Rearden Metal is Good. It is not bad. Why can’t people see that?

Rearden Metal is infallible. How do we know Rearden Metal is infallible? It was made by Hayek Rearden, competent human being. The man who shoulders the burden of his family and other hangers-on without noticing it (even though he DOES notice it.) Dagny Taggart knows Rearden Metal is infallible. How does she know? She’s seen the lab results.

Of course, as a lover of fiction and good stories (particularly the depressing and bitter ones), I’m wondering what would be an interesting plot twist. Here’s three that would redeem this book, IMO:

1.) Rearden Metal is actually really shoddy. When put into use, the material is discovered to cause everyone headaches. Hank Rearden is so unapproachable and unsociable because he has suffered brain damage from all of his metallurgical experiments. The tracks are built and the magical “glow” of the tracks wilt the vegetation and pollute the streams. Okay, that’s a bit too predictable.

2.) Rearden Metal is a brilliant success, at FIRST. But because it is an alloy–not a refined, elemental metal, there are eccentricities that emerge in its real-world use. After fifty years of use, it becomes flamable and as EVERYTHING is made of Rearden Metal a worldwide hellflaming holocaust results as factories, skyscrapers and nuclear powerplants go up in flames: The world ITSELF goes Galt on humanity, cleansing it of the lice that assume human form. A tribe of supermen and women band together and reform the world into a utopia; the moochers die out as they have only their mooching ways of living. As it turns out, when Rearden Metal is thoroughly decayed and burnt out what remains is a pure, almost alchemical metal substance from which the supermen and superwoman create a gated-Geodesic bubble-metropolis–moocher-free. Rearden Metal is good, when cleansed of its impurities!

3.) I heard a writer give advice on constructing plot: she said think of two possibilities. These are the likely things. Then think of a third one. The third one will be the one no one expects. So I will attempt my third plot twist. When the Rearden Metal is not laid out, Hank Rearden, who was suffering from manic-depression, goes wildly mad, but Dagny and Lillian work to cover up his madness. In secret, he gets shock treatment. Dagny has to shoulder the burden of keeping his parasitical family afloat. She does it, but Rearden’s investors give her the shaft because of all the bad press about Rearden Metal–of which no one has ever seen in action. This is the point. We never find out if Rearden Metal is any good. Dagny had actually defrauded Taggart Transcontinental when she went on to build her John Galt line. She goes into hiding with Francisco and returns under an assumed name. She ends up killing a senator that was hindering the legislation; and gets Rearden metal approved and financed. Anyhow, we find out the Ellis Wyatt has a new alloy too (stolen? reverse engineered? not sure) and he gets a workaround from an insider in the State Science Institute to start building lines in Colorado. The book ends with the police tearing Dagny from Francisco’s arms as she’s taken to Canon City on a Taggart Transcontinental on freshly built new tracks to await her execution. A sort of Anna Karenina meets In Cold Blood.

Somehow I don’t think it will end up like this. Rearden Metal is perfect because it was perfected by a perfect man.

Edit: Got Francisco’s name wrong. And an update: I have since found out that Hank Rearden has invented a workaround; he’s invented some kind of new bridge. This is very much bad science fiction; science as magic etc.