Every so often, I try to read a “book that matters.” You know the ones I’m talking about—”The Great Gatsby,” “Catcher in the Rye,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Sun Also Rises”—all those great American novels that shape our high school literature curricula.
So why take on the extra reading?
To increase my literary stock? No. To whip out the perfect quotation on the off-chance I meet a foreign dignitary? No. To expand my vocabulary in preparation for the GRE? No. But now that I write that down, it’s not a bad idea....
Honestly, I just like the stories. I like the adventure and the intrigue the characters and their conflicts, the romance and the love affairs.
My most recent “book that matters” was “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. Yes, it was the longest book I’ve ever read for leisure (1,168 pages of 10-point font with no pictures!), but it certainly made me think. Unfortunately, it did not make me think about capitalism and industrialization, but instead, it made me think about dating at Duke.
That’s right, dating at Duke.
In light of the whole Karen Owen fiasco and the incessant chatter about Duke’s hook-up culture, I find that sometimes, we Duke girls need to hear about a romance. Ranking each other on a raw score bar graph is cool and all, but in the real world, someone better tell me he loves me instead of just giving me a 12/10 for overall performance (hey, a girl can dream).
He should bring me flowers and tell me I’m the most beautiful girl in the entire world. He should take me on romantic dinner dates and read me poetry and tell me he was lost before he found me. (Yeah, I stole that from Madonna, but there are “songs that matter” too, you know....)
But, back to “Atlas.” For those of you who haven’t conquered this behemoth of a novel, I’ll give you a little context.
Protagonist: Dagny Taggart, executive of Taggart Transcontinental, the largest railroad corporation in the country. Men love Dagny and women want to be Dagny. I imagine her to be like one of those power women from the 1990s: great suits, bold haircut, lots of edge. Rand probably didn’t imagine Dagny to be like this, but in my mind, Dagny embodies sex and sophistication.
Dagny, of course, falls in love, and she does it more than once. I mean, what’s a novel about capitalism without a little romance?
Dagny’s first lover’s wife (did you follow that?), who will remain unnamed to keep from ruining the book for all you “Atlas” virgins, wooed me with her words. I literally got chills, and she’s a fictional middle-aged woman from 1957. Lill—, I mean Dagny’s first lover’s wife, is a brutally honest romantic caught in the midst of industrialization.
Alright boys, start taking notes. Page 305:
“It’s really very simple. If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It’s no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing.... To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She’s earned it, it’s a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices... that is a real tribute to love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem.”
I want someone to love me despite my vices! I know I said I want someone to tell me I’m beautiful, but this is so much better. I want to be part of a tribute to love. I want someone to sacrifice his reason, his integrity and his invaluable self-esteem—all for me.
Admittedly, I’m quoting selectively to make my point. Rand was a laissez-faire capitalist, not a hopeless romantic, but you get the picture.
Based on my own observations, the sad reality of it all is that very few of us will find true romance in college. If I tried to tell a 21-year-old frat star that he should sacrifice his reason to love me to the fullest, he’d probably just pour beer on my head. Our generation is so focused on appearance and instant gratification that any sort of romance probably won’t weasel its way into our lives until we’re at least 30.
Exhibit A: An “Honors Thesis” on a series of raunchy one-night stands in which the subjects were graded and ranked.
Exhibit B: 173,000 search results for “Duke’s hook-up culture” on google.com, many of which contain the phrases “casual sex” and “dating is outdated.”
Exhibit C: The last “love” poem I received was in the ninth grade from a boy with bad acne and braces. Maybe it’s not too late to reconsider his offer?
My real fear, however, is that as Duke students of the millennial generation, we won’t recognize love when we see it later in life. We have been so dulled by the hook-up culture that I’m afraid some of us won’t be able to fall in love, but instead, will be permanently condemned to falling in and out of lust.
There’s a whole romantic world out there. If you can’t find it at Duke, read some of those “books that matter.” You’ll certainly find romance there.
Molly Lester is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
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