Category: Sisyphus Winced

Brave New World took me longer to re-read than I’d expected, given its length, and on reflection, the similarities between it and Atlas Shrugged are more tenuous than I’d remembered. I think this is in part because, as Huxley himself notes in the preface to my edition (a Bantam paperback), he spends no time whatsoever…

Let’s go to a movie where everybody fights But in the end there’s dancing, songs, and smiles You need lots of smiles — Boomtown Rats, “Wind Chill Factor Minus Zero” It is finished. — Jesus of Nazareth Chapter summary: The Scooby Gang (except for Velma, who drowned in the East River) release Galt from the…

What a strange and silly chapter. It feels like Rand is getting as tired of this book as I am. Chapter summary: Stadler decides to seize power by taking over Project X. He gets there to find Cuffy Meigs, drunk and also trying to seize power through Project X. There’s a brief argument during which…

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s obviously not one of Dagny’s trains, since those tunnels have all collapsed. Chapter summary: Following John’s speech, the antagonists decide to fail to address the event at all, neither sanctioning nor sanctioning it (I love contranyms!). The President puts a tail on Dagny, hoping…

I had a joke to put here, but I decided: I’m tired of the smarmy jokes. This book is having an odd effect on me, this chapter in particular. Chapter summary: The Powers that Be have set up a global broadcast so that the President can make a state of the world announcement, but John…

While the previous chapter focused on Dagny, this one focuses on Hank, tying up the final loose end that needs to be tied up before Galt can give his soliloquy. Chapter summary: Hank faces a strike from the steelworkers’ union, led by agents planted by the government to cause trouble. He’s called to a meeting…

Being sick much of last week, I muddled slowly through the first part of this chapter, and then in a sudden urge to finish this by the end of the month, I surged forward. As a result, I’m currently halfway through the behemoth 27th chapter. As such, many of my impressions of chapters 25 and…

In this chapter, Rand experiments with Shakespearean-style drama. It is engaging until it goes overboard. This is what editors are supposed to be for, but I’m usually skeptical that 1100 page books see much editing. Chapter summary: Jim ditches a party and goes home, where he and Cherryl (his wife) have a fight. There’s a…

Quick question: What was Mr. Hyde’s great crime in Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, the act that RL Stevenson thought would make his readers recoil in horror and fear at his barbarism? He pushes someone down roughly. Sure, eventually he murders someone, but by then his reputation as a scalliwag has already been set. I…

My current bookmark for Atlas Shrugged is the Temperance card from a miniature copy of the Rider Waite tarot. The deck itself is strewn across the basement floor, having been found and claimed by kidlet as a toy. I chose this card as a reminder not to fall into the trap of absolutist thought that…