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Chapter One: The Theme
Jun. 13th, 2011 12:08 am(Also, Part One: Non-Contradiction.)
Okay! I said I'd have this up (to myself) before the end of the Sunday following the day I bought it, and... well, it's still Sunday, just not in this time zone. Thus:
Dear Readers, who I will pretend actually exist at this point only for my own vanity,
I have put off this first chapter, this foray into the field, for far too long. (Now that power has come back, I note that the date on the first page is 5/4/11. Wow.) I finished reading Jane Eyre, I read The Curse of Chalion, and (finally) Paladin of Souls. All highly recommended, and I may return to those-- especially the Lois Bujold novels, whose religious symbolism is clear indeed, but unique enough, I think, to let pass. You don't often see such a pantheon as hers, and I look forward to the next book in that world. Jane Eyre, then, what shall I say of you? There is no one who knows my life story complete enough to draw the lines, but her story is in many ways parallel to mine, and dearly I wish for her strength, betimes. She bends to avoid breaking-- I refuse to bend, and splinter at inopportune points. Perhaps it is a failing. Anyway, I found her calling Mr. Rochester 'master' to be off-putting in a way that was hard to put my finger on; it works, I suppose, for their relationship. Jane is hardly bent to his will, and when ...I should spoiler warning this, shouldn't I? ( It may be a Known Classic, this may be one sentence, but all the same )
At any rate, the life of Jane Eyre is hardly the point of this post. Also, when I mentioned this to the woman who recommended the book, she pointed out that things cannot be equal - some must lead, some must follow. Yin and yang, in a way. I am as yet undecided. (I have been thinking often of yin and yang, lately. Someone said that the Avatar (as in A:tLA, the series, not the James Cameron film) is supposed to end evil. I pointed out that as Avatar, his duty is to restore balance, not one or the other-- but perhaps balance is the opposite of evil, in a way that indifference is the opposite of love? Love and hate inspire passion, both; indifference is the true opposite of both, as it brings no passion or strong emotion. That would make balance, though, also the opposite of good - meaning that it redefines good? Or not. It is a gulf, it seems, between Eastern and Western ideologies, and one I must think more clearly on.)
But I am stalling. The power is out here, and I am writing in a Notepad document on borrowed time, and can ill afford such procrastination.
Atlas Shrugged, as of chapter one, is actually rather interesting. It features interesting language and striking imagery, and characters in whom I find at first a vested interest. This vested interest, however, is quickly dashed to pieces as they begin turning to caricatures. Eddie Willers, straight man with a idealized view of Good and Evil, sees the city perpetually dying in the twilight. Taggart building, though, he thinks as he approaches, is a place of "competence and power." It always brings a smile to his face; the slogan is, to him, "so much more shining and holy than any commandment of the Bible." Seriously, though, I fully believe this defines the man's character: he knew an oak tree, as a boy, that was mighty and stood on a hill for all memory, and in his mind would stand forever, immovable as the Earth itself. Then, lightning struck, and he discovered that the heart had rotted away to gray dust years ago. On the very same page, there is a dialogue between him and Dagny Taggart, where he tells her he wants to Do What Is Right when he grows up. Why? Because he believes in it, the minister says so, it is a fact of life that he cannot imagine being without.
I found myself grumbling aloud at this passage. I will make an effort to avoid using TV Tropes language, here, but can you say Anvilicious?
This theme continues as he goes in to meet Jim Taggart, who is the very picture of incompetence. Everyone seems to know it, too. Eddie points out serious issues that must be fixed, and Jim evades the question as he always does, driving the moralist to distraction. Yet later in the chapter, Jim Taggart begins to 'moralize,' talking about how Rearden gets too much business; this is played up as his reluctance to encourage monopoly, but it's fairly obvious that he's just afraid of change, and wants to continue giving business to his friend, despite the constant crookedness and incompetence there. Actually, what he is doing is far more likely to create a monopoly-- giving business to one company regardless of actual value.
In summary, I think my reaction to the book, as of the first chapter, is this: It's like listening to a song by a clearly talented vocalist, with excellent instrumentals in the background, who for some /unfathomable/ reason silences those instrumentals every verse to stop singing and start attempting to free-rhyme an essay instead. So that every time the music starts to win you over, you are rudely jerked out of it by the shattering noise of "Hey listen up! My name is Ayn R-- I mean Narrator, and I'm here to say, Down With Government!"
We shall see what chapter two brings. Hopefully a more in-depth review, at any rate.
Okay! I said I'd have this up (to myself) before the end of the Sunday following the day I bought it, and... well, it's still Sunday, just not in this time zone. Thus:
Dear Readers, who I will pretend actually exist at this point only for my own vanity,
I have put off this first chapter, this foray into the field, for far too long. (Now that power has come back, I note that the date on the first page is 5/4/11. Wow.) I finished reading Jane Eyre, I read The Curse of Chalion, and (finally) Paladin of Souls. All highly recommended, and I may return to those-- especially the Lois Bujold novels, whose religious symbolism is clear indeed, but unique enough, I think, to let pass. You don't often see such a pantheon as hers, and I look forward to the next book in that world. Jane Eyre, then, what shall I say of you? There is no one who knows my life story complete enough to draw the lines, but her story is in many ways parallel to mine, and dearly I wish for her strength, betimes. She bends to avoid breaking-- I refuse to bend, and splinter at inopportune points. Perhaps it is a failing. Anyway, I found her calling Mr. Rochester 'master' to be off-putting in a way that was hard to put my finger on; it works, I suppose, for their relationship. Jane is hardly bent to his will, and when ...I should spoiler warning this, shouldn't I? ( It may be a Known Classic, this may be one sentence, but all the same )
At any rate, the life of Jane Eyre is hardly the point of this post. Also, when I mentioned this to the woman who recommended the book, she pointed out that things cannot be equal - some must lead, some must follow. Yin and yang, in a way. I am as yet undecided. (I have been thinking often of yin and yang, lately. Someone said that the Avatar (as in A:tLA, the series, not the James Cameron film) is supposed to end evil. I pointed out that as Avatar, his duty is to restore balance, not one or the other-- but perhaps balance is the opposite of evil, in a way that indifference is the opposite of love? Love and hate inspire passion, both; indifference is the true opposite of both, as it brings no passion or strong emotion. That would make balance, though, also the opposite of good - meaning that it redefines good? Or not. It is a gulf, it seems, between Eastern and Western ideologies, and one I must think more clearly on.)
But I am stalling. The power is out here, and I am writing in a Notepad document on borrowed time, and can ill afford such procrastination.
Atlas Shrugged, as of chapter one, is actually rather interesting. It features interesting language and striking imagery, and characters in whom I find at first a vested interest. This vested interest, however, is quickly dashed to pieces as they begin turning to caricatures. Eddie Willers, straight man with a idealized view of Good and Evil, sees the city perpetually dying in the twilight. Taggart building, though, he thinks as he approaches, is a place of "competence and power." It always brings a smile to his face; the slogan is, to him, "so much more shining and holy than any commandment of the Bible." Seriously, though, I fully believe this defines the man's character: he knew an oak tree, as a boy, that was mighty and stood on a hill for all memory, and in his mind would stand forever, immovable as the Earth itself. Then, lightning struck, and he discovered that the heart had rotted away to gray dust years ago. On the very same page, there is a dialogue between him and Dagny Taggart, where he tells her he wants to Do What Is Right when he grows up. Why? Because he believes in it, the minister says so, it is a fact of life that he cannot imagine being without.
I found myself grumbling aloud at this passage. I will make an effort to avoid using TV Tropes language, here, but can you say Anvilicious?
This theme continues as he goes in to meet Jim Taggart, who is the very picture of incompetence. Everyone seems to know it, too. Eddie points out serious issues that must be fixed, and Jim evades the question as he always does, driving the moralist to distraction. Yet later in the chapter, Jim Taggart begins to 'moralize,' talking about how Rearden gets too much business; this is played up as his reluctance to encourage monopoly, but it's fairly obvious that he's just afraid of change, and wants to continue giving business to his friend, despite the constant crookedness and incompetence there. Actually, what he is doing is far more likely to create a monopoly-- giving business to one company regardless of actual value.
In summary, I think my reaction to the book, as of the first chapter, is this: It's like listening to a song by a clearly talented vocalist, with excellent instrumentals in the background, who for some /unfathomable/ reason silences those instrumentals every verse to stop singing and start attempting to free-rhyme an essay instead. So that every time the music starts to win you over, you are rudely jerked out of it by the shattering noise of "Hey listen up! My name is Ayn R-- I mean Narrator, and I'm here to say, Down With Government!"
We shall see what chapter two brings. Hopefully a more in-depth review, at any rate.
