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Not long after encountering the mystery of the Halley music, Dagny falls asleep, waking up an hour later to the strange stillness of the train. Something is wrong! She steps outside to get to the bottom of it. Remember, Dagny Taggart is one of the heads of Taggart Transcontinental, this train she is on, but she is riding as a regular customer so that her super-charged identity is not known to the others on the scene.
_ _ _
There was a cold wind outside, and an empty stretch of land under an empty sky. She heard weeds rustling in the darkness. Far ahead, she saw the figures of men standing by the engine - and above them, hanging detached in the sky, the red light of a signal.
She walked rapidly toward them, past the motionless line of wheels. No one paid attention to her when she approached. The train crew and a few passengers stood clustered under the red light. They had stopped talking, they seemed to be waiting in placid indifference.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
The engineer turned, astonished. Her question had sounded like an order, not like the amateur curiosity of a passenger. She stood, hands in pockets, coat collar raised, the wind beating her hair in strands across her face.
“Red light, lady,” he said pointing up with his thumb.
[...]
“If you know that the signal is broken, what do you intend to do?”
He did not like her tone of authority, and he could not understand why she assumed it so naturally. She looked like a young girl; only her mouth and eyes showed that she was a woman in her thirties. The dark gray eyes were dark and disturbing, as if they cut through things, throwing the inconsequential out of the way. The face seemed faintly familiar to him, but he could not recall where he had seen it.
“Lady, I don’t intend to stick my neck out,” he said.
[...]
She looked at the red light and at the rail that went off into the black, untouched distance.
She said, “Proceed with caution to the next signal. If it’s in order, proceed to the main track. Then stop at the first open office.”
“Yeah? Who says so?”
“I do.”
“Who are you?”
It was only the briefest pause, a moment of astonishment at a question she had not expected, but the engineer looked more closely at her face, and in time with her answer he gasped, “Good God!”
-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand
_ _ _
It’s Dagny, bitch - uberwoman, your boss! I love the atmospherics of this scene. I also love that Ayn Rand has her alter ego look like a young girl. As will become evident, she is supposed to be a sexy wench, the kind of woman that alpha males fight over.
As for this overall scene, I left out elements that help to bring out the sense of a country falling apart, a continuation of the theme that we saw when we were walking through the city with Eddie Willers at the very beginning of the novel. This is why the train has been senselessly left stranded at a siding. We can get the flavor of this with this summary paragraph at the close:
When the train jolted forward, the blast of its whistle dying over the fields, she sat by the window, lighting another cigarette. She thought: It’s cracking to pieces, like this, all over the country, you can expect it anywhere, at any moment. But she felt no anger or anxiety; she had no time to feel.
She must act. She’s uberwoman! But will she be able to save the day?
_ _ _
There was a cold wind outside, and an empty stretch of land under an empty sky. She heard weeds rustling in the darkness. Far ahead, she saw the figures of men standing by the engine - and above them, hanging detached in the sky, the red light of a signal.
She walked rapidly toward them, past the motionless line of wheels. No one paid attention to her when she approached. The train crew and a few passengers stood clustered under the red light. They had stopped talking, they seemed to be waiting in placid indifference.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
The engineer turned, astonished. Her question had sounded like an order, not like the amateur curiosity of a passenger. She stood, hands in pockets, coat collar raised, the wind beating her hair in strands across her face.
“Red light, lady,” he said pointing up with his thumb.
[...]
“If you know that the signal is broken, what do you intend to do?”
He did not like her tone of authority, and he could not understand why she assumed it so naturally. She looked like a young girl; only her mouth and eyes showed that she was a woman in her thirties. The dark gray eyes were dark and disturbing, as if they cut through things, throwing the inconsequential out of the way. The face seemed faintly familiar to him, but he could not recall where he had seen it.
“Lady, I don’t intend to stick my neck out,” he said.
[...]
She looked at the red light and at the rail that went off into the black, untouched distance.
She said, “Proceed with caution to the next signal. If it’s in order, proceed to the main track. Then stop at the first open office.”
“Yeah? Who says so?”
“I do.”
“Who are you?”
It was only the briefest pause, a moment of astonishment at a question she had not expected, but the engineer looked more closely at her face, and in time with her answer he gasped, “Good God!”
-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand
_ _ _
It’s Dagny, bitch - uberwoman, your boss! I love the atmospherics of this scene. I also love that Ayn Rand has her alter ego look like a young girl. As will become evident, she is supposed to be a sexy wench, the kind of woman that alpha males fight over.
As for this overall scene, I left out elements that help to bring out the sense of a country falling apart, a continuation of the theme that we saw when we were walking through the city with Eddie Willers at the very beginning of the novel. This is why the train has been senselessly left stranded at a siding. We can get the flavor of this with this summary paragraph at the close:
When the train jolted forward, the blast of its whistle dying over the fields, she sat by the window, lighting another cigarette. She thought: It’s cracking to pieces, like this, all over the country, you can expect it anywhere, at any moment. But she felt no anger or anxiety; she had no time to feel.
She must act. She’s uberwoman! But will she be able to save the day?
