper level. I think it is important to her, has he really written a fifth concerto?
The Rearden Party -
The "intellectual" people who are the guests of the party rub me wrong! How depressing it would be to be with this group. The philosopher who states that the world is about frustration and all there is to live for is brother love, what crap. Also, what about the writer who has only sold 3000 books who wants to apply the equalization of opportunity bill to books so that no more than 10,000 copies of any book can be printed. Only one whose books do no sell well would benefit from this rule. If he were to become a popular author and the demand for his books were above the 10,000 allotted copies he would then protest this measure. These people have dangerous minds and ideas and too great an influence over those around them.
More to come...
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