It seemed addressed to matters that would be important to me, though I was a 17-year-old girl.

"corporeality" is the only word my spell checker came up with.
Me dino's tiny brain doesn't know what that word is supposed to be.
A can of Crap Lite perhaps?

I got goose bumps in the AS1 when Dagny and Reardon powered up Dagny's new train on Reardon's steel rails having bested critics and nay-sayers to accomplish something real (before the looters and weepers conspired to take them down)

The AS story remindes me of how handicappers add exttra weight to race horses to try and make them all equally likely to win thus keeping the odds down on any one horse. One horse does win however in spite of their machinations.

as in, "Don't piss on my back and tell me its raining!"
enough of that Corpalite (sp?),

Do you want the view from the mentally ill?
1) I liked the part where the guy on the train who seems like a nobody tells the story of the horrible shrew at the motor plant. She seems like the worst villain I've seen in any media. It's more poignant because it's some rando on the train, and even though he was never running a company, he was the best at what he did in life. It made him happy. No one can say he was better or worse than Dagny, Jim, or anyone. He was working around stuff he liked. Those young investors bought the plant, introduced socialism, and the nasty shrews rose to the top, taking away his life, the same as gov't tooking away Dagny's company or Rearden's metal.

2) I liked when Dagny was attempting to take it easy up north. She can't help but think of ways to serve more customers by putting in a store and other services, and she says "Just stop!" because she's supposed to be on vacation. She can't stop thinking of ways to meet the needs of potential customers.

I think a series based on reality in Venezuela with rand Ian characters would be very interesting. People need to see in real time where collectivism leads, and it’s happening right now

So did Francisco and Ragnar. It is a war out there and we should stop being nice guys. They certainly arent

Very true, and I had not heard it coined that way before.

Also, "What confused me at the time, and even now, is that our do called democracy is based on mob rule, so the producers have little clout."

Democracy based on mob rule? That is the reality now but it should not be. The mob will always be mob. The gladiator games in the Coliseum of Rome were designed to silence them: Give us bread and circus!

I do not know what is the right way to have them understand what human dignity and integrity are for. I think that is one reason the elite's contempt for them, except that they lump everyone in the group who does not agree with them politically, the purpose of which to enhance their own power. So if we want to generalize neither group is better than the other.

We are very far from the idealistic way the Founding Fathers were trying to set the path for this nation.

Well, tastes are different.

I thought only the 3rd sequel was passable, the 1st and 2nd was awful. Those Dagnys simply did not cut it, specifically the 2nd one.

In the 3rd Francisco was played by a 60 yo actor who probably got the role for his younger fame. It was awful.

Not surprised...

Agree on both points. Also, as a Colo. native, I loved that The Gulch, Wyatt's place, etc. were set here.

Probably #2 on my list.

I had an interesting discussion at the lunch table at Florida Tech yesterday about The State Science Institute.

My favorite parts, beside Galt's speech are:
1) The Tramp's story of the Twentieth Century Motor Company. Because it tells the story of Socialism/Communism in microcosm. How producers are punished, while slackers are rewarded. And how producers will go out of their ways to not be seen as better than someone else. How people game the system. And how the poor make claims on the affluent. If you have 1 more dollar, you owe them that dollar; if someone else has 1 more dollar they owe you.
2) The epitomous speech by Francisco that the book gets its name.
3) The Wet Nurse's final scenes that shows Reardon the truth about how society mentally cripples its young. Especially when he equates it to a birds mother ripping the feathers from their young's wings.
4) The Dr. Ferris speech to Hank Reardon where he tell him the scam of government. How governments cannot rule innocent men, and it's only power comes from cracking down on criminals. So it creates laws no one can follow, making everyone a criminal, then cashes in on the guilt.

To me Ellis was holding on to hope, cling to what he built until he concluded that nothing was going to change. I believe that's why he lashed out with a sign rather than just leave and let them wonder what happened - vengeful.

Yes, that is part of it, but progressivism ginned that up, they were the one's that acted as if we were a demonocracy and now the post modernist have almost taken that ball to the goal post.

I guess on a per-word basis, my favorite line would be where Dagny says to Cheryl, "I'm the man."

That brings me to my least favorite scene in the book: Cheryl's suicide. On its own terms, it just doesn't fit. She's already found out her husband is a phony, and is recovering from that shock with Dagny's help and support. On finding out that he's "a killer to no purpose" (her words), her reaction should be to get away from him and work to bring him down--not to jump in the river and drown.

exactly...

I would say: aware, it's their environment, (think survival)...I don't think they are Conscious of their own behavior but have learned to imitate our conscience.

I would agree with you that Galt's speech was geared for the producer group. I get that part.

What confused me at the time, and even now, is that our do called democracy is based on mob rule, so the producers have little clout- like we see now. Even though Apple makes great stuff that I use all the time, The government puts tariffs on their imports and just tells Apple to make the stuff here (translation- they dont have "pull" to get the tariffs waived for them).

So if AR was thinking that to convince the producers would keep this country from falling into collectivism, she was off base and you can see what effect AS had since. A few people, like us, understand but at least half the people are dyed in the wool collectivists who are hell bent on getting rid of any parts of the constitution that protect our rights.

As to the films, I agree. I thought the actress who portrayed Dagny in the first one was pretty good, and it played out like a normal movie. It was interesting to watch, and I at least felt like I was there. The following two were very bad, probably because of low budgets and a mediocre director. I saw an internview with Spielberg one time where he said "I am a storyteller". They needed someone like that in AS2 and AS3.
My list of the really good movies doesnt include any of the AS releases actually, but then again they didnt spend 200 million like they did on Titanic. Some movies like "the hundred foot journey" had a really good story and director, and I suspect not a big budget.

The entire time that Dagny spent with John in Galt's Gulch. Next to "The Speech", that is my favorite part of the book (I've always enjoyed fiction).

I am thinkning, though, that we get these government people and programs because the people in our "mob rule democracy" feel they are needed. Propaganda and emotional manipulation (in other words- POLITICS) warp peoples' minds and hide whats really going on

yeah, ok. things often appear complicated, but thats because they have been made complicated. Most decisions really ARE simple.

I saw Francisco as the hardcore one. Ellis was more of a real life person who really tried and just didnt understand what was going on