Free Republic

Ten Years AfterWell, Publius asked, and sig226 asked again, and so here we are. As we stated previously, at the end of Atlas Shrugged, the titular character has only just done so, and the world is hurtling out of control toward the hard, hard ground. We are spared the horrible clamor of impact…and we miss it. What does happen after Atlas shrugs? Ayn Rand preferred not to advance the story much beyond Galt’s ceremonial drawing of the Sign of the Dollar, probably wisely, inasmuch as post-apocalyptic fiction was as yet a sparsely populated field. Narrative in Atlas Shrugged was only...

Afterword Where does Rand leave us at the conclusion of this monumental work? Atlas has shrugged. The leadership of the revolution has filtered down from its progenitor, John Galt, through his closest circle of friends, through a class of achievers that encompasses the fields of science, engineering, construction, transportation, art and philosophy, to settle at last on the shoulders of the common citizen, who must bear the ultimate responsibility for choosing a life of mind or a life of “fake reality.” That choice is still very much up in the air as the novel ends. The country is in chaos...

Part III: A is AChapter X: In the Name of the Best Within UsSynopsisDagny tries to out-think a rather unintelligent guard who knows who she is, knows she is a friend of Head of State Thompson, but refuses to admit her to the Project F building because Dr. Ferris has ordered that no one be admitted. She trumps by pulling out a gun. The guard is caught between two masters, the Head of State and the Executive Director, and he can’t decide which one to follow. She puts him out of his misery by firing a bullet from the silenced...

Part III: A is AChapter IX: The GeneratorSynopsisDr. Robert Stadler flees New York by car, listening to the broadcast from the Wayne-Falkland Hotel. Following John Galt’s one sentence, the air goes dead and every radio station on the dial is off the air. He has been on the road four days and is now barreling through Iowa. He had proved his uselessness to Mr. Thompson, who is now considering taking hostages to pressure Galt into working for the government. Dr. Stadler’s name is at the head of that list. Now Stadler is headed for the Xylophone, which he intends to...

Part III: A is AChapter VIII: The EgoistSynopsisThe reaction of the men in the studio is one of disbelief. “It wasn’t real, was it?”“We seem to have heard it.”“We couldn’t help it.”“We don’t have to believe it, do we?”Each question is a challenge to reality, not to the facts of The Speech. Wesley Mouch fears the public will think it was an authorized broadcast, but Head of State Thompson understands the consequences of the public thinking that the men in the room have lost control of the airwaves. Thompson demands the return of normal broadcasting and no mention of The...

Part III: A is AChapter VII: “This is John Galt Speaking” SynopsisA sleeping Dagny is awakened by Jim, who barges in with terrifying news. Having had his fill with the attempted takeover of his steel mill by murderous thugs, Hank has disappeared, taking his top people with him. In Jim Taggart’s panicked opinion, it is desertion, a fatal blow to the country’s morale, or at least to the ability of the ruling class to maintain control, which to him is one and the same. We know where Rearden has gone, and so does Dagny, who will not move to bring...

Part III: A is AChapter VI: The Concerto of Deliverance SynopsisThe union at Rearden Steel demands a raise without bothering to ask Hank, and the impetus comes from the new workers inserted by the Unification Board and spotted by the Wet Nurse. The Unification Board rejects the raise petition, but the Mainstream Media runs stories in favor of the union and against Hank. Then the workers attack managers and disable critical equipment. The IRS attaches Hank’s assets due to a delinquency in paying income taxes that had never occurred. A bureaucrat calls Hank to apologize, claiming it was all a...

Part III: A is AChapter V: Their Brothers’ Keepers SynopsisIn California a copper wire breaks on a Taggart phone line. The last replacement wire has been sold to black marketeers with government connections, and no one will report anything because of possible repercussions from those with pull. An employee calls Dagny in New York to report the break, and Dagny asks Eddie to have their Montana people ship copper wire to California. Jim says cryptically that there soon won’t be any problems with copper. Jim complains about an uncoordinated transportation policy. Dagny judges that the Rail Unification Plan has failed,...

Part III: A is AChapter IV: Anti-Life SynopsisJim Taggart hands a hundred dollar bill to a bum on the street, and the bum contemptuously takes no notice of the denomination. Under the Railroad Unification Plan, the machine has run down further. There are ripples. In North Dakota, a short line has gone bankrupt, relegating the state to a “blighted area”. The local banker has killed his family and then himself. A single freight train has been taken off the roster in Tennessee, shutting down a factory that had been dependent upon it. The owner’s son quit college and is now...

Part III: A is AChapter III: Anti-Greed SynopsisAs Dr. Robert Stadler sits in a grandstand in Iowa on a hot day, he complains to Dr. Floyd Ferris about being dragged halfway across the continent – for what? Ferris treats him with slight deference barely concealing contempt. This day will usher in a new era, and the business of today is government. Stadler glances with some trepidation at a building that looks like a giant mushroom. He is proud to be in the best section of seats until he finds he is sitting near Dr. Simon Pritchett. Ferris conducts the press...

Part III: A is AChapter II: The Utopia of GreedSynopsisJohn finds Dagny awake and tells her he needs to re-calibrate the cloaking device. Dagny asks for her cane and tells him she will have his breakfast ready by the time he returns. While Dagny works in the kitchen, she is interrupted by a blonde Norseman, who upon John’s return, is introduced as Ragnar Danneskjøld. Dagny serves breakfast, making sure that John does not help. She discovers that she is Francisco’s stand-in at the annual June 1st breakfast at Galt’s Gulch; Francisco hasn’t arrived, and no one knows why. Ragnar says...

Part III: A is AChapter I: AtlantisSynopsisDagny awakens to the face of John Galt! He is surprised that Dagny braved his cloaking device to reach the valley. It is too painful for her to walk, so John picks her up and carries her. She hears the strains of Halley’s Fifth Concerto, played by the composer himself, coming from his house. She spots a three-foot statue of a dollar sign cast out of solid gold seated on a stone column – Francisco’s private joke, says John. A car arrives, driven by Midas Mulligan, with Hugh Akston as his passenger. Akston is...

Part II: Either-OrChapter X: The Sign of the DollarSynopsisThe Comet rolls across Nebraska with Dagny’s private car in the consist. Dagny hears the shout of the conductor throwing a hobo off the vestibule of her car, but she rescues the hobo and asks him to be her dinner guest. He vaguely remembers her as “the lady who ran a railroad”, and he has been roaming the country for the past six months looking for work. Jobs are being hoarded for the friends of Unification Board members, and he is heading west to avoid them. Farmers aren’t happy to feed hobos,...

Part II: Either-OrChapter IX: The Face Without Pain or Fear or GuiltSynopsisDagny returns to her Manhattan apartment after her one month absence. Looking over the fogbound city, she yearns for the presence of that One Man she has never found, the man she yearned for the night the mysterious stranger lingered at the entrance of the John Galt Line’s offices. The doorbell rings and it’s Francisco; he wants to talk to her about what happened and to convince her to leave the railroad to the looters. But she can’t; as long as there’s a railroad to run, she’ll be there...

Part II: Either-OrChapter VIII: By Our LoveSynopsisDagny spends her time at the cabin in the Berkshires depressurizing, but also building a footpath because she can’t relax. On occasion she drives into Woodstock, an isolated and depressing hamlet. Finding that kerosene is not available because of a road washout, she asks why the road is never fixed. “It’s always been that way,” is the response. She can’t take her mind off what may be happening back in the world, and she yearns for Hank. Then Francisco shows up unannounced, and Dagny could swear he’s whistling the theme from Halley’s Fifth Concerto....

Part II: Either-OrChapter VII: The Moratorium on BrainsSynopsisEddie Willers sits down with the Anonymous Rail Worker in the Taggart corporate cafeteria and updates him. People are deserting their jobs and getting arrested, but the police can’t find the resources to feed them. On the railroad, the best men have left and are being replaced by scum. And Dagny, the only one who could hold the railroad together, is gone. Jim is keeping it secret lest his friends in Washington condemn him for having a deserter in the family. Clifton Locey, a friend of Jim, is sitting in Dagny’s office doing...

Part II: Either-OrChapter VI: Miracle MetalSynopsisHead of State Thompson meets with his economic brain trust: Wesley Mouch, Eugene Lawson, Jim Taggart, Dr. Floyd Ferris, Orren Boyle, Clem Weatherby, and Fred Kinnan, who is head of Amalgamated Labor of America. They are discussing Directive 10-289. Wesley Mouch is upset that people are not sufficiently motivated to cooperate; he needs more power. Weatherby points out that the economic climate is deteriorating rapidly. Lawson says the people lack the proper social spirit, they don’t understand that production is a duty and that there is no such thing as a personal life. Thompson, the...

Part II: Either-OrChapter V: Account OverdrawnSynopsisThings in America have gone to hell in a handbasket. Blizzards are met without snow removal in a world of unheated houses, stranded trains and people frozen to death. The Danagger coal bound for Taggart Transcontinental goes to the People’s State of England whose problems are even worse. That means trains with California produce are stuck on sidings, and the wilted produce ends up, not at the Hunts Point Produce Terminal in Brooklyn, but in the East River. The growers go out of business, and nobody cares because they are private concerns. The Danagger coal...

Part II: Either-OrChapter IV: The Sanction of the VictimSynopsisIt’s Thanksgiving at the Rearden home, and Hank dines in the bosom of his family of moochers and vipers. Hank’s mother’s prayer describes a country where the people lack food and housing. The Reardens have been fortunate, and Mrs. Rearden thinks Hank should toast the American people who have given him so much. Lillian is concerned that Hank might make a stand at his trial tomorrow. He says he intends to, which prompts remonstrance from his mother. Why can’t he play by the rules, like Orren Boyle? Lillian thinks that concepts like...

Washington, D.C., March 18, 2009--Earlier this year Ayn Rand’s prophetic novel Atlas Shrugged was selling at triple the rate it sold at in the beginning of 2008. Now the novel is soaring to even greater heights, and its trade paperback edition is currently in first place in the Classics category on Amazon.com’s best-seller list for sales in the United States. The 50th anniversary mass-market paperback edition of Atlas Shrugged ranks as #2 and the trade paperback Centennial edition ranks as #3. For several weeks Atlas Shrugged has been holding steady in the top 10 best-sellers in the broader United States...

Part II: Either-OrChapter III: White BlackmailSynopsisLillian condemns Francisco for what he has done and for shooting off his mouth at the wedding. She takes the train home while Hank heads for Dagny’s apartment. Hank is sorrowful that Dagny had to see him with his wife, but Dagny is more sorrowful that she had to witness Hank’s agony in being in the presence of that woman. Dagny views their relationship as a fair trade with each drawing joy from the other. Hank wants to know the identity of Dagny’s mysterious first lover, but Dagny intends to keep that private. Dagny thinks...

Part II: Either-OrChapter II: The Aristocracy of PullSynopsisThe men of Colorado disappear one by one until only Ted Nielsen is left; he promises Dagny he is not going anywhere. Dagny realizes she is encountering a Destroyer who is performing the reverse of the mystery motor, turning kinetic energy back into static. Quentin Daniels and Dagny hit it off; neither of them thinks much of “governmental scientific inquiry”. Daniels is the night watchman at Utah Tech but uses the laboratory facilities of the closed school for his own purposes. Dagny and Daniels conclude their own private deal without the involvement of...

Part II: Either-OrChapter I: The Man Who Belonged on EarthSynopsisAt the State Science Institute, Dr. Robert Stadler reflects on the harsh winter just ended. There had been rail incidents that affected society, a five day power outage at the Institute and talk about conserving fuel. What irks Stadler is the book on his desk, Why Do You Think You Think?. It demeans logic and rational thought, questions the very nature of reality, is written by Dr. Floyd Ferris, Top Coordinator of the State Science Institute, and is published under the Institute’s aegis. Dr. Ferris arrives half an hour late due...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter X: Wyatt’s TorchSynopsisDagny and Hank visit the county seat and discover that the Twentieth Century Motor Company is tied up in litigation with two owners vying in court for possession. Mark Yonts of the People’s Mortgage Company of Rome, Wisconsin, an S&L known for easy credit, had sold the company to a concern in South Dakota and had used it again as collateral for a loan from a bank in Illinois. When his S&L collapsed, he disappeared after stripping the factory of its assets. All records are gone due to a courthouse fire. They visit Mayor Bascom...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter IX: The Sacred and the ProfaneSynopsisDagny is awash in the afterglow of a fine night in bed with Hank. Hank, however, is contemptuous of Dagny and of himself for what he has done. But he must have her, even if it means giving up everything. Dagny laughs at him, not with anger but with delight. She wants him just as badly, and her proudest attainment is that she has slept with Hank Rearden and has earned the right. Once more they go to the mattress. Jim Taggart has sat through a triumphal meeting with his Board of...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter VIII: The John Galt LineSynopsisEddie Willers talks with the Anonymous Rail Worker in the corporate cafeteria, bringing him up to date. Dagny’s work on the John Galt Line is going so well the newspapers refuse to report it. The United Locomotive Works has gone bankrupt, and Dwight Sanders of Colorado has bought the plant. Dagny has moved into a little office near the back of Taggart Terminal, and Eddie feels badly about sitting in Dagny’s chair and taking credit for her work. The office of the John Galt Line is on the ground floor of a half-collapsed...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter VII: The Exploiters and the ExploitedSynopsisWe meet Mr. Mowen of Amalgamated Switch and Signal of Connecticut, who needs training from Rearden’s men before he can handle Rearden Metal, all the while bleating about whether the metal is real or a fraud. In Colorado, Dagny is having problems with the Rio Norte Line. Ben Nealy isn’t up to the job, and she and Hank have had to buy up bankrupt companies and shuttered plants to make the necessary equipment. Her chief engineer balks at reinforcing an ancient bridge with Rearden Metal. Ellis Wyatt shows up and gives Dagny...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter VI: The Non-CommercialSynopsisHank Rearden, forgetting about his anniversary party, is sent home by his secretary and dresses for the party. He reads an editorial about the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, which will forbid any businessman from owning more than one business. He has paid Wesley Mouch a lot of money to stop this and cannot believe it will pass the National Legislature. Hank goes downstairs in time to hear Simon Pritchett state that man is nothing but chemicals with delusions of grandeur. He also says that there aren’t any objective standards and that the purpose of philosophy...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter V: The Climax of the d’AnconiasSynopsisEddie hands a newspaper to Dagny; it has a most interesting story. The People’s State of Mexico, upon inspecting the expropriated San Sebastian Mines, discovers that they are devoid of copper and utterly worthless. Dagny asks Eddie to call Francisco at the Wayne-Falkland Hotel for an appointment. What follows is an extended flashback into the childhood of Dagny, Eddie, Francisco and Jim at the Taggart estate on the Hudson. Francisco got a job at Taggart Transcontinental before Dagny, working illicitly as a call boy at a station on the Hudson Line. Each...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter IV: The Immovable MoversSynopsisDagny fails to get a straight answer from the president of the United Locomotive Works as to when she will get her diesel engines and what is the source of the delay. There is even a hint she is being impolite by asking these questions. Upon returning to the office, Eddie Willers tells her that McNamara of Cleveland has gone out of business and disappeared. Dagny walks home through the streets of New York, and along the way she encounters signs of the times. First, there is a shop where a radio speaker is...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter III: The Top and the BottomSynopsisThe bar is the most expensive in New York. Located on the 60th floor of a skyscraper, it looks like a cellar, even forcing its patrons to stoop to get across the room. Orren Boyle of Associated Steel, James Taggart, Paul Larkin and Wesley Mouch, now identified as Hank Rearden’s lobbyist in DC, all meet to discuss the order of Rearden Metal from the railroad. Boyle explains to Jim that the delay in supplying steel to the railroad is due to his inability to obtain iron ore, thanks to played out mines,...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter II: The ChainSynopsisHank Rearden watches the first “heat” of steel for Rearden Metal poured at his mill. Then he walks home, fingering a chain of Rearden Metal in his pocket. At home he is greeted by his mother, his wife Lillian, his brother Philip and his friend Paul Larkin. The group makes fun of the fact that his mind is back at the steel mill and complains that all he cares about is money. Lillian, in a catty way, asks Hank to set aside December 10 for a party for their wedding anniversary.. Hank tries to tell...

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter I: The ThemeSynopsis“Who is John Galt?” The words come from the mouth of a bum to Eddie Willers, as he walks down the streets of New York. Willers notes the un-maintained spire of a building, whose gold leaf has pealed off and never been fixed. It’s September 2. Eddie enters the office of Jim Taggart, president of the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad (“From ocean to ocean!”) to inform him that there has been another wreck on the Rio Norte Line. The track is shot, and people are giving up on using the line. Jim says that eventually there...

Over the past few weeks, Ayn Rand’s classic, Atlas Shrugged, has been mentioned in articles in the Wall Street Journal and among conservative and libertarian bloggers. Two questions are being debated by those who have read the book. Are we living in a time line that follows the book? What chapter are we in? Besides those who have read the book, there are FReepers with little awareness of Rand and her work. Some are turned off by the length of her works of fiction. Some of a more religious bent have problems with Rand’s atheism. Some wish she had left...

I have read all of Flynn's works. I have liked every one of them and not been disappointed. This book was no different, though it was less a front to back barnstormer about his principle character and action hero, Mitch Rapp, than others have been. But that's okay, I believe Flynn did that on purpose to make some other points, and the book is nonetheless a great read, delivering a timely and critical message I believe is important for all Americans to understand. It was, for me, still a captivating thriller with enough action, and delivering a very important...