We Never Had To Take Any Of It Seriously, Did We?
"Let me begin by saying that this is perhaps the most important point in the whole book, because it is the condensed emotional summation, the keynote or leitmotif, of the view of life presented in Atlas Shrugged.
What Dagny expresses here is the conviction that joy, exaltation, beauty, greatness, heroism, all the supreme, uplifting values of man's existence on earth, are the meaning of life—not the pain or ugliness he may encounter—that one must live for the sake of such exalted moments as one may be able to achieve or experience, not for the sake of suffering—that happiness matters, but suffering does not—that no matter how much pain one may have to endure, it is never to be taken seriously, that is: never to be taken as the essence and meaning of life—that the essence of life is the achievement of joy, not the escape from pain." AR
"No, we never did." AS
What Dagny expresses here is the conviction that joy, exaltation, beauty, greatness, heroism, all the supreme, uplifting values of man's existence on earth, are the meaning of life—not the pain or ugliness he may encounter—that one must live for the sake of such exalted moments as one may be able to achieve or experience, not for the sake of suffering—that happiness matters, but suffering does not—that no matter how much pain one may have to endure, it is never to be taken seriously, that is: never to be taken as the essence and meaning of life—that the essence of life is the achievement of joy, not the escape from pain." AR
"No, we never did." AS
It took me a helluva long time to come to this, and I enjoyed immensely reading your post, wherein it is clarified.
Thanks, khalling!
why we live, why we strive so hard, why we work
our butts off and endure the tough times, the hell
on earth -- to get ... *here.* . all of the prose went to
supply us with a little perfect poetry ... *here.* -- j
Feels more comfortable here
compliment to your excellence!!! -- j
of special music? . try this little gem:::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuI23wEa...
she's british, now in her 40s, and has been playing the
guitar since she was 5. . the song was written by
Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May, himself a PhD
in astrophysics. . whatta world!!! . we never had to
take it seriously, did we? -- j
Excellent post, kh. Thank you for it and for so so many other things you've posted and said. You were a big part of my joy in the gulch. Love you!
....BANG! (Said the pistol.)
I still think so. I agree with the idea.
had to climb, to survive. . when you get to the top,
all of the preceding torture looks like just so much
trivia, small in the rear-view-mirror, like being here
is now effortless. . you're floating above it all, free
from the shackles which formerly held you down.
it's total celebratory freedom, unfettered. . she got it, right. -- j
p.s. this is a spot where prose functions as poetry, imho.
When Dagny said we never had to take it seriously, I thought she meant she was able to ignore the looters and focus on her business until she physically crashed into the Gulch. This is saying the point was not be defined by opposition to the looters but rather by what I loosely call humanism.
me of this spot in the book. . it is probably the most
delicious place in there. . wonderful. . Thank You! -- j