Last time I tried to read it, I got as far as Reardon's shitty family and his wife who doesn't appreciate his token of his special interest. Now I'm into the retrospective of Dagney and Francisco's childhood and youthful afair and the whole thing 1. Reminds me of The Room in that the author clearly has no understanding of the motivations of the villains and has a deep interest in relitigating their personal relationships in fiction and 2. Would be much better as full hog science fiction, because if you aren't going to understand anything about the technology you are writing about, it would be better to have it actually be made-up so it's easier to suspend disbelief, especially since things like laws, governments, and the seasons in South America are changed anyways.

Dagney's experience of gender and all the good guys' quasi autism are enjoyable for me as story elements, and Rand has an amazing ear for bad passive aggressive family dynamics, so there's that on the plus side, in addition to whatever enjoyment I can derive from the sex scenes.

I gotta say, I got distracted hard by Francisco's alma mater being Patrick Henry (and apparently several other characters as well).

For those of you who weren't homeschooled and raised far right, the real life Patrick Henry college was founded in 1998, essentially by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, as a conservative Christian Republican feeder institution with goals of rivaling the Ivys. I took a distance class as a high school student, so I suppose technically on some level I can claim to be a student therof, although they rejected my application to study on campus, presumably because I was honest about my doubts with the Christian faith in my admissions essay, which iirc was basically begging them to help me with my doubts.

Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation:

The Republican-led, anti-LGBTQ+ “parents rights” movement was started in the 1980s by a deeply religious conservative Christian evangelical lawyer named Michael Farris. Farris began his crusade advocating for the rights of Christian homeschoolers who said that school readings of Rumpelstiltskin, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and other materials that “undermined their religious beliefs.” But these days, Farris has an even bigger goal: encouraging parents to file lawsuits accusing public schools of violating their rights by teaching students about racial and LGBTQ+ issues. These lawsuits could eventually secure a U.S. Supreme Court victory that would redirect billions of taxpayer funds from public schools to religious homeschools and charter schools.

Farris — who served as president and chief executive of the anti-LGBTQ+ legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) from 2017 to 2022 — believes that public schools are “a godless monstrosity” “indoctrinating children with a secular worldview that amount[s] to a godless religion,” according to The Washington Post. He also supported former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and opposed the 2003 Supreme Court decision decriminalizing gay sex nationwide.

“Inculcation of values is inherently a religious act,” Farris has said. “What the public schools are doing is indoctrinating your children in religion, no matter what.” In a recently unearthed, private July 2021 call with members of the Christian millionaires group Ziklag, Farris outlined his “uphill battle” plan to “take down” the “giant” public school education. Ziklag’s members want to expand Christian influence over U.S. culture and government. This includes creating schools that incorporate “a conservative, biblical worldview in science, humanities, and the arts,” one of the group’s documents states. During the call, Farris said that school officials are “directly attacking the Christian worldview” and that “parents are being forced to choose: either pay for themselves for a form of education that is consistent with [their] moral worldview or send their kids into a system where they will be deliberately undermined.”

[...] Farris believes the best way to ensure that the children of religious parents are protected from such “indoctrination” is to funnel taxpayer dollars into “universal voucher programs.” Such programs have already begun in a few conservative states and force taxpayers to fund religious and private schools that have traditionally been allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion and LGBTQ+ identity.

Michael Farris (Source)

One more thing about yesterday's comments on Michael Farris:

The Bible Is Its Best Commentary — Michael Farris

Superior to any other book, the Bible informs us of humanity’s origin, history, present condition, and distinct destinies.  It is our Creator’s complete, fully inspired message regarding our need for salvation and purpose of righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  Therefore, our copy of the Bible is our most valuable, tangible possession.  Careful study of it becomes just as crucial as its inspired…

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is a homophobic hate group whose leader Michael Farris was a guest at the superspreader event at the White House where Trump announced his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court. Farris was invited because he is a strong supporter of Barrett who has participated at ADF related events.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the Alliance Defending Freedom as an anti-LGBTQ hate group:

Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has:           ° Supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad ° Defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad ° Contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia ° Claimed that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society

[ ... ]

The organization also offers the secretive Blackstone Legal Fellowship, through which Christian law students study under prominent scholars, participate in internships, and prepare for life and leadership in the legal profession. 

The Blackstone Legal Fellowship is how Amy Coney Barrett is connected to the ADF. She pleaded ignorance about them as reported in the Guardian article: “I’m invited to give a lot of talks as a law professor. I don’t know what all of ADF’s policy positions are, and it has not been my practice to investigate all of the policy positions of a group that invites me to speak.”

But she said that back in 2017 and has had over three years to look into the ADF’s beliefs and practices. She must approve of them if ADF leader Michael Farris is one of the select few to be invited to an event at the White House honoring her nomination.