Part One: Non-Contradiction

In full disclosure, I read much of this section a year ago. I'm skimming over it again for this blog, so that I can record my feelings.

Part One is about 300 pages long, and includes ten chapters. It introduces Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden, and their respective businesses. The material covered is roughly equivalent to that in the first movie. The central drama of this part is the construction of a new railroad line—the “John Galt Line”. It is being built by Dagny for her family’s railroad, and it uses the miraculous alloy “Rearden Metal” that Hank Rearden has developed. At the same time, various businessmen begin to vanish without trace, foreshadowing what’s to come.

John Galt is a mysterious figure at this point. He is quite literally known for being unknown. The rhetorical question “Who is John Galt?” is the opening line of the book, and is itself unanswerable. Characters often utter it when they are frustrated with some impossible question.

I have read that the names of the three sections of the book refer to the laws of logic formalized by Aristotle. Honestly, this was totally lost on me. I didn’t even notice it when I first read it. Are we supposed to believe that Rand’s philosophies are logically self-evident? That any thinking person would come to the same conclusions, much like solving a logic puzzle? Or is it a more humble homage by Rand to logical thought, which she values?

Whatever else you may say about Rand, I do not believe that she was a humble person.