Crow On Fifty (Ayn - the last installment)

You may recall the one installment of this series on Ayn ("ine") and her Atlas Shrugged opus was focussed on dissing her for her fifty page speech that I (so cleverly) estimated would take around three hours to deliver.  That speech was on pages 929-979.

Well, "ine" nailed me on page 1007.  That is to say... she was all over me like a cheap suit.  On that page she has the protagonist explain that it took him "three hours" to make his point to the nation.  In the same vicinity she has yet another character refer to the speech as "too intellectual for the common man."  That would be me.

So I am eating a little crow here but it doesn't taste too bad.  I am thankful she presented the book and I had the opportunity to go on an incorrect tangent... as I so often do in all matters.

But consider this... I was so impressed with the speech I paused to read a page of it out loud and used that to estimate the length of the thing.  I came up with three hours right?  So how do you suppose Ayn ("ine") did it?  I have to figure she must have done something similar otherwise how would she have pointed out the duration some 30 pages later?  I call this an intriguing coincidence and man, I  love intrigue! 

Here I was; thinking she was just rambling on, page after page as she composed her speech in long hand sometime around the mid-ninteen fifties.  No problem as there wasn't much on TV at the time right?!  But now I am pretty sure she was deliberate in that effort.  My apologies Ayn.

And now for something final in stating my awe in this book and it's writer.  Thousands of people have surely described both a lot better but here is my take: 

Ayn was a rugged individualist who devoutly believed in the merits of capitalism and self-interest.  She believed (I say "correctly") that without those attributes a country such as ours could not exist... that if we reach too far into socialism we will surely fail.  She was an avid, brilliant student of philosophy, history and industry.  Her talents and beliefs are expertly woven into Atlas Shrugged for over a thousand glorious pages (except for one 50 page speech).  It is a novel with a vital lesson about how our economy should work.  It is also imbedded with five of the most remarkable main characters one can imagine... exactly the sort of leaders we need right now, in the midst of this economic crisis.

If you can't tell by now that I loved this book then just ask yourself, "Who in the hell is John Galt?!"  You will find out...  and along the way consider this:

"I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."