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I’ll admit, I had to look the meaning of the title chapter up. Rand makes it clear in the next chapter that it’s an Aristotle reference, but she doesn’t elaborate. I know that people used to study the classics more than they do now, and so perhaps the concept was considered common knowledge at the…
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I’m a member of the May 2009 forum on BabyCenter. I think it’s a clever and useful idea to have forums specifically for a birth cohort, and it’s entertaining and informative to read comments from fellow parents. I’m more than a bit disappointed that there aren’t more males on the forum I’m on; I haven’t…
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I had always played right field, except for the year. Right field was reserved for the worst player on the team, because it was junior little league (whatever they called it when there was still a machine on the pitcher’s mound instead of a player), and so hardly anyone ever hit the ball into the…
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English modals are a strange enough beast among themselves, but adding in negation leads to especially treacherous waters. This post will restrict itself to the four most common, and possibly most confusing: May, can, must, and have to. May “May” as a modal is ambiguous between permission and possibility: 1. You may have some dessert…
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Alas, this chapter is not a foray into D/s relationships. Instead, it’s another contrast chapter, this time contrasting Jim’s high-on-the-hog lifestyle with Dagny’s more modest concerns. Chapter summary: Jim Taggert attends an event with various bigwigs in the steel industry, where they prattle on about Mexico and he complains about his sister. In a bridge…
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A disingenuousness of Third Person Omniscient is that it creates the perception of a somewhat objective perspective (in contrast to First Person) while potentially remaining subjective. “The Chain” is a good example of this; this is nearly entirely Hank Rearden’s perspective, with events and dialog presented to make him look good and the other people in his…
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First off, I’m already getting vaguely tired of “Who is John Galt?”, as I figured I would. I’m also finding myself trying too hard to sort “good guys” and “bad guys” with trepidation towards Rand’s message. So much cultural baggage has come to surround this book that it’s difficult to maintain objectivity. Chapter summary: Taggert…
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Last night we attended a Tigers game. We had gotten the tickets because I’d complained to Fox Sports Detroit, which airs Tigers games. I hadn’t been seeking anything by way of remuneration in my complaint, but the tickets were offered by way of “Sorry that we can’t actually fix the issue, would you like some…
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Before I begin reading, I want to set out some of my own biases and perspectives. No reader enters a book without already having some sort of expectations, even if they’re indirect. Those expectations color the reader’s experience with and interpretation of the book. Politically, I call myself a liberal, a classical liberal, or a…
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My wife (let’s call her Miranda, because it amuses me to do so) was looking at me like one would a man about to descend into madness. “It has 1000 pages,” I’d said. “Ten pages a day would take, what? 100 days. About three months. I could blog about it as I read it.” I…