The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

[Quirinus]

I've heard quite a lot about Ayn Rand, so I decided to give The Fountainhead a try when I saw the book in my college library just now.

I've read about fifteen pages, and so far I've found Howard Roark to be an unpleasant, disdainful and self-important person-- basically, an insufferable a-hole. But Roark is (I think) supposed to be the protagonist of the book, and Rand herself calls Howard Roark her "vision of an ideal man". I'm puzzled. Skimming through the Wikipedia article on the book, Roark (and the book) seems to retain this attitude throughout. What gives?



Actually, I understand that Ayn Rand is something of a sacred cow in online communities.... Apologies if this rant offends anyone..

[Strike For The South]

Ayn Rand is perhaps the most overrated author of all time. Her basic premise is flawed.

[Lemur]

Beware of the Rand. Everybody I've known who get obsessed with her books turns into a jerk, at least for a while. There's something in her work that appeals to the worser part of human nature.

[woad&fangs]

weird...

I just saw that there is an essay contest for "the fountainhead" and I was about to ask about the book on this forum

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Heard nothing but bad things and from what I've read about her ideas they are completely bogus.

[Ramses II CP]

The Fountainhead is a book that has to be read in the context of the period and the author's life. Roark is an intellectual purist of a sort that Rand idealized and expanded upon in her other significant work (The one with John Galt, I've forgotten the name at the moment). He's no more a realistic hero than your standard unkillable action hero, but as an ideal he is written consistently and with a vengefully perfect purpose. I very much enjoyed the book, it's extremely rare for someone to write an essentially intellectual novel with such drive and, frankly, anger in it.

That being said, it's foolish beyond words to try to base your life on the writings of any one person. Rand's philosophical oddities are the product of her life and should not be used as a guide to anyone else's life. I think her goals were admirable but as with every pocket philosopher her aim greatly exceeded her reach, and in her own life she was not able to achieve the purity or fury of purpose she boldly wrote into her characters.

Don't go into the novel expecting to be told how to think, go in expecting a good book with an interesting take on the nature of intellectual creation and just try to relax and enjoy it.

[Zim]

The Fountainhead is a book that has to be read in the context of the period and the author's life. Roark is an intellectual purist of a sort that Rand idealized and expanded upon in her other significant work (The one with John Galt, I've forgotten the name at the moment).

Atlas Shrugged?

[Ramses II CP]

That's the one Z, I went and looked it up on my shelves after I posted.

I have read virtually everything Rand wrote, as it turns out, I just needed to peek over the shelf she's on to remember them. We the Living, her first published work, is really an excellent book and is, IMHO, much better written than The Fountainhead. As a matter of fact I'm probably going to read it again someday soon, seeing it reminded me of how powerful I found it when I first read it in HS.

Standard warnings above apply, of course, about not trying to base your life on anyone's novel, etc. It's just a good book.