Rand was most certainly a student of philosophy, and Atlas Shrugged is her earnest attempt to add to the field. What seems to have developed over the months Publius and I have been doing this is a pattern of conflict between Rand's narrative and her philosophy, somewhat after the pattern of Nietszche and Aristotle as we detailed above, passion versus reason if you like. Rand saw no real antagonism between the two but I think that I do. YMMV.
Three chapters to go before the Book Club is finished with this beast, with one more entry afterward for a summation and final commentary. I hope the ride has been as much fun for you all as for us. ;-)
The ride has been a lot of fun for me. I’ve been compiling the best of every contributor’s thoughts on every one of these threads and have been attaching it to my copy of Atlas Shrugged. I’ve learned so much American history in the vignettes here. I appreciate enormously that people have taken the trouble to write them. I will be giving the book to my brother for Christmas. He read it from ‘00 to ‘02. I read it in ‘04 and remarked to him that I was going to re-read it and highlight the parts that had special resonance for me. Because of the contributions of various people on these threads, but especially you and Publius, the entire book has more resonance to me now. All that, and I now have 1 Christmas present out of the way.
Inasmuch as this chapter is concerned, you and Publius did an outstanding job. I have no doubt that I would not be up to the task. To tell the truth, after the reading assignment of last week, I could not read this ping in a single shot, but I’ve been addicted all day and look forward to visiting it several times in weeks to come.