majoring in Letters; the AS speech

[juldea]

Quick note inbetween doing the mail run and going to lunch:

Twice today I have helped one of the buyers here spell "difficult" words: cliché and touché. I briefly mentioned the acute accent on the e but settled for an apostrophe used afterwards. As I was walking away, I briefly thought, "This - with a degree in Letters..." and then stopped myself because the pun was just too nice. Of course I'm helping people spell - what else would I do with a degree in Letters? ;)

Those who are familiar with Atlas Shrugged (I only know for certain that one of you has read it, though) know that the climax of the book - or at least a high point - is the radio speech given by one of the main characters. This speech spans 56 pages in my copy of the book. 56 pages in oh, 8 point font? Maybe smaller? Anyway, I got to the start of the speech last night on the way home and stopped reading, because I feel it needs to be read in one big lump. I don't know if I'm going to do that, though. I read fast, but there's no way I'm going to finish it over lunch... ;)

Comments

[alendres.livejournal.com]

The buyers of what..?

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I work in the purchasing department of a hospital. The buyers buy all the stuff for the hospital.

[nemoalia.livejournal.com]

I have a nasty habit of skipping the speeches when I read Rand. I feel like they interrupt the story that I'm enjoying, and I save them for the end. They're really stand-alone essays, it seems to me.

Maybe I miss out on some character development this way, but it saves me my sanity.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Heh, you have a good point. I was just thinking as I was reading that I could take that speech out of the book and present it as a stand-alone to people who don't want to read the whole book but want to know Rand's philosophy.

[nemoalia.livejournal.com]

Dude, don't make them read the whole thing. Write a one-paragraph summary. That's the only decent thing to do.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Well, it depends on how willing they are, too. ;)

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

I read Atlas Shrugged and I read The Fountainhead. At the time when I read them, I pretty much uncritically lapped them up. (Doubts set in later, and I eventually reached my current muddled position.) Even then, I found the speech pretty gruelling, but I think you're right to read through it in one lump; it is, after all, a single utterance.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Grin. Sounds like we have had a similar path with Rand. I originally devoured TF, AS, Anthem, AND We the Living... and now I still like them, but have a few questions about some things...

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

I remember it being ninety pages in my copy. Although it condenses her philosophical agenda adequately, it also brings the narrative to a dead stop, which I think is not worthwhile. Than again, Rand isn't really about storytelling.

In terms of good speeches to abstract from the book, I'd recommend Sebastian's "Money is the Root of All Evil" bit.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Grin. That's the one I've threatened to unleash on Conor. It's only a few pages, I believe.