Notes on second-handers

In these notes, Rand planned important aspects of the Holcombe party scene by asking herself questions about it and then answering them. As she notes initially, one important purpose of this scene is that it is Roark and Dominique’s first meeting since their initial encounters in Connecticut. But the scene also had another purpose: to show the second-handedness of the society surrounding Roark.

In fiction, ideas must be dramatized through action. Here, we see Rand getting clear on the actions (in this case, conversations and behavior at a party) that characters would engage in to illustrate the second-handed philosophical premises that they hold, either subconsciously (most of the party guests) or consciously (Ellsworth Toohey).