• Blogging Atlas Shrugged 1.6: "The Non-Commerical"
• New Characters: Wesley Mouch (Rearden's man in Washington), Dr. Simon Pritchett (Chair of Philsophy Dept. at PHU). Balph Eubank (unsuccessful intellectual writer), Mort Liddy (composer who adapts classical music to popular films), Bertram Scudder (editor of the progressive magazine The Future), Claude Slagenhop (President of The Friends of Global Progress), Ragnar Danneskjold (Norwegian pirate targeting relief ships), John Galt (rumored to have found Atlantis)
• Key concepts/places/organizations: Equalization of Opportunity Bill, Friends of Global Progress (pet cause of Philip Rearden), "The Octopus" (hitpiece done on Rearden by Scudder), Peoples States of Norway, France, England, Portugal and Turkey, Atlantis (the resting place of John Galt), "Heaven's in Your Backyard (film scored by Mort Liddy)

Nobody throws a party like the characters who inhabit the world of "Atlas Shrugged." I know there are more, but the show-stoppers are the anniversary of Hank and Lillian and the wedding party for Jim and Cheryl. 

The bulk of 1.6, "The Non-Commercial," involves the anniversary celebration hosted by Lillian Rearden for the Rearden's wedding anniversary. It is what Rand does best: she moves the plot along while introducing readers to Objectivism - what it is, what it is not, and what others think of its concepts. The primary tool Rand uses for this is conversations between party guests.

This becomes more common as the novel progresses, but it is in 1.6 where be begin to learn names and associate them with concepts. There is Bertram Scudder, editor of the Leftist magazine The Future, which has recently published a scathing indictment of Hank Rearden titled "The Octopus" while not including one actual fact. There is Balph Eubank, thinking that the Equalization of Opportunity Bill should be applied to writers and book sales ("no book needs to have more than 10,000 copies..." says the man whose books have never sold more than 3,000 copies). There is Dr. Simon Pritchett, the nihilist ("nothing is anything") who now heads the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University.

==

I want you to consider, before continuing with the plot, what Ayn Rand has done in a few pages of Atlas. 

If one were to ask Conservatives who take such things in such a serious manner (and, considering my own thoughts on the subject, I would add the word "gravely" before the word "serious") what it was that was leading to the decline of the country, the answer would a left-wing educational system that poisons the minds of most who are schooled in it; a left-wing media that carries out ad hominem attacks on anyone they see as a threat to their consolidation of power (see: Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh etc) while propping up any empty suit that meets their needs (see: The Dear Leader); and the Progressive obsession with limiting human production and happiness by any means necessary - in short, nationalization, socialization and unionization.  Atlas is 51 years old, but change Bertram Scudder to Graydon Carter (or a host of other national media figures known for left-wing politics and fancy parties), change Simon Pritchett to Noam Chomsky (yes, he's a professor of Linguistics, not Philosophy who publishes seven or eight books a year, purchased only by people required to do so while attending college) and Balph Eubank to Timothy Geitner or Barney Frank (to name a few of thousands), and you have an accurate reflection of what is happening in this country, and you have - in merely a few pages - why people who haven't read Atlas since they were in high school or college buying and reading the novel once again in droves.

You will come to understand that American Liberals are now being forced to actually read the book they want to bash if they wish to be taken seriously, because suddenly, an ignorance of Atlas Shrugged is becoming an ignorance in general. If you cannot discuss the basics of the book among people who can (whether you agree with its premise or not), you will be thought a troglodyte among your friends who have.

Atlas, unlike so many novels and nonfiction books that have come after it, is immune to a tipping point, and it does not shark-jump.

Its ideas of right are rarely attempted, but work when do; its ideas of what is wrong continue to become more commonplace, and sadly, are proving Rand to be far more accurate in her predictions than most pontificators before and since have been in theirs. Go to Big Hollywood and read the comments in Pam Meister's "Apocalypse Near," a commentary about A-List, left-wing actresses lining up and slobbering to play Dagny Taggart in the film, which is getting green-lit after 30 years in Development Hell. American Liberals do not troll that which does not threaten them - I've read Big Hollywood since its inception, and I don't recall a more heated debate in the comments. 

As I've asked hundreds of times in hundreds of in-person and online conversations over the years, if Atlas is so bad, if Rand is such a terrible writer, why are American Liberals petrified that it's going to be made into a movie while at the same time scurrying to be associated with it? One recurrent theme is a comparison of Atlas to Mein Kampf by readers who have obviously read neither. As a person who has read, re-read, marked up and studied both, I can say their similarities begin and end with the fact that they were both written in the first half of the 20th Century. 

==

In 1.6, as the progressive intellectuals discuss the types of things progressive intellectuals think make them sound smart, it is the introduction of Frisco into the mix that sets the action in motion. 

Balph Eubank had joined the group around Dr. Pritchett, and was saying sullenly, "...no, you cannot expect people to understand the higher reaches of philosophy. Culture should be taken out of the hands of the dollar-chasers. We need a national subsidy for literature. It is disgraceful that artists are treated like peddlers and that art works have to be sold like soap."

"You mean, your complaint is that they don't sell like soap?" asked Francisco d'Anconia.  They had not noticed him approach; the conversation stopped, as if slashed off..

Francisco then says hello to Dr. Pritchett. 

"We were just discussing a most interesting subject," said the earnest matron. "Dr. Pritchett was telling us that nothing is anything." 

"He should, undoubtedly, know more than anyone else about that," Francisco answered gravely. 

A key concept introduced in 1.6 is the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, another anti-competitiveness bill that its backers cloak in the spirit of competition. The bill would restrict anyone owning more than one business, the irony being that the bill is being discussed in the home of a wealthy industrialist who owns several businesses. Rand, who at times could run Orwell down in a pithy turn of the phrase, used Dr. Pritchett to describe the proper progressive attitude in supporting the bill:

"But I believe I made it clear that I am in favor of it, because I am in favor of a free economy. A free economy cannot exist without competition. Therefore, men must be forced to compete. Therefore, we must control men in order to force them to be free. 

Force them to be free. Remember it, for this too shall pass. 

It is inevitable that Frisco introduces himself to Hank Rearden. Rearden despises him, and their first meeting barely hints at what is to come. Rearden wants to get something off his chest, and Frisco allows him to do it. My favorite scenes and conversations in Atlas tend to be between Frisco and Rearden.

  Frisco is taken aside by James Taggart, who blows up at him over the San Sebastian mines being worthless. In one of his many speeches (this one's only 2/3 of a page), Frisco tells Jim he did exactly as he figured Jim and his friends wanted. He removed any self-interested, he served the people, he provided jobs for people in need, and as profit is evil, he not only didn't make one, but he lost a fortune. 

We also get the first rumblings of the pirate, Ragnar Danneskjold. As his legend goes, he has been sinking relief ships headed for the Peoples States of Norway, France, England, Portugal and Turkey. He is said to be Norwegian royalty, but was expelled from the family by his shamed father. As a point of disclosure, Francisco is the book's best character, but Ragnar is the one I most admire. 

Also presented is the first legend of John Galt. An old spinster tells Dagny that she knows someone who was there when John Galt's ship sank, and he found Atlantis. 

The show-stopper of 1.6 is brought to us by Dagny Taggart, whose role had thus far been limited. When she came to the party, she is described as wearing an off-the shoulder gown, its only ornaments being her bare shoulder and a single diamond bracelet. In contrast, Lillian Rearden had chosen to wear all sorts of jewelry on her head, in her ears and around her neck, but on her wrist she wore the chain of Rearden Metal. 

"This?" Lillian was saying, extending her arm with the metal bracelet ..."Why no, it's not from a hardware store, it's a special gift from my husband. Oh yes, of course, it's hideous. But don't you see? It's supposed to be priceless. Of course, I'd exchange it for a common diamond bracelet any time, but somehow nobody will offer me one for it, even though it's very, very valuable. Why? My dear, it's the first thing ever made of Rearden Metal." 

Dagny did not see the room ... she did not know the moments that preceded it, or the moments that were to follow. She did not know those involved, neither herself, nor Lillian, nor Rearden, nor the meaning of her own action. It was a single instant, blasted out of context. She had heard. She was looking at the bracelet of green-blue metal.

She felt the movement of something being torn off her wrist, and she heard her own voice saying in the great stillness, very camly, a voice cold as a skeleton, naked of emotion, "If you are not the coward that I think you are, you will exchange it."

On the palm of her hand, she was extending her diamond bracelet. 

"You're not serious, Miss Taggart?" said a woman's voice. 

It was not Lillian's voice. Lillian's eyes were looking straight at her. She saw them. Lillian knew that she was serious. 

"Give me that bracelet," said Dagny, lifting her palm higher, the diamond band glittering across it... Lillian's mouth moved into an up-turned crescent. It resembled a smile.

She snapped the metal bracelet open, dropped it on Dagny's palm and took the diamond band. 

"Thank you, Miss Taggart," she said. 

If you're new to the world of Atlas and are wondering why so many left-wing actresses would sign on to play Dagny Taggart, you've just gotten the first clue as to why that is.  I've skimmed over it, but there's more to Dagny's allure to in the eyes of Atlas, I will discuss it later as the case arises. Much is made of Rearden's iciness toward Dagny even though they are friends in business (Dagny's feelings are hurt, since she rarely goes to parties and came to see him specifically). 

==

The final pages of 1.6 are a rarity in Atlas: it gives a long description of one of the novel's great antagonists, Lillian Rearden.  One of the significant differences between Atlas and The Fountainhead is the absence of a clear villain in Atlas. There are villains, but none like Elsworth Monkton Toohey, the newspaper columnist and social critic who tried to destroy Howard Roark. No, in Atlas, the villains - excepting Lillian Rearden - are men we learn little about, and other than their vileness, we don't really care to. I've always taken this as Rand's illustration of the reality of bureaucracy - people reading a story about heroes know there need to be villains.

In the world of Atlas, the villain is the creeping role of the State as it stamps out those who wish to be left alone to pursue their own happiness. It's not only effective, it's unsettling when one considers how many people are currently coming and going in our new State, one that in fewer than three months is taking over everything in its path.  

Anyway...

In bed after the party, Hank thinks about their relationship, how they met, how it was Lillian who came to him asking for a tour of his mills, how he proposed to her, and how he no longer found her attractive after a week of marriage. The best passage to describe Lillian Rearden comes on p. 159, as it aptly sums up her values and how she sees the world and Man's place in it:

She did not censure him. She made it clear that she took it for granted that men had degrading instincts which constituted the secret, ugly part of marriage. She was condescendingly tolerant. She smiled, in amused distaste, at the intensity of what he experienced. "It's the most undignified pastime I know of," she said to him once, "but I have never entertained the illusion that men are superior to animals." 

Thus describing the woman that Hank Rearden chose as his wife. 

Up next, 1.7: The Exploiters and the Exploited