I’ve read AS a couple of times, and working on my 3rd, and I must admit that I’ve read everything else in the book, but I have never made it all the way through “The Speech.” Not the one in this article, but the one by John Galt that’s 70+ pages long. It ends up being a massive “preaching to the chior” effort to get through it, and I start skimming. :)
If you think you really understand Objectivism then you can skip the speech, I guess, but there is a lot of stuff in there if you can be patient and stay focused.
Just started reading it for the first time shortly after the election and got hung-up there for a while. What worked for me was to just take it a few pages at one sitting. I wonder, if John Gault were to make his speech today, how many listeners would have tuned out early?.
BTW, I want Ann Coulter to play Dagny!.