Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Page 621

'They all looked at her with an air of inquiring expectation, as she approached. The unnatural pallor of the moonlight seemed to dissolve the differences of their faces and to stress the quality they all had in common: a look of cautious appraisal, part fear, part plea, part impertinence held in abeyance.'

Obviously I'll never quite capture this without getting out into the moonlight, but I've always felt that the unnatural pallor of my room brings out my impertinence when it's held in abeyance, at least at this time of evening.

Monday, 9 May 2011

Page 616

'"Yes..." He was looking off, as if at some sight which he had studied for years, but which remained unchanged and unsolved; his face had an odd, questioning look of terror.'

Page 603

'She glanced at the conductor. She saw nothing in his face except the blind malevolence of pain, of some long-repressed anger that broke out upon the first object available, almost without consciousness of the object's identity.'

Page 576

'The "feudal serf" of Taggart Transcontinental was the only one who seemed untouched by the disaster. He looked at Taggart with the lifelessly conscientious glance of a scholar confronted by a field of knowledge he had never wanted to study.'

Monday, 14 March 2011

Page 566

'He was fighting to regain control, there was almost a touch of apology in his smile, the apology of a child pleading for indulgence, but there was also an adult's amusement, the laughing declaration that he did not have to hide his struggle, since it was happiness that he was wrestling with, not pain.'

Page 565

'When she was close enough and she could distinguish his face, she saw the look of that luminous gaiety which transcends the solemn by proclaiming the great innocence of a man who has earned the right to be light-hearted.'

The next line actually mentions that he's smiling and whistling, so this picture is probably wrong. It was hard enough to do as it is though, so let's be reasonable.

Page 487

'Dagny's mouth showed a faint line of astonishment and of contempt.'

The way I read this (given the context), Dagny is being courteous and polite to another woman (specifically, her lover's wife), so apart from this hint of her emotion in her mouth, the rest of her face is more socially appropriate. So I'm trying to localise the astonishment and contempt to my mouth only.