RoR: Forum

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small,manageable tasks,and then starting on the first one." Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemens
Objectivity ,the ability to apply critical thinking and deductive reasoning to gsther facts that lead to true feelings. By applying objecticity one notices similarities such as the structural examples as the Egyptian and Mayan pryamids or the similar parables of bullfinches mythology and biblical stories. Deductive observations all show evidence that superstition is a form of the power of suggestion. Observing peoples behaviors one can observe the quailities of all Rands Characters in various individuals.
All Rands characters have qualities of reality. Atlas as we all know was a titan of greek mythology whose brother who revealed to Hercules his brother Proteus weakness. Thereby enabling Hercules to gain his victory.
Keeping ones feet on the ground and ones head above water is indeed a challenge these days. Be yourself or lose your self

Post 1

Thursday, September 17, 2009 - 5:14pm

I went with Reardon on the basis of his conflicted nature through most of the story. The most of the other characters are exemplars. While inspiring, I've never met anyone like them. I've met and heard of plenty of people who do their best to produce and achieve and yet still insist on eating shit from their lessers.

Post 2

Thursday, September 17, 2009 - 8:35pm

This isn't really part of the discussion but I thought it was funny .... I have just returned from a book discussion group and I mentioned Howard Roark as being an prime example of someone who lived for his work. A person in the group misunderstood his name and thought I had said "Hard Work."

Post 3

Friday, September 18, 2009 - 10:43am

Interesting - it is the flawed person who gets the more votes...

Post 4

Friday, September 18, 2009 - 11:04am

I agree with Ryan. Many of the others were extremes. I'd have chosen Ellis Wyatt, were he an option. I have a good friend that reminds me of him.

jt

Post 5

Friday, September 18, 2009 - 2:45pm

I choose Hank also. However, I think it is almost a tie between Hank and Keating. Even now I cannot say why I choose Rearden over Keating, especially since there is a Keating in every office building in the country, and most of the seats in Congress.

Post 6

Saturday, September 19, 2009 - 12:41pm

It has been a while since I enjoyed the novel. So impressions of the characters have mellowed. Yet Dominique materialized as real with her ruthless unsrupulousness, An insecure gold digger that was to good to pick up the shovel,so to speak.
John Gallt ,visionary ,problem solver, entreprenuer extraordinaire ,ritual breaker rugged individualist ,underdog. The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court He may have been Ayn Rands answer to Sgt. Nick Fury of those verdammt howling commando's.
I would hope Aeschyllus would have enjoyed her novel and the protrayal of human tragedy it illustrates.

Post 7

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - 5:45pm

Dominique, Francisco, and Dagny are the only good characters on this list that have actual personalities. But Dagny's and Francisco's (and Hank's) love lives as affected by Galt are unreal. As for those who say they have met many Keatings, that is an exaggeration. He makes a good character in a story, but real people like that are much meaner in both senses of the word mean.

Post 8

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - 5:58pm

"Dominique, Francisco, and Dagny are the only good characters on this list that have actual personalities."

That seems like a bizarre statement to me. I must not understand what you mean by "actual personalities"

Post 9

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - 6:26pm

Those three have lots of history we get to see and enjoy.

I won't elaborate, but James Taggart is all too real for me.

Post 10

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - 10:03pm

Hank Rearden gets up, goes to work, lets people yell at him, listens to speeches by Francisco. Even when the foundry breaks out, he is a zombie next to Francisco. After Dagny's radio speech, he says "you used the past tense." Thank god for the wet nurse dying, or the man never would have expressed a single emotion except maybe sex eruptions breaking thru his repression. Francisco only hops trains, plays marbles, blows up his mines, uses the past tense to refer to future disasters, fights foundry breakouts and presumably speaks Spanish. Rand should have made Rearden a negro. He should have had his mother dragged out of the house. And Rearden should either have had more of a conflict with Galt over Dagny, or should have gotten her in the end.

Post 11

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 7:59am