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"Golden Nuggets" In Ayn Rand's Fiction

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softwareNerd

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Ayn Rand's fiction is full of little "golden nuggets": points made almost in passing, that "protrude" from the flow of the narrative like a little golden nugget placed there for the perceptive reader. It invites the perceptive reader to ask: "what's that?" Other writers do this too. There might even be a technical name for it (if there is, I'll change the title of the thread).

I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite golden nuggets: like a gamer asking "did you find the secret jeweled scimitar on the third level"? Further, these nuggets are not random, they are placed in the narrative on purpose. It would therefore be instructive to discuss their purpose.

With that, let me begin. (To add a bit of mystery I'm not going to give too many details in this first post.)

One of my favorite "golden nuggets" in Atlas Shrugged is: the white sweater.

Edited by softwareNerd
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With that, let me begin. (To add a bit of mystery I'm not going to give too many details in this first post.)

One of my favorite "golden nuggets" in Atlas Shrugged is: the white sweater.

This is the white sweater Dagny wore during Galt's rescue. He had told her to wear it the next time he saw her -- if there was a next time. She had just led the looters to his room

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This is the white sweater Dagny wore during Galt's rescue. He had told her to wear it the next time he saw her -- if there was a next time. She had just led the looters to his room

Hmmm, I don't know if that qualifies as an "easter egg..." an easter egg is a reference to something which is NOT contained within a work, but which the savvy reader is expected to know about. So I don't know if my identification of these as "easter eggs" is correct.

SoftwareNerd, could you be more specific as to what these "golden nuggets" are? Do you mean a seemingly insignificant detail which later plays an important part? Or do you mean a detail which was previously mentioned that the reader is expected to draw the connection to?

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...could you be more specific as to what these "golden nuggets" are? Do you mean a seemingly insignificant detail which later plays an important part? Or do you mean a detail which was previously mentioned that the reader is expected to draw the connection to?
Yes, I do mean "seemingly insignificant" details: meaning that they are not central to the development of the plot, nor are they be things that every reader would notice (e.g. dollar signs on cigarettes) and remember. However, they would be significant in more than a tone-setting way. So, the color of the sky might be described using terms that are significant in the sense that they set a certain tone. I'm not talking of that. I am talking of things that appear minor, but have a philosophical lesson, on second thought. Having it come up again is one means of highlighting it to the reader, but I suppose there must be other ways to cause the reader pause.
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I am talking of things that appear minor, but have a philosophical lesson, on second thought.
Okay, if we are looking for relatively minor details that in fact have considerable philosophic meaning, I offer this. What character explained their choice of profession by saying, "I didn't know it then. But it's because I've never believed in God."
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I am talking of things that appear minor, but have a philosophical lesson, on second thought. Having it come up again is one means of highlighting it to the reader, but I suppose there must be other ways to cause the reader pause.
So, excuse my ignorance, but what "philosophical lesson on second thought" does the white sweater have? I mean, it was a great tie in and I love when authors do that (one reason why I love Harry Potter so much) but I don't see a deeper philosophical lesson going on here.

If you explain, that would be great.

Zak

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... but I don't see a deeper philosophical lesson going on here.
The white sweater is important in each scene; the tie-in is used to bring attention to it.

Consider the set-up scene [AS, Part III, Ch 8] Why does Ayn Rand have Galt mention the white sweater here? Why not in the valley, in "happier times" where he'd be more apt to think of such things? In this set-up scene, Galt knows that Dagny's arrival means his arrest. This could mean anything, including his death. He has thought it through and acknowledges the seriousness by saying "If there is a next time." when speaking of meeting Dagny again. He tells Dagny they probably have about half an hour before the thugs arrive. They have to get their story right if they are to have a chance of coming out of this. Yet, he stops to mention the color of the sweater she's wearing! Dagny is taken aback. Ayn Rand says "she had expected his first words to be anything but that." (emphasis mine).

Think about that... if Galt is the stereotype of "rational man" then wouldn't he be using every minute he had to explain the situation and his plan to Dagny? Isn't the "dis-utility": of being captured and of never seeing Dagny again such a huge negative here; how can a tiny little positive value -- like the color of a sweater -- possibly matter? The philosophical lesson is that it does.

If someone were in a dangerous situation "in real life" you might excuse the fact that he didn't notice a little thing like that, or that he noticed but pushed it out of his mind for later. One might even say that to do so would be rational; this is an emergency situation. By putting such a mention into the scene, Ayn Rand is saying: your values matter. She dramatizes it by using a tiny little detail about a value. Galt does not simply say: "Dagny you look beautiful". Instead, he's focused on a little detail of that.

When Dagny is going to rescue Galt, she again thinks of clothing. Is that really something she would be considering in such a situation? I think the reader finds that second mention not "too dissonant". Dagny is in no immediate danger and it is reasonable to think that when deciding "what should I wear", she might remember what Galt said.

Finally, consider the scene when Galt is rescued. [AS, Part III, Ch 10] Again, "in real life", if a person has been tortured and is rescued, they will be pretty unlikely to be thinking of clothing. Yet, he didn't just say he was glad to see her, or that he loved her, instead his mind was focused enough on things that mattered to him that "he raised his hand and touched the collar of her white sweater with his fingertips".

Again, Ayn Rand is highlighting the idea that personal values matter -- even the "little ones". They are important. They are so important that a dramatized version of an ideal man is shown thinking of them even in times of great danger.

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These are more easter eggs than a nuggets, but they're still neat little tidbits. Rearden's gift of the ruby necklace to Dagny has an ironic little tie in with Proverbs 31:10[a] "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies."

I'm having trouble remembering the second egg, but there is another biblical tie in having to do with the number of people mentioned in Galt's Gulch. I don't have a copy of either book with me, but the parallel has something to do with a number of righteous men...can't remember if it ties in to the destruction of Soddem or not, it might have to do with righeous men in heaven, but whatever the case the number in the biblical account and the gulch match.

(If the number of people mentioned in the Gulch is 50, then the tie in has to do with Soddem...don't have a copy of the book with me though :/.)

Edited by LaVache
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This Biblical reference was pointed out in a book I read many years ago. In the scene where Galt and Dagny (and a few others) are flying away after Galt was rescued from his torturers, over and away from New York City, as that city descends into complete chaos:

. . . men were deserting their posts, trying, in panic, to abandon New York, seeking escape where all roads were cut off and escape was no longer possible.

The plane was above the peaks of the skyscrapers when suddenly, with the abruptness of a shudder, as if the ground had parted to engulf it, the city disappeared from the face of the earth. It took them a moment to realize that the panic had reached the power stations---and that the lights of New York had gone out.

Dagny gasped. "Don't look down!" Galt ordered sharply.

Which is supposed to refer to the Biblical Soddom and Gomorrah scene where looking back during their escape turned the people who looked back into pillars of salt.

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My hero! Roark talking about architecture. Good stuff.
Right! For those who do not remember, see page 49 in The Fountainhead.

My interpretation: Roark's atheism means that he sees the earth as a thing to be reshaped by man for man -- not as the finished creation of a supernatural being. And more: the fact that Roark was an atheist at the age of ten tells us that he has always been an independent thinker, unwilling to bend to social pressures, and fundamentally indifferent to the opinions of others.

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  • 5 months later...
Right! For those who do not remember, see page 49 in The Fountainhead.

My interpretation: Roark's atheism means that he sees the earth as a thing to be reshaped by man for man -- not as the finished creation of a supernatural being. And more: the fact that Roark was an atheist at the age of ten tells us that he has always been an independent thinker, unwilling to bend to social pressures, and fundamentally indifferent to the opinions of others.

Even before I read any Rand I always thought her books would have an impact on me. When I read that line in the fountainhead i was sure of it!

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  • 5 months later...

I'm not sure if you'd consider this a 'golden nugget' or an 'easter egg', but the way this lady at the party tells Dagny about Jhon Galt Who found 'the fountain of youth' or 'Atlantis'. The things WE know about Atlantis or the fountain of youth, the things we learn about Jhon Galt at the end - it connects beautifully. :( but this might not be what youmeant at all!

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  • 8 months later...

A sweater suggests a comforting warmth to bolster her against the elements that could drain her energy. White is the color in the most danger of being stained, showing the sharpest contrast with the possibility of having blood spattered onto it, drawing the most attention in the darkness of night. Having the confidence to wear it in dangerous situations is subconsciously confusing and intimidating to enemies.

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This one just occurred to me: John Galt repeats the fact that he's sped history up 100s of years. He hasn't engineered this apocalypse - the looters brought it about themselves. What he's saying, is exactly what Rand is doing as a writer - it's a lovely hidden way of saying, "What I'm presenting here isn't what America could be in a parallel universe - it is what America is becoming."

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One of my favorites is from The Fountainhead:

He did not know that he had given someone the courage to face a lifetime.

P.S. From the scene of a boy on a bike seeing a product of Roark's work.

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The white sweater is important in each scene; the tie-in is used to bring attention to it.

Consider the set-up scene [AS, Part III, Ch 8] Why does Ayn Rand have Galt mention the white sweater here? Why not in the valley, in "happier times" where he'd be more apt to think of such things? In this set-up scene, Galt knows that Dagny's arrival means his arrest. This could mean anything, including his death. He has thought it through and acknowledges the seriousness by saying "If there is a next time." when speaking of meeting Dagny again. He tells Dagny they probably have about half an hour before the thugs arrive. They have to get their story right if they are to have a chance of coming out of this. Yet, he stops to mention the color of the sweater she's wearing! Dagny is taken aback. Ayn Rand says "she had expected his first words to be anything but that." (emphasis mine).

I think it gives John and Dagny control. Yeah, they are going to capture him and all BUT what they value is each other and whats important is how John wants the pleasure of seeing Dagny again and how she'll look and her pleasure knowing she's providing that for him. The "We never had to take any of this seriously" quote is demonstrated at that moment.

Edited by softwareNerd
Fixed closing quote tag
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  • 8 months later...

I love Steve Ingalls' wit. For example, consider his very first phrases in Think Twice, or "I always wanted to know what one really did at such a moment". I think it was at night when I read this and I'm afraid I awakened everyone in the house by means of my laughter...

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  • 1 year later...
Ayn Rand's fiction is full of little "golden nuggets": points made almost in passing, that "protrude" from the flow of the narrative like a little golden nugget placed there for the perceptive reader. It invites the perceptive reader to ask: "what's that?" Other writers do this too. There might even be a technical name for it (if there is, I'll change the title of the thread).

Excerpts from:

A. E. van Vogt - A Profile By Charles Platt Originally published in "The Dream Makers" in 1980.

[Alfred Elton van Vogt (April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born science fiction author who was one of the most prolific and complex writers of the mid-twentieth century "Golden Age" of the genre. -from wiki]

"A man called John W. Gallishaw wrote a book called "The Only Two Ways to Write a Short Story". Van Vogt adopted this system, and has always used it, making him one of the few successful professional authors to have built his career on a popular "how-to" guide. He also learned to write in what Gallishaw called "fictional sentences":

"In science fiction you have to have a little bit of a `hang-up' in each sentence. Let's suppose, for example: The hero looks up toward the door." Van Vogt gestures toward the sunlit screen door of his living room, leading out onto the veranda. "He hears a sound over there. And something comes in. It looks like a man wearing a cloak. You don't quite know what's going on. Then, you realize this is not a human being. This creature or this being, whoever it is, has a sort of manlike shape. And this creature reaches into what now looks like a fold of its skin. It draws out a gleaming metal object. It points it at you. Is this a weapon? It looks like a weapon, but you don't know that for sure. It's a "hang-up", you see. The author furnishes the information, but each sentence in itself has a little "hang-up" in it."

Vogt's fictional sentences seem to be missing something or implying something that the mundane reader would overlook, but the perceptive reader would follow to a new understanding.

Softwarenerd, this may be the term you were seeking. I also remember a term called the "narrative hook", but cannot remember the context, or whether it is applicable to your example.

<Φ>aj

btw, I tend to talk this way, and find it can be used as a poor man's IQ test.

Edited by aristotlejones
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  • 1 year later...

My favorite has to be when Francisco describes how he wrote a paper on the Immovable Mover. It isn't really that hidden but if someone were to pass through the text quickly they would never notice it. At the time I didn't know what this was so I actually went and looked into it.

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  • 2 months later...

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