Cyrano de Bergerac – a swashbuckling hero with the intellect to match – is in love with Roxane, the most beautiful woman in Paris.
The problem is that Cyrano has an inferiority complex over his gigantic nose – which Cyrano believes serves as an insurmountable obstacle for Roxanne ever falling for him.
The handsome but slow-witted Christian – also in love with Roxanne – suffers the opposite problem: he is intellectually incompatible with Roxanne.
As a solution, Cyrano offers to speak for and write love letters for him: Christian will be the physical form Roxanne will be attracted to, but Cyrano will be the soul she falls in love with. What will Roxanne do when she finds out the truth?
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In The DIM Hypothesis, Leonard Peikoff identifies the three methods people use to integrate concrete data into a whole: Disintegration, Integration, and Misintegration. He then surveys the history of Western Civilization and shows how the dominant method of thinking of a given historical period influenced the cultural products of that time in the fields of literature, physics, education, and politics, with the goal of determining the likely course of Western Civilization in the future.
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“We’ve all heard that the American Dream is vanishing, and that the cause is rising income inequality. The rich are getting richer by rigging the system in their favor, leaving the rest of us to struggle just to keep our heads above water. To save the American Dream, we’re told that we need to fight inequality through tax hikes, wealth redistribution schemes, and a far higher minimum wage.” In Equal is Unfair, Don Watkins and Yaron Brook show that the real threat to the American Dream is the war on success and that the proposed solutions by egalitarians will make things worse for everyone in the long run.
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Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free and civilized society, yet this precious right is increasingly under attack today. This book provides the intellectual ammunition to defend that right.
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Economic and other outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups, and nations resulting in disparities. Some believe that those with less fortunate outcomes are victims of genetics or victims of discrimination. Thomas Sowell’s Discrimination and Disparities challenges the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics.
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Burton Folsom’s The Myth of the Robber Barons describes the role of key entrepreneurs – Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, James J. Hill, Andrew Mellon, Charles Schwab, and the Scranton family – in the economic growth of the United States from 1850 to 1910. Most historians argue that these men were Robber Barons. The story, however, is more complicated. The author, Burton Folsom, divides the entrepreneurs into two groups market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs.
The market entrepreneurs, such as Hill, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller, succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price. The market entrepreneurs helped lead to the rise of the U. S. as a major economic power. By 1910, the U. S. dominated the world in oil, steel, and railroads led by Rockefeller, Schwab (and Carnegie), and Hill.
The political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and in railroads the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies, or in some way use government to stop competitors. The political entrepreneurs were a drain on the taxpayers and a thorn in the side of the market entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the political entrepreneurs often failed without help from government they could not produce competitive products.
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“First published in 1876, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has delighted generations of readers.”
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“In China, from time immemorial, they have possessed a certain refinement of industry and art. It is the art of molding a living man. They take a child, two or three years old, put him in a porcelain vase, more or less grotesque, which is made without top or bottom, to allow egress for the head and feet. During the day the vase is set upright, and at night is laid down to allow the child to sleep. Thus the child thickens without growing taller, filling up with his compressed flesh and distorted bones the reliefs in the vase. This development in a bottle continues for many years. After a certain time, it becomes irreparable. When they consider that this is accomplished, and the monster made, they break the vase. The child comes out–and, behold, …” – Victor Hugo, The Man Who Laughs
The moving story of facially disfigured Gwynplaine – mutilated as a child by “Comprachicos” – and his mutual love, for the beautiful but blind, Dea.
Said Ayn Rand of the novel, “The Man Who Laughs is Victor Hugo’s best novel. (Curiously enough it was the one least understood by his contemporaries.) It is not a work of historical fiction, as its background of eighteenth-century England suggests, but a symbolic fantasy – an abstraction enacted on a profound metaphysical level. It is a work in which Hugo’s imagination, freed of lesser concerns, creates a universe built in his own image and likeness. It is a dramatization of his view of man’s existence presented in the form and the violent action of a suspense story.”
Joseph Blamire translation recommended.
“Gray begins with an explanation of how atoms bond to form molecules and compounds, as well as the difference between organic and inorganic chemistry. He then goes on to explore the vast array of materials molecules can create, including: soaps and solvents; goops and oils; rocks and ores; ropes and fibers; painkillers and dangerous drugs; sweeteners; perfumes and stink bombs; colors and pigments; and controversial compounds including asbestos, CFCs, and thimerosal. Big, gorgeous photographs, as well as diagrams of the compounds and their chemical bonds, rendered with never before seen beauty, fill the pages and capture molecules in their various states.”
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“When you get up in front of a group of people, you make a contract with them; you promise them, “I am going to deliver value X.” Every once in a while, you have to say, “See, I remember; I am keeping my promise.”- Leonard Peikoff
Professor Peikoff teaches readers how to write, speak, and argue on the subject of philosophical ideas—ideas pertaining to profoundly important issues ranging from the question of the existence of God to the nature and proper limits of government power. A fantastic book that examines the principles to the problem of achieving clarity both in thought and in communication. It does require some knowledge of Objectivism as a prerequisite.
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