DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[Jester]

Still, excepting John Galt's endless soliloquy, and some other notables like Francisco's speech on money, much of the plot doesn't sermonize to that extent.

Except for the sermons, she doesn't preach much? Sadly, even that's not true. The plots are one gigantic sermon, entire *worlds* constructed to create the characters and situations necessary to validate the author's philosophy. It's all author tract. And unlike Orwell, it does not offer a vision of an existing society, an actual historical event, or anything that resonates beyond her philosophy. It's entirely contingent on the Big Truth of Objectivism, without which, neither the characters nor the plot make much sense - certainly not in Atlas Shrugged, anyway.

The novel mainly sets up some clear examples of protagonists and antagonists in Dagny's cohorts, including her pretty detestable brother.

It's also a little on the long side, and occasionally tends towards the didactic? No Randian hero is less than heroic, no villain less than despicable, with truly absurd amounts of space used extemporizing on precisely why this is the case. No quest of the righteous goes unresolved, nobody with a contrary philosophy is given any quarter.

... but at least in Atlas -- Ayn does insert herself directly into the novel, but not as Dagny -- as the striking Fishwife at Atlantis who is a writer/philosopher.

I still have an extremely hard time not reading Dagny Taggart as anything but a pretty egregious Mary Sue. But that strikes me as the least of the book's problems.

-Jester