E39 - A Woman of Such Confident Dangerous Power

A Socialist Reads Atlas Shrugged

This episode starts by checking in with Jim Taggart's growing apprehension of the power of shame-based morality -- something that Dagny thinks is potentially dangerous but Francisco considers merely disdainful. Next, the conversation turns to the dynamic between Francisco and Dagny, which continues to play according to Francisco's terms, mostly. Jonathan responds to the moral formula that someone who doesn't work has no value. The most important thing to understand about this is that the word "work" has an entire network of associations and meanings in our culture. When Francisco slaps Dagny, Rand wants to produce shock in the reader regarding how awful it is that girls are pressured to play dumb in school, but ends up legitimizing violence against women and connecting violence to intimacy. This episode ends with the scene of Dagny's debut dance. Her mother thinks Dagny needs to experience sadness but in her experience of the debut, Dagny proves that is wrong. But there is fallout: the social world has disappointed Dagny. She realizes that it is indeed rare to approach life in the way that she and Fransisco do.
For the next episode, we "Fast Forward" to the Story of the 20th Century Motor Company (located in Chapter 10 of Part 2; p.616-627 in the Signet paperback edition). There are not many places on the internet to find the excerpt except for this link.
My five themes to explore in this podcast's close read of Atlas Shrugged are:

1. What is human nature?
2. Straw-man arguments and their impact on the world Ayn Rand creates.
3. Dagny Taggart as a true hero.
4. How empathy can be de-legitimized.
5. What is Capitalism and what is wrong with it?

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Learn more about Jonathan Seyfried at their website, https://jonathanseyfried.art
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The intro/outro music was composed by John Sib.
The podcast theme image was created by Karina Bia

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