Both these books rely on the highness and originality of their concepts. Without these they wouldn't be great books. BNW has pretty forgettable characters and there's barely a plot worth mentioning, and the only great writing in it are the Shakespeare quotes. Neither BNW or 1984 are books I'd recommend anyone to be influenced by.
Influence, no. But its good to be aware. One of us might decide to write a 1984-esque book about now, ensnare the reader with a compelling narrative about a plane Jane making her way into the upper crust, then get us in the end with a chapter long info dump about the banks and the corporations, who knows!
Did you read an abridged version? In the version I read, Galt's radio speech was more like 70 or 80 pages.
"Talking Heads" isn't only a musical group. It's also a writing style (or writing disorder) in which the characters are surrogates for the author to present an opinion or set of personal observations (often the same thing). If your characters are preaching, make sure it's not you who is preaching. But characters can also get wordy by being the principal vehicle for exposition. Dialogue's greatest value comes from indirect revelation. Use dialogue to reveal how a character feels about facts rather than just to bring the facts themselves to light. If you combine those two functions, even better, but don't fill in all the spaces. Leave things for the reader to speculate about; Dialogue is also used to show relationships between characters. One person speaks, the other responds, or sidesteps, or is oblivious and carries on his or her own monologue. Soothing responses, bitter responses, responses with double meaning, these are tools to show a character's true feelings. Much of scene-setting need not occur at the outset. A lot becomes apparent within the scene. The less you rely on dialogue to establish the setting, the better. The scene is more or less objective, and dialogue is most valuable for subjective matters.
60 pages in the first edition, I just looked at my copy. The chapter is 70 pages, the radio speech starts on page 1009 and ends on page 1069. I've never read the book mind you, I just know a lot from reading a biography about Rand, and researching her POV a bit. I found this first edition first printing copy of Atlas Shrugged for a $1 at a used book store.
That is excellent advice, thank you. I knew that the speeches weren't working, which is why I asked how to change things. Your post is very helpful and I will keep what have said in mind. As for everyone else, I only just figured out how to quote things in this forum, and while each of you gave valuable advice, I don't feel like responding individually. I'd rather get to writing, using what I have learned. Thanks to all who have taken the time to reply with their thoughts, I do appreciate it
I would argue that the speech itself comes to a crescendo in the last...sigh...15 pages. When they make that into a movie it'll be box office gold.
They've already made two installments of Atlas Shrugged, and they both died an ignominious death at the box office. Nobody cares. Ayn Rand may have been brilliant, but she was wrong, and everyone with sixty percent of a brain realizes that by now. She is obsolete. She is the bog smart people have to extricate themselves from in order to proceed with their lives.
I'll say right away that I like training sequences 'cause I like to really get into the experience of becoming a... nightmare fighter, or a space marine. But others are right, a speech like that is not engaging. To me it's like learning in a small group by doing vs. a mass lecture. I rarely get engaged and interested during the latter. I sit in the back, drink coffee, and surf the net. Kind of similarly, when you shorten your example and break it up to doing (it doesn't have to be a sparring scene if you feel like that'd be fluff, it could be a real deal situation too that happens unexpectedly, or something), I think I'd feel more engaged in the story.
