yep H2, you're right girl

He may be better ON his knees....just sayin'

William Holden.

Dagny Taggart: Faye Dunaway

The Wet Nurse: Jimmy Stewart

Robert Stadler, PhD: Claude Rains

Mr. Thompson: John Fiedler

Wesley Mouch: Fred MacMurray

Floyd Ferris, PhD: Peter Cushing

in the earliest draft of my first novel, i didn't include any physical descriptions for my protagonist. my intention was to step out of the way and have the reader place anyone, including themselves, into the role. i found that the lack of guidance made most people uncomfortable. i wasn't expecting them to be so bothered, but the piece was said to be too "experimental" and "literary". the literary tag didn't bother me, but i didn't enjoy making the reader squirm for the wrong reason. on the other hand, classical writers described every little thing. i don't think modern writers, except those already super accomplished (Chabon) and others that write literary novels, can get away with this anymore. a balance needs to be struck. i think you did a good job with your thriller. i wished I had gotten a bit more description of rangar in the first chapter, but the setting descriptions worked very well. i also really liked that you guided the reader as to the reporter’s ethnicity. when I read that, her character really came alive in my mind’s eye.

i’ve read some articles criticizing Rand’s use of description. i was wondering what kind of conversations she had with her editor. it turns out her editor didn’t like her style, either, and worked with her because she paid the bills. personally, i like the way her novels were written. they’re unique because they don’t come from a native english speaker, and she had to work hard to get across her vision of a character or place without devoting ten pages to each. she had to learn to be succinct and keep only what was important. for this reason, i paid a lot attention to what she did leave in the novel. i imagine that since she said ragnar is blonde and blue-eyed, then it’s important the reader see him that way, too, for whatever reason. i can just imagine someone walking up to Rand and saying, “ragnar? oh, yeah, that short, dark-skinned guy with the brown eyes. if he’s a pirate, why doesn’t he say, ‘arrrrgh’?” the rand in my head (the wide-eyed one I created in my bitstrip pieces) would yell something about words having precise meanings and bitch slap the person. that’s probably not what would have happened in real life, though…

as a new writer, I know that I wanted to give as little as possible-but it still ended up including hair and eye color and build. Others seem to have paid more attention to Rand's physical descriptions more than I did-outside of those descriptions which conveyed attitude-like standing erect or pinched mouth-that kind of thing. So hair/eye color/ethnicity to me aren't important in making a movie unless unless the setting is period-which AS is not. In PoJ we had one character, the reporter, described as eastern ethnicity-Indian and there were some story points that related back to her ethnicity-just like Francisco and Ragnar do. But everyone else-

John Galt *did* give Dagny Taggart a driving tour ouf the Gulch in a convertible. But the care beloned to Midas Mulligan, who rented it out to Galt at the rate of a quarter-ounce of silver per day.

Yes, he does look good. Of course, back when I read Atlas for the first time (1978), I'd pictured Peter Graves playing him--and Chuck Connors playing Ragnar.

do you think Rand's descriptions of her characters overpowered the narrative?

I like Bogart. He is perfect. He smoked lie a chimney.

the movies have brought thousands to Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. Don't ignore that point. it's a biggie.

no to Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart

Well...they weren't asian. :) (and I thought they were both blonde.) Hmm so far I think everybody is blond..except for Roark. lol

I do not recall any background for Galt.
Cannot be Asian, would confuse, but it should confound stereotypes - the need is tall, thin, internal strength, integrity, mystery, so that is why I suggested a NorthAmerican native.

I suppose if their ethnicity was incorporated into the story. Description alone, which writers do so the reader can begin to visualize a character, should not over-power the narrative of the story. Some of Rand's main descriptor's are to physically embody human traits. Which you could do with any ethnicity-like corpulent and beady eyes for example. The only other one (francisco is francisco) I can see making a case for keeping the ethnicity for and even this character I could see changing is Ragnar. I say this because Rand had a romantic notion of vikings and Ragnar fits that description. My point is blonde/brunette-who cares? I can't even remember what color hair Dagny and Dominique had. I pictured Dagny with dark hair and Dominique with blond hair.

chicken

I'll just have to take your word for it. LOL

He's fine too.. I don't care who you are ;).

Kbye.