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Madhavi

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Posts posted by Madhavi

  1. I think Matt Bomer (of White Collar neal caffrey fame) would look epic as Ragnar. I can think of no other actor more attractive than him. 

    as Hank Rearden- Christian Bale 

    as Dagny Taggart- Rachel Weiz

    as Fransisco- benedict cumberbatch (of Sherlock fame)

    :kiss:  :kiss:  :kiss: my DREAM Atlas Shrugged starcast!

  2.  I spend time with people. So if I were to go lather someone up in suntan oil and jump in a shower or bed with them, then it's someone I know already from spending time together. It might be sooner or later, who knows, and who cares as long as the person has the qualities and values you want and admire. 

     

    Accepted. If i knew the person well, and admired him, I would do the same probably. But in your first post, you hadn't mentioned details such as - you knew the person in question and admired him/her too. So i misinterpreted what you meant.

  3.  For example, if someone raped my wife and I lost it and killed the man, I’d get a lesser charge than first degree murder. I’d be punished but not by the same standard as someone who committed premeditated murder in the first degree. That is where you need specialists to handle the line between justice and vigilantes.

     

    Exactly. if A kills B , because B provoked A suddenly and gravely, then the offence committed by A will NOT be 'murder', rather it would be 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder'. (atleast according to the Indian Penal Code). And punishment for an offence like culpable homicide is obviously less as compared to the punishment meted out for first degree murder.

  4. I absolutely support @kevin delaney. I would also prefer to have a casual chat in a restaurant/cafe on my first date. talking to your date is the first step towards checking if you are compatible, or just poles apart in ideas and interests.

    but  I would also LOVE  to go to a zoo or a museum or or maybe a bookstore(provided the guy is as obsessed with books as I am). perfect opportunities for stimulating conversations!! 

     

    and @secondhander- seriously??? on the FIRST date??!!

  5.  Very few nations didn't take part in Hitler's final solution..

     

    what I fail to understand is the logic behind Antisemitism. Do people who propagate Antisemitism actually believe themselves? And how can humans inflict so much unthinking torture upon others? torture without reason , or logic, or sense or rationality.

    this excerpt is from www.simpletoremember.com

     

     

    Historians have classified six explanations as to why people hate the Jews:

    1. Economic -- "We hate Jews because they possess too much wealth and power."
    2. Chosen People -- "We hate Jews because they arrogantly claim that they are the chosen people."
    3. Scapegoat -- "Jews are a convenient group to single out and blame for our troubles."
    4. Deicide -- "We hate Jews because they killed Jesus."
    5. Outsiders, -- "We hate Jews because they are different than us." (The dislike of the unlike.)
    6. Racial Theory -- "We hate Jews because they are an inferior race.
    7.  With the Enlightenment in the late 18th century, many Jews rushed to assimilate. Anti-Semitism should have stopped. Instead, for example, with the Nazis came the cry, in essence: "We hate you, not because you're different, but because you're trying to become like us! We cannot allow you to infect the Aryan race with your inferior genes."

    ​I read and re- read these statements. but not one of them makes sense. so how, how do millions of people still believe them? how did the nazis sell their idea among the germans and WHY did the germans not protest against them? Why didn't they just use their basic common sense to realise that what the nazis were propagating was plain and utter trash?

    some historians believe that the nazis propagated anti semitism for political reasons? how so? how can a country's government derive satisfaction from mass scale extermination?  what was there end gain??????? 

    and obviously, Nazism and the the set up of the extensive concentration camps could not have been possible without considerable support from the common population. so why was  antisemitism so pervasive among the masses?  

  6. how would Benedict Cumbertatch of 'Sherlock' fame look as Fransisco d' Anconia? 
    Sherlock%20Benedict%20Cumberbatch%20Mart

     

     

     i can't help thinking that he would look absolutely perfect as fransisco!

     

    or what about Ian Somerhalder?  

     

    Ian-Smoulder-halder-ian-somerhalder-3281

  7. yes, Rearden would still have fallen in love with Dagny, she would have been his one true love, no matter who his wife was. But had his wife been a loving, understanding woman, sharing his ideas, he would not have kept his love for Dagny a secret. He would have told his wife openly, because she didnt deserve to be cheated on. He would have amicably separated from his wife before courting Dagny. 
    Perhaps his feeling of guilt would be magnified, but that would not have stopped him from being honest with his wife. His wife, unlike Lilian, would leave him, and understand his love for Dagny the same way Rearden understood Dagny's love for Galt. The same way Rearden felt no pain when DAgny fell for Galt, because he knew Dagny was completely happy with Galt, perhaps the same way even Reareden's wife would feel no pain (although this is difficult to ascertain).

  8. wow. this is something new @dennis hardin

     

    i have just begun to read the fountainhead, so i cant comment on Dominique's character. But Kira wasn't a sado masochist. But then it has been mentioned in the book that 'Leo held her as if he was a slave trader' and she was a slave' . 

     

    i have put up another query post #16. Could you perhaps help me?

  9. thanks a lot @intellectualammo
     

    i read this para today and again a query cropped up in my mind
     

    "kira had made a date with andrei. but when she left the tramway and walked through the dark streets to the palace garden, she noticed her feet slowing down of their own will, her body tense, unyielding, fighting her, as if she was walking forward against a strong wind. it was as if her body remembered that which she was trying to forget: the night before, a night such as her first one in the gray and silver room she had shared with leo for over 3 years. her body felt pure and hallowed; her feet were slowing down to retard her progress toward that which seemed a sacrilege because she did desire it and did not wish to desire it tonight."

    initially , kira felt pure and hallowed because she remembered the previous night, which she had spent in leo's bed. 
    as she was approaching the palace garden, why did her feet slow down? what does sacrilege refer to? does it mean that kira considered spending time/sleeping with andrei a sacrilege, because she herself felt sacred, pure? what is her "desire" in this paragraph? 

  10. A little later on in the text, she also picks sides in favor of a girl she knows nothing about, simply because it is "in better taste" to go against a mob of 28 on the other side.

     

     

    pg 37

    "i think when in doubt about the truth of an issue, its safer and in better taste to select the least numerous of the adversaries"

    why did Kira say this? isn't it safer to remain neutral when one is in doubt? or make an effort to acquire actual facts to reach a conclusion about the two opposing parties? why did Kira support the girl who had been boycotted, without making an effort to understand what the girl had done?

  11. how can someone love another as 'a means of survival'?  what does this even mean?

    kira loved andrei. yes she did. not like she loved leo, not sexually. she loved him as he was her friend, her confidant, a person with whom she could share her deepest thoughts and as someone who understood her. 

    and she loved Andrea, but more as a means of survival.

  12. . Altruism is sado-masochism in practice

    i fail to understand this statement. how can altruism or selflessness be equated with sado masochism? kira wasnt sado masochistic as she did not derive pleasure from self infliction of pain. but she was , to a certain extent, altruistic, evident through these incidents:

    a. kira, without bothering about her deplorable financial condition, sent eatables to her family when irina informed her that they were starving. moreover, she spent all of her money to purchase milk and other neccessities for irinas family, when maria pertovna was dying.

     

    now, i am not saying that kira was self sacrificing in the above incidents, she was merely selfless and wished to help her family, without caring about the possible repurcussions of her actions on her own sustenance. 

     

    b.) she gave leo the bread she got from the university, even if it meant that she she would have to go to bed on an empty stomach. she even lied to leo and told him that she had already taken her meal. 

    again, she was not self sacrificing. her love for leo and her desire to see him satiated was more than her desire to eat and satisfy herself. and she did not complain. leo's health and happiness would make her happy.  if this is not altruism ie. selflessness , what is? 

    and in the light of the above points, altruism is not sadomasochism in practice. 

     

    but there is another para in the book: 

    pg 262, 

    "there had been nights when she buried her head under the blanket and her face in the pillow, as if trying to escape from her own body, a body burning with the touch of a strangers hands" 

    "there had been moments when she saw..., just what she was doing to her own body."

    clearly, kira derived no pleasure in sleeping with andrei. she had even begun to hate her body. she wanted to 'escape' from her situation.

    she was evidently doing something, for leos sake, due to which she was actually suffering. now, ayn rand believes in the virtue of selfishness. this act on kiras part is not only selfless, but even self sacrificing. she sacrificed her own pleasure for leo's sake. 

    help me out! kira is one enigma of a person!

  13. i just began reading we the living for the 2nd time, and i have i few  queries

     

    1. (pg 36, 75th anniversary edition)

    "when galina petrovna took her children to see a sad play depicting the sorrow of the serfs that czar Alexander had magnanimously freed, lydia sobbed over the plight of the humble, kindly peasants cringing under a whip, while kira sat tense, erect, eyes dark in ecstasy  watching the whip crack expertly in the hand of a tall, young overseer. 

    "how beautiful!" said lydia, looking at the stage setting. "its almost real."

    "how beautiful!" said kira. "its almost artificial."

     

    i fail to understand how kira derived pleasure and felt ecstatic at the sight of the the peasants being whipped. 

    moreover, why does kira say that the stage setting looks beautiful because it looks 'almost artificial'? 

     

     

     

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