I believe I’m getting to the portion of the experience of reading this book that I was dreading, the part that marathon runners call “The Wall” (NB: My knowledge of marathon running comes exclusively from Run Fat Boy Run, despite my brother’s engagement in them… I should ask him sometime about The Wall, assuming he doesn’t comment on the FB mirror of this). Anyway, it’s beginning to feel like Rand is beating the same drum over and over, and I’m tiring of the beat.
On the other hand, her “Who is John Galt?” references are becoming scarcer (presumably as we near the actual unveiling of John Galt), and I don’t recall reading anything about Halley for a hundred pages or so.
Chapter summary: The country is sliding into a domino-effect depression, as supply lines dry up. Taggert Transcontinental decides to tear up the Rio Norte to use the Metal to fix the main line. Jim and Lilian conspire while Hank and Dagny tear up the line. Lilian discovers that Dagny is Hank’s mistress; there’s a confrontation between husband and wife, but she still refuses a divorce.
The parts of this chapter that qualify as literature (as opposed to sermonizing) were decent enough. I’m not all that crazy about the love triangle story line, but whatever. As I say above, the sermonizing is getting a bit repetitive, and in the context of modern events a bit noxious. I don’t believe that what has caused the present recession is due to regulations but rather to a lack thereof, and undermines the message that so many libertarians appear to take from Rand of a self-correcting free market. But that’s the stuff for another post, one that I’m still mulling around in my head.
Fifteen chapters down, fifteen to go, although from a page count perspective I’m not yet at the halfway point.