I'm in the middle of reading Atlas Shrugged, and just came across the following blurb:
The old woman looked on, without reaction. She had stood there silently, watching, without interest or purpose, like a chemical compound on a photographic plate, absorbing visual shapes because they were there to be absorbed, but unable ever to form any estimate of the objects of her vision.
Puh-leeze. Reading that made my eyes roll back like two protons circling the nucleus of a Helium atom.
Why on Earth are you reading Ayn Rand? People talk about the great stories she tells (Fountainhead being her other major book), but her philosophy of Objectivism is straight out of the Donald Trump "It's all about me" playbook.
Posted by: Bob Sher | January 10, 2006 at 06:51 AM
Atlas Shrugged was a great story, I enjoyed it very much. I skipped through a few pages when the philosophizing got too annoying.
Posted by: Cynical Mom | January 10, 2006 at 10:37 AM
Your post made me cringe. I hope you know that electrons are the ones that go about an atomic nucleus, and that protons (along with neutrons) are the ones that make up the nucleus, right? You talk about a simile being pretentious, but then you respond with a misinformed (and thereby pretentious) simile of your own. Please tell me that I'm just being obtuse and missing your sarcasm!
Posted by: Eva | November 18, 2008 at 09:10 PM
OK. You're being obtuse and missing my sarcasm. :-)
Posted by: Cyn | November 18, 2008 at 09:18 PM