Who is John Galt?

I think I have a Real World reference for John Galt. He is none other than Nikola Tesla.

I read that Ayn Rand used Frank Lloyed Wright as a partial model for Howarard Roark.

Do any of you Objectivist Folk know if Rand might have used Tesla as a model for Galt (at least for his scientific doings)?

Bob Kolker

Post 1

Monday, May 19, 2008 - 8:01pm

I too have heard this speculation. Google "tesla rand galt."

Post 2

Monday, May 19, 2008 - 8:23pm

There was an interesting, albiet mostly fictional, depiction of Tesla in the movie "The Prestige." An excellent film BTW.

Post 3

Monday, May 19, 2008 - 11:05pm

Phil wrote:

> There was an interesting, albiet mostly fictional, depiction of Tesla in the movie "The Prestige." An excellent film BTW.

I agree Phil. The Prestige is my favorite film of the past few years. I took a look into Tesla after that film and was surprised to read that he did experiment with some ideas on the edge of the mystical/supernatural and did experiment with teleportation. The lighting of the town of Colorado Springs and the illumination of light bulbs stuck into the ground were true.

Have you seen the movie Memento by the same director, Christopher Nolan? If not, I think you would enjoy it.

Regards,
--
Jeff

(Edited by C. Jeffery Small on 5/19, 11:27pm)

Post 4

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 6:07am

wait a second - why did you guys like the Prestige? Did you not think that the end of the movie was a complete cop-out? I mean, it was "real magic" is total BS - it should have been a reality based ending.

Post 5

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 8:05am

Kurt:

I don't have a problem with movies like The Prestige that have a SiFi component so long as that element is solidly grounded within the plot-universe of the movie. And in this case, I find that it was very well done through the character of Tesla. I hesitate to comment further on this, not wanting to spoil the movie for those who have not seen it, but I didn't find this element of The Prestige any more fanciful and difficult to accept within the framework of the movie than I did a motor running on static electricity in Atlas Shrugged. In both cases there was at least the plausibility that everything could be explained through physics rather than just offering up a complex plot element as simple magic.

I think I understand where you are coming from in your comments. You approach a movie for a couple of hours with it building towards an expected conclusion and then find yourself knocked off the rails when a surprise twist turns everything on its head and veers in a totally different direction. I have experienced many movies where I was also greatly disappointed by this "trick" when I don't find it well done. In The Prestige, I was very satisfied that the groundwork to all the surprises has been sufficiently prepared for so that they maintained a strong plausibility within the movie's universe. However, at the end of the day, it is a very personal reaction to this sort of movie stunt. M. Night Shyamalan is famous for having these twist endings for his movies, and while I have enjoyed them and think he is a wonderful storyteller and movie director, many people are put off by this element of his work.

Now, compare The Prestige to The Illusionist, another movie with a very similar theme that came out at almost the same time. This movie relies much more heavily upon "real magic" with only the thinnest veneer of an attempt to attempt to "explain" how some of the illusions are accomplished. Nevertheless, I also enjoyed this movie for the overall story line and the performances by Paul Giamatti and Ed Norton. Have you seen it, and if so, what did you think?

Regards,
--
Jeff

Post 6

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 8:52pm

*Spoiler Alert* (I'll try to be vague. But The Prestige and Momento are excellent, and should be seen fresh. So please rent them before reading.)(By the way the same director did Batman Begins and the upcoming Dark Knight. Oh Joy!

Kurt,
Funny, I would have expected a sense of life criticism to have come up. In the film, magic = parlor tricks, but real magic = real power, real genius, and originality. The sense of life presented is that humans are afraid of the light. Although, one could replace humans with "the many" or "the mob"...

A cop out (in this context) is a convenient way to tie loose ends that cheats the artistic vision or the plot's dramatic momentum. Yet in the movie Tesla gives a warning that serves as a major theme. "Real magic" shows the psychology of the people Tesla warns against (even the good ones). Afraid of the light. Evasion. The use of the term "real magic" serves to heighten the theme. It magnifies the tragedy of the passionate, and the stagnant nature of the common man. Quite the opposite of a cop out.

What a great film. I think I'll watch it tonight.

Post 7

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 6:16am

Thanks for the perspective - I did not dislike the film, I was just disappointed in that kind of ending as I see it so often in movies - but your points are good.

Post 8

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 9:08am

Tesla and Galt were both inventors who worked, sometimes independently (though Galt made his greatest invention as a corporate employee), in the first half of the 20th century. You need more - either a detailed, point-for-point similarity or an explicit acknowledgement on Rand's part.

Post 9

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 10:39am

My niece gave me The Prestige novel. I found it to be very good. I haven't seen the mvie though. I often find that seeing/reading one spoils the other for me.

Post 10

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 8:31pm

Ted: "I too have heard this speculation. Google 'tesla rand galt.' "

I didn't know much about Tesla until recently; History Channel just showed a bio on him and I, too, was struck by the similarities. But when I googled "Tesla" and "Galt," I wound up on this thread, with Ted's advice to google. The eternal return...

Seriously, there's not much out there on the similarities, and the few hits I found were not that friendly towards Rand ("batshit insane psychopath" was the showstopper.)

I don't see Tesla listed in the index of THE JOURNALS OF AYN RAND, and don't recall any print mention by Rand of him. But I'd have to think that she'd have to have researched him...

�"Death Ray"=Project X
� His Mechanical Resonance project=Thompson "Harmonizer"
� Colorado Springs=Galt's Gulch, Colorado...\
� The Feud with Edison over AC/DC, the rejection of Edison's "American Humor" (the $50, 000 promise reneged.)
� Tesla's working as a ditch-digger after leaving Edison=shades of Roark in the quarry
� Tesla living in a small apartment in New York=Galt living in obscurity in small apartment in New York; the "Colorado Connection" would have been a nice touch of "Romantic Realism"; easy to want to see Tesla "disappearing" to a secret conclave to do his real work
�Tesla's inclination to have everything divisible by three=the division of thirds in ATLAS SHRUGGED: three sections with 10 chapters each. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I don't know that Rand based Galt per se on Tesla, but certainly this is more than coincidence?

Post 11

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 8:58pm

I don't know that Rand based Galt per se on Tesla, but certainly this is more than coincidence?

Remember... some people can see the Virgin Mary in a peanut butter sandwich.

jt

Post 12

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 9:05pm

Hey now, I didn't say Galt was hearing signals from outer space...:P

And it's certainly in the realm of possibility. Rand certainly did do research on real people to develop her characters.
(Edited by Joe Maurone on 7/01, 9:06pm)

Post 13

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 9:08pm

That's not very helpful, Jay. The specifics Joe mentions are verifiable concretes, and very rare ones indeed. One of the problems with sightings of Jesus' mother is that we have no photograph, nor even a verbal description of her - any womanish face could be her. Note the comparative lack of Nixon sightings in peanut butter sandwiches, given our detailed knowledge of his face.

Tesla also worked on a system to transmit power through the atmosphere without wires. A test plant was built on Long Island. How many people, even physicists, do you know who worked on energy transmission through the air, death rays, and mechanical resonance? This resemblance goes a little beyond numerology.

(Edited by Ted Keer on 7/01, 10:05pm)

Post 14

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 9:24pm

Am in a way surprise this comes up - he was the first person who came to mind on reading AS as to source material... and maybe I was fortunate in my schooling growing up, but Tesla was hardly a forgotten character in my history books, and even to browse thru a book listing his patents is very interesting, to say the least...

Post 15

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 9:29pm

Thanks for the pic, Ted. I saw it in a book the other day, and found it very haunting...

Robert, it's weird; he's known, but overshadowed by Edison. He was apparantly VERY well known early on, but fell into obscurity, like Cameron. The documentary I saw, plus other sources, make a big deal out of the obscurity in order to make him look even more like a hero, I think.

Do you know how I learned of him originally? There's a rock band from the early nineties named Tesla who made it big with an acoustic cover of the song "Signs." I didn't know about the other Tesla, though, until they did a song called "Edison's Medicine."

Post 16

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 10:00pm

Tesla died in NYC in 1943. He would have been very much "in the air" when Rand came up with her idea for "The Strike."

Post 17

Thursday, July 2, 2009 - 5:56am

Ted,

You make a good point. I stand corrected in this particular case. There was a fascinating and excellent documentary done on Tesla, which I only saw last year - quite impressive what he had accomplished, and somewhat unfortunate that he did not get more recognition for his accomplishments.

jt

Post 18

Thursday, July 2, 2009 - 6:21am

http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/index.html

Post 19

Thursday, July 2, 2009 - 10:41am