Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ayn Rand walking tour of New York


I have a couple of friends who have taken this tour and loved it. Curiously, one of them was a big Rand fan, and the other was a big Rand hater to about the same degree. (No one is neutral about this particular author.) But the New York part was satisfying to both of them. '[Tour guide Frederick] Cookinham is a trove of information: He points out where Rand lived, her publisher's office, her favorite buildings, even her favorite architect. He notes that in Atlas Shrugged, Grand Central Terminal becomes the Taggart Terminal. Then he points down Park Avenue to a green-roofed building that was built in 1927 by the New York Central Railroad Co. "That becomes the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad Building," he says. Today, it's known as the Helmsley Building, but in the novel it's where Atlas Shrugged protagonist Dagny Taggart works.' More...

1 comment:

Atlanta Roofing said...

To my surprise, I quite enjoyed Atlas Shrugged. Although the story is a hymn to the over dog, this low-budget movie has underdog appeal. I soon started to root for the plucky filmmakers to pull off their high-wire act of making a movie that’s distinctive—not distinguished, but still very 1957 in texture—without having anywhere near enough of the dollars that Rand idolized.