Context: (1034.23) [Galt speaking] "Such is your
morality of sacrifice and such are the twin
ideals it offers: to refashion the life of your body
in the image of a human stockyards, and the
life of your spirit in the image of a dump."
Discussion: The number of the indefinite article and its
noun should be properly aligned. However,
since this error is not in the softback edition, it
is likely a typesetting error.
Alternative: ...in the image of a human stockyard...
Context: (317.5) Among the stories, there was one so
preposterously out of character that Dagny
believed it to be true: nothing in Mulligan's
nature could have given anyone ground to
invent it.
Discussion: The noun, in this context, can only be plural,
much as with scissors or pants. This is not
likely a typesetting error, as it exists in both the
hardback and softback editions.
Alternative: ...nothing in Mulligan's nature could have given
anyone grounds to invent it.
Context: (19.15) [Dagny] took a crumpled piece of
notepaper from her pocket and tossed it to
Eddie. "There's the figures and terms."
Discussion: The number of the verb and its object should
be properly aligned. It's not likely that this is a
typesetting error, as it exists in both editions.
Alternative: There are the figures and terms.
Context: (824.39) Dr. Stadler saw a woman being
escorted down the steps from the back row,
her head bent, a handkerchief pressed to her
mouth: she was sick at her stomach.
Discussion: The idiom is virtually never used as presented,
and an Internet search reveals that the
preposition at is only used one half of one
percent of the time; the rest use to instead.
Alternative: ...she was sick to her stomach.
Context: (909.9) The wires had been worn by more
rains and years than they had been intended to
carry; one of them had kept sagging, through
the hours of that morning, under the fragile
load of raindrops; then its one last drop had
grown on the wire's curve and had hung like a
crystal bead, gathering the weight of many
seconds; the bead and the wire had given up
together and, as soundless as the fall of tears,
the wire had broken and fallen with the fall of
the bead.
Discussion: Among its 88 words, this run-on sentence
boasts no fewer than three semicolons, an
excessive number, and perhaps a world
record. While the grammatical argument could
be made that the sentence is of one thought,
the same can be said for any properlyconstructed
paragraph.
[Editor's note: This sentence comprises the
larger part of this Editor's favorite paragraph in
the entire book.]
Alternative: The wires had been worn by more rains and
years than they had been intended to carry.
One of them had kept sagging, through the
hours of that morning, under the fragile load of
raindrops; then its one last drop had grown on
the wire's curve and had hung like a crystal
bead, gathering the weight of many seconds.
The bead and the wire had given up together
and, as soundless as the fall of tears, the wire
had broken and fallen with the fall of the bead.
Context: (747.11) "We had no rules of any kind," said
Galt, "except one. When a man took our oath,
it meant a single commitment: not to work in
his own profession, not to give to the world the
benefit of his mind."
Discussion: Not to work is a single commitment. Not to
give benefits is another, giving a total of two
commitments, or at least a two-part, single
commitment.
Alternative: "We had no rules of any kind," said Galt,
"except that when a man took our oath, it
meant a commitment not to work in his own
profession, not to give to the world the benefit
of his mind."
Introduction
> Part 1: Errors of Grammar
Part 2: Errors of Calculation
Part 3: Errors of Logic
Part 4: Errors of Philosophy
Appendix: Finding quotes in other editions
Atlas Flubbed in PDF pamphlet format
ATLAS SNUBBED
An Unsanctioned
Pastiche Parody
Where no one is asking,
"Who is John Galt?"
Because now...
They know.