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Who is John Galt? Who is Richard Wagner? Or David or Rahab or Simon, the denier, Peter?
Well, let’s review. John Galt is the
“Super Hero” of Ayn Rand’s Classic, Atlas
Shrugged. I know, I know, Ayn Rand was an
avowed atheist, so why am I writing about
her book? And, there are some “relationships”
in the book that were not really
the “bride being walked lovingly down
the aisle by the father for the exchange of
rings” type of relationships, etc. Well, the
answer is, there are a lot of “atheists” in
the Bible, and David and Bathsheba were
not exactly playing Monopoly out there on
the veranda, so, give me a ghtin’ chance!
Atlas Shrugged is one of the most important
books I have ever read. Not only was Ayn
Rand a great storyteller, she was a seer—a
prophet. The question that immediately
came to my mind, when I read it the rst
time was, “How in the world could a recent
Russian immigrant to the US have such
insight into the shenanigans being played
out in the ivory towers of power in Washington?”
Well, upon my second reading in
2010, I had to ask that question again, and
the same answer comes back to me, “It
doesn’t matter how she knew it...she did.”
No, I do not believe every philosophy that
she espouses, but Atlas Shrugged, more
than any other book, makes me want to see
a return to the America of my youth. The
America where faith, hard work and honesty
were the building blocks upon which a
life was built, and a hand up was thought to
be better than a handout. No more preaching—
read Atlas Shrugged for yourself, and
we will talk later.
Now to the genius/monster, Richard
Wagner. Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art. The very first sentence of the
very first page of the introduction reads
like this: “How is it possible for a seriously
flawed human being to produce art that is
good, true and beautiful?” From this very
first sentence I was hooked. I, Larry Gatlin
am a seriously flawed man who has also
tried to create art that is good, true and
beautiful. Father M. Owen Lee is a Catholic
priest and Professor Emeritus of Classics
at St. Michael’s College, University of
Toronto. Father Owen’s in-depth description
of Wagner’s many faults and failures,
and his assertions that this giant of composition —
arguably the greatest composer
of all time, was, in fact, trying to purify,
cleanse and save himself by writing his
compositions. I simply cannot do this book
justice in this short space. I do know this:
Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful
Art, shined a very bright light into my soul,
into my heart, into the innermost regions
of my being, and helped me better understand
what Larry Wayne Gatlin is all about.
For those of you who don’t particularly
care for opera, Wagner, or, for that matter,
Larry Wayne Gatlin, read it anyway!
Please! It is illuminating. Remember,
some seriously flawed people in our Holy
Bible, are responsible for some heroic and
wondrous deeds. Does the name David
ring a bell? How about Rahab the harlot?
How about Simon, the denier, Peter?
The simple fact is that we are all human,
all except the GREAT GOD who gives
us talent...the talent to uplift our fellow
men. Enter the seriously flawed, Richard
Wagner in Wagner: The Terrible Man and
His Truthful Art. Give it a look. I think you
will be pleasantly surprised!
