Oct. 19, Part 2 Chapters 6-15

[Deb]

Finishing up part 2 in the coming weeks. Post your observations and comments here.

[Cathy Berry]

Apologies for not participating in the conversation, although I have been doing the reading.

I wanted to read this with an open mind, but unfortunately, read Rand's own intro to the 25th edition first. Why does this woman irritate me so? All authors have a point of view/agenda that they are trying to express (promote?) to the rest of us, so why should Rand's be so annoying? I think part of it for me is her certainty; rather than feeling admiration for her strength of convictions, I find her tone smug & condescending. Instead of inviting us to consider,contemplate,explore her philosophy she seems to say, "here it is all laid out for you, but I know you'll never really understand". In other words no matter how hard you try you'll never earn a spot at the cool table.

If being at the cool table means liking/empathizing with Roark & Dominique, then I will stay forever with Peter & Katie at the geek table. I find Roark & Dominique to be sad, pitiful people who will never know joy in their lives. I'm not so sure that they even know sorrow. What is the point of life if you truly don't care about anyone besides your self?

[Deb]

I think I mentioned in an earlier post my difficulty with Roark being so self-centered. Doesn't he get tired of himself? As a reader who loves a good story, I long for him and Dominique to make some kind of connection with each other, but they are so irritatingly self-interested I feel like there is no chance of them having a real interaction.

I wonder why Rand chose the format of a novel in which to lay out her philosophy. It's as if she wants to tell a story but has to get her philosophy out of the way first . . . and it doesn't get out of the way. So the story is buried behind the theory.

Thanks for commenting Cathy. Have you read the book before? If so, is your reaction to it different this time around? What was it like the first time? I am still really interested to discover what is so important about this novel. I feel like I'm missing out.

[Deb]

We discussed Chapters 6-11 today. Here's what we learned:

Did you know that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was part of Rand's inner circle? During the 50's and 60's he wrote essays and articles on objectivism. In the 70's he was part of the close group that read Atlas Shrugged as it was being written. How does this impace Greenspan's economic policies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Gre...

We decided Toohey is most easily compared to a cult leader like David Karesh. We know this decision is correct because it was echoed in the Cliff's Notes for the book.

We really tried to get our brains around Rand's definitions of selfish and selfless.

Selfish=having ideals, being true to one's self, a good thing
Selfless=lacking a sense of yourself, a sell out, a bad thing

We also learned that Rand originally used a quote from Nietzsche at the start of each chapter, but later she went back and removed them all. His philosophy of perspectivism (that each person could have their own "truth") conflicted with her philosophy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietsche

We also found that we dislike Roark less than we did at the beginning of the book. He doesn't whine or complain about his troubles. He just accepts the way the world works and chooses to operate in a different way. But he doesn't blame others for not understanding him. I can respect that.