Atlas Shrugged

Yup, I'm finally doing it. I'm suffering on a treadmill for hours, so I may as well suffer just a bit more. The thing about running though, is that you have to be up beat, you can't give in to the suffering. Likewise with this book, I stay as up beat as possible about it, and am enjoying it as a period piece of literature, but forgive me if the reflections here are on the negative side.

Chapter 1-3:

• Calculated risk - I like Dagny Taggart's no nonsense approach and bold actions. I don't think this is meant to be a realistic depiction of how such a person acts, but more a symbolic woman of action, made that much more emphatic by being surrounded by character foils (more on that in a second). Her character can be assumed to have some prior knowledge of trains and their schedules when she makes the call to run the red light, and the reader is made to assume her engineering background makes her adequately prepared to assess the quality of Reardon Metal. But is the reader meant to admire her preparedness, or her decisive action? Her character is clearly centered around her boldness and individuality. Look at the way she handles her brother and his quaint business loyalties; she acts without authorization, she destroys her brother in their business argument, she even has to sit in her own special manner, has her plans already written out on a crumpled piece of paper, etc. She's Humphrey Bogart in female form, and of course emphasized by her sniveling, incompetent, "emotional," character foil brother. Back to the point, nobody's going to -- or is even supposed to -- read this and say, "wow, I should go get engineering and business training," they're supposed to admire her decisiveness. And who doesn't want to be free to act with such impunity? This would serve as an easy source for the self-justification needed to push people to actions they're not prepared for. One more degree of awareness is where most of the real world lies. Nobody dives into something completely unprepared, so what I (anecdotally) see as the most common issue is knowing just enough to get into trouble. I am a constant offender here, but working on being more "professional" (previous post).
•  Character Foils - So far I've found this book to be dated in its extreme lack of subtlety; I can almost see the technicolor actors' grand gestures and exaggerated expressions. It's about as subtle as the anti-communist propaganda of the time. Many of the secondary and anselary characters are obvious character foils, being weak, disinterested, unattractive, aloof, indecisive, sentimental, detached, oblivious, etc. All the characters at the dinner table around Hank Reardon are distant, nagging, petty people, made that much more emphatically little minded after having just read the glorious depiction of achievement at the foundry. James Taggart plays a similar role as a character foil to Dagny. As a piece of fiction, there is nothing overly objectionable, but to be taken seriously? These character foils aren't even people with thoughts. The omniscient narrator ONLY elucidates the thoughts of the main characters, lending not even any positive emotional responses to their foils, let alone views into their hearts and minds.
• Balance - There's plenty to admire about the heroes of this book, but is it really necessary to make the character foils SO pathetic and dislikable? I mean, how oblivious would his brother have to be to ask for money then ask to make it anonymous so his progressive party isn't seen to be doing business with such a staunch businessman. This is a very black and white world being depicted -- probably as a literary device -- but the real world needs more balance. What kind of a world is it where those looking out for the good of others are demonized, and the money hungry mavens are glorified? It would be like a world where the lions are good and antelopes bad, or the reverse; ridiculous, and I hope that's not what the author actually intends. But I am positive that was the take away of many of the book's readers.
• Fear, Apathy, and Dependence - All of the character foils are afraid of progress, are afraid to act, are afraid of responsibility, are just trying to skate by on the status quo, not sticking their necks out for even the simplest of tasks, are waiting for orders, waiting for handouts, "hoping" things will turn out ok, etc. The protagonists are exactly the opposite, and MAKING things turn out ok. The battle lines are drawn.

Chapter 4-5:

• Certainty and uncertainty motif - the author makes a point of writing things like, "and for some unknown reason, an impulse came over her, and she could not recall from which depths or why she had the sudden impulse, she knew only .... yadda yadda." Long rambling self reflections of uncertainty about trivial fleeting thoughts that most people shouldn't be dedicating a whole lot of brain power to. I'm sure these are peppered in to give a moment the sense of importance, like wanting to remember every detail of a life changing moment, but remembering in a haze that can't do the moment justice. In contrast, these same characters, who are allowed the right of self-reflection, will be immediately certain of all things that can be acted on. Self-reflection and decisiveness, a powerful combination as long as the two cross paths.
• Effort and effortlessness motif - Dagny and Francisco are both first class students, full of determination and a drive to succeed. Dagny's first time winning at tennis is a great depiction of enjoying the pain of striving beyond one's limits. The contrasting admirable quality is effortless skill. James Taggart has none of it, while Francisco has all of it. Natural talent and hard work are another powerful combination, very similar to the certainty and uncertainty motif, and also just as important to know which is appropriate to the situation. Sometimes there's also a fear of trying, or trying to go beyond natural ability, lest it appear forced, or worse -- end in failure. I feel like there should be an upcoming chapter on wisdom to balance out the sporadic applications of these 4 contrasting themes
• Mercy and sacrifice - Earlier, James Taggart was lamenting with his cohorts about how much better it would be if all the world could push for a common cause, and how it is so unfortunate that sacrifices have to be made -- inevitable casualties of the progressive cause. Obviously, anything out of their mouth is intended to be detestable, but what is a bit frightening is Francisco's willingness to sacrifice the good of the people for his ideology. He makes housing of inferior quality, worth far less than what was paid, leads unsuspecting investors to dump their own and public money into a worthless mine. Of course the most ominous part is how revered, by the afore mentioned standards, Francisco is. This extreme sacrifice for the sake of punishing the "looters," but more so to support an ideology, is going to be glorified, though Dagny does not yet know it.
• Romance novel - did Ch5 read like a romance novel to anyone else? Can't say I have much/any experience in the subject, but it was exactly what I would imagine a romance novel would be made of. This is nearly literally conservative porn, haha.

Chapter 6

• I should go back and re-read to most of this chapter. The exchange between James Taggart and Francisco is basically the author's counter argument to the socialist agenda. The argument seems sound if you listen to James's blithering, but this deserves a bit more attention. Francisco did not act for profit, did not act selfishly, did create jobs, and what else? It seems he followed the socialist handbook perfectly, by his own definition of it, which I can't say is too terribly far from the truth. Then the mine was taken over by the state, and revealed to be worthless. What is the end result? The people of the country have a worthless mine, a shabby railroad, housing that won't last, BUT most importantly, debt free income from working for years for that worthless mine, as well as all the capital goods involved. They're presently sitting on the means to build something real. The foolish investors bore all the risk and lost everything, so while James lost and Francisco won, the people's fate is yet undecided. They will soon be laid off from the mine, but have what they need to determine their own fates. This is similar to the Keynesian bridge to nowhere abstraction, except that it was investors who made the capital injection, not the government. This should be a boon for the people of San Sebastian.
  
  But going back to the argument with James, did Francisco indeed play by the socialist rules? In working to create a public bank, the governing rules of the bank have been of constant importance. If the public good is the ONLY concern, it will not be for long, as the bank would fail quickly. If only profit motivated, then the bank would not be of any benefit to the people either. Though it may not seem like the government is always trying to make something of value with all their capital injections, it should be a real motivating factor, which has casually been left out by Francisco.
  
• The introductory exchange between Riordan and Francisco is also worth revisiting at some point. The author makes a fine distinction along the lines of freedom here between Riordan, a fine capitalist, and the capitalist ideal Francisco embodies. Battle lines are drawn here that will be elaborated on later, I'm sure.
• I did find an unhealthy appreciation for Riordan's lamentations about his marriage. That's not how I feel, but I can empathize with the sense of obligation.
• Much of this chapter felt less deliberate than previous chapters, as if the author hadn't thought out much past this point in the book, and -- scrambling to write more -- began to repeat herself. I will say though, I am actually enjoying a lot of the insights into the mind of the business motivated, and find myself surprisingly in agreement with much of it. I'm certainly better suited to be a great capitalist than a socialist.