The Fountain Head

Well I’m about 3/4 of the way through the book, and it is about the most boring one in the world. What are all these characters meaning here? I must just be too young to understand it yet.

Push through. Ayn Rand one of the most amazing people in the world if you ask me. Read up on her, it might help make the book easier to read. She has a very specific message to her writings, that is that achievement is the meaning of life, but the way she paints characters is just insane.

I know all these Tdudes love Ayn Rand but if that book is anything like “Atlas Shrugged” three quarters is probably enough. I like her philosophy but JESUS CHRIST SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO HIT YOU RIGHT BETWEEN THE FUCKING EYES WITH IT FOR 1200 PAGES TO MAKE HER POINT. If you don’t see wheres she is coming from yet you probably ain’t going to anyway.

This country was founded on the principles Ayn Rand delivers in her writing. Most of the people in the US do not live by those principles, which if they did we would all be better off. As an artist, Rand took the basic philosopies of the world and turned them into characters in order that we learn to recognize them and choose for ourselves how we will live and from were we will gain our satisfactions. End the end our life can only be lived by ourselves alone. Surely, Othmar Ammann would agree.

In case you are not aware of the reference: http://www.pbs.org/ greatprojects/tour/ bridgingny_3.html

Push on, then get the video. Gary Cooper gives a great performance, and the courtroom scene is as succinct a distillation of Rand’s ideas as you will find.

Partial Spoiler Below!

Ayn Rand fascinates me also… I have a love/hate thing going with her ideas and books…a lot of it is fantastic but some elements bug me.
One of the things I cant understand in the Fountainhead is all that psychological BS between Howard Roak and Dominique when she is watching him at work in the quarry near the beginning of the book. All this “knowingness” of him, I would have thought flys in the face of objectivisim (proof, reason, rationality). The rape (she tries to hit him with the lamp) followed by her feelings of love I also dont understand.
comments?

Keep at it. It’s worth the read. I’ve read it twice(I know what am I nuts). Atlas Shrugged is better IMO. I whipped through that in no time, just finished it about two months ago. I will read it again as well. She is definately repetative though. I think with Ayn Rand you either love her of hate her. Her beliefs are right along the same lines as mine, so I guess I’m somewhat biased.

Unger: If you are having trouble understanding it, you might want to check out one of the numerous books that breaks down and analyzes her work (your local library should have a few). Then again, it might not be your cup of tea. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not enjoying a particular book. Don’t feel like you have to enjoy or understand it just because the bodybuilding community has turned her in to a cliche’ of sorts.

FH is not a fully realized novel. I find the relationship troubling also. AR was VERY old fashioned about male/female relationships. The important ideas in her books have to do with the nature of reality and man, and his proper role with respect to reality and other men. For anyone that would really like to understand what all the fuss is about, just go the the library and get a copy of “Objectivism, the Philosophy of Ayn Rand”. Read pages 1 through 12. If it makes sense, read more. If not – she is not for you. having said that, I find her philosophy tremendously liberating and deeply satisfying. Professor John Searle of UC Berkely is also a hell of an idea man. Try his “Mind, Language and Society” for a mix of philospphy and neuroscience. I think philosophy is vastly underrated in terms of its usefullness in everyday life. Most modern people don’t really have an integrated belief system, and just parrot the ideas and thoughts of others. Knowing not just what you believe, but why is important. I would caution against Hegel, Neitchze, De Carte and others that present ideas that conflict with common sense and reality. If something seems on the face of it to be silly, it generally is. All of the most important ideas of philosophy can be articulated in plain language in less than 60 seconds. If you are reading something, and it sounds like a bunch of pretentious gobbledygook…

Another query I have is:
To what extent is Howard Roark ment to opitomise her philosophy? Is he ment to be a perfect representation, or just a character that thinks along the same lines, but still makes mistakes? (I think FH was written before she established objectivism per se). Because I feel I have a good understanding of her ideas (although I dont agree 100% with them) I cant always understand his actions in the context of her philosophy.

shit you might as well finish the book now since your so far ,but it should be pretty clear what points shes making, ive heard a critique of her writing style in that she writes so that theres an obvious good and bad and every scene could be in a comic book,on a side note anyone on here read the cult of ayn rand ? im a pretty big rand fan and all and the book was pretty anti-objectivism shrug i figure it might give me a different look on things since ive read rands books and a couple of her essay’s and speeches