Ping! The thread is up.
Prior threads:
FReeper Book Club: Introduction to Atlas Shrugged
Part I, Chapter I: The Theme
Part I, Chapter II: The Chain
Part I, Chapter III: The Top and the Bottom
Part I, Chapter IV: The Immovable Movers
Part I, Chapter V: The Climax of the d’Anconias
Part I, Chapter VI: The Non-Commercial
Part I, Chapter VII: The Exploiters and the Exploited
Part I, Chapter VIII: The John Galt Line
Part I, Chapter IX: The Sacred and the Profane
Part I, Chapter X: Wyatt’s Torch
Part II, Chapter I: The Man Who Belonged on Earth
Part II, Chapter II: The Aristocracy of Pull
Part II, Chapter III: White Blackmail
Part II, Chapter IV: The Sanction of the Victim
Part II, Chapter V: Account Overdrawn
Part II, Chapter VI: Miracle Metal
Part II, Chapter VII: The Moratorium on Brains
Part II, Chapter VIII: By Our Love
Part II, Chapter IX: The Face Without Pain or Fear or Guilt
Part II, Chapter X: The Sign of the Dollar
Part III, Chapter I: Atlantis
Part III, Chapter II: The Utopia of Greed
Part III, Chapter III: Anti-Greed
Part III, Chapter IV: Anti-Life
Part III, Chapter V: Their Brothers’ Keepers
Part III, Chapter VI: The Concerto of Deliverance
Part III, Chapter VII: “This is John Galt Speaking”
I really do have to read this book.
The Speech is one of the reasons why Atlas Shrugged has never been made into a movie.
Its the high point of the novel but would take 3 hours to read aloud.
Atlas Shrugged would take some real editing to make it onto the silver screen.
“Only Eugene Lawson attacks the content of The Speech, and he does so hysterically. The others don’t question the content, but the nature of reality itself. What is going on here, and how did supposedly rational men reach this pass?”
I’ll tackle this one: Apparently, Lawson isn’t as deep down the abyss of cynicism and self-deception as his fellow looters; he actually does believe in the “righteousness” of altruism so the speech hit him like a bucket of icewater. The other looters, being much more jaded and consciously malignant, fully realize that altruism was just their rationale to cannibalize others; they intuitively understood the speech so the next step in self-deception was to deny that they ever heard it.