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

[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.