AS 1:5 The Climax of the D'Anconia's Plot and Comments

PLOT
Eddie shows Dagny a newspaper story that proves the San Sebastian Mines are worthless. Eddie and Dagny can't believe Francisco made a mistake. Dagny arranges to meet with Francisco. As she walks to the Wayne-Falkland Hotel we learn Francisco's background and his relationship to Dagny. Francisco tells Dagny that his $15 million investment will wreck her railroad, the Phoenix-Durango and, eventually, Ellis Wyatt.


SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Romance - Francisco is the only man Dagny has been with.

Halley - Dagny shocked Francisco by mentioning Halley's Fifth concerto.

Mrs. Vail - Francisco was in El Paso at the opening of the San Sebastian Line last New Year's Eve.


COMMENTS
Francisco - Alain DeLong was supposed to play Francisco in the proposed 70's film. The overwhelming leader on-line is Antonio Banderas. However: "he spoke English without a trace of an accent, a precise, cultured English deliberately mixed with slang." Francisco always wins at everything. Even when he "lost" at tennis, he won because his purpose was to make Dagny work.

Money - I'm going to leave Francisco's philosophy about money until the famous "money speech".

Scale - Now we see how Dagny got to be a +5. Francisco challenged her in her youth and energized her to make progress in the positive direction. "No matter how good you are, I'll expect you to wring everything you got, trying to be still better." Growth was the focus. However, Francisco is now either intentionally screwing up or he has lost his touch. Either way, he is very far away from Dagny on the scale. They can't seem to connect. In fact, Francisco says to Dagny, "It's you I have to fight." Is he a positive that went negative? Is he off the deep end of the positive side AND the scale is really a circle so he's gone to the extreme of the negative side? Obviously, something needs to be done to our scale to explain Francisco's place.

Pain - This chapter starts to focus heavily on the role of pain. Follow this thread because it is a core theme of the first book. "Pain and ugliness are never to be taken seriously." (Dagny) This includes everything from "unbearable pain" to Dagny being slapped by Francisco for thinking about changing her purpose from excellence to popularity. (The only lie Dagny ever told.) The situations and responses all correlate with another theme to be discussed in later chapters.

The World - "There's something wrong in the world. There's always been. Something no one has ever named or explained." (Francisco)

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