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What is the BFD about The Fountainhead?

Centerfield May 22 2006 12:08 PM

I read this book last year at the urging of a few people who cite it as their favorite book of all time. Holy crap did it suck. Preachy, incredibly idealistic, wordy, LONG, boring...I don't see how anyone can like this book. I think I understood Rand's point...and what she was trying to say about sticking to your values in the face of societal pressures. But I feel like it was the type of point that could have been made in an essay. Maybe even a greeting card. It certainly isn't one that needed to be rehashed over and over throughout the course of an interminable full length novel. In fact, I feel like all she did by telling the story was demonstrate how simplistic it is to think in those terms, and how her ideas are practically useless in the real world. And supposedly Atlas Shrugged is even worse. I can't imagine how this is possible.

ScarletKnight41 May 22 2006 12:18 PM

I studied Ayn Rand in high school and enjoyed her philosophically, but I can understand how the fiction could put you off. She was a better thinker than a writer.

seawolf17 May 22 2006 03:44 PM

Weird... I just got back from the library, and I had both books (Fountainhead and Shrugged) in my hand for a few minutes, because I was totally bored with what I've been reading and wanted something different. Good thing I changed my mind, apparently.

Vic Sage May 22 2006 04:34 PM

The secret to Rand is to read her in high school. At that point, you're vulnerable to her appealing philosophy of self interest she called "objectivism". Nothing appeals to a teenage personality more than being told "selfishness is not only acceptable, its the highest moral virtue", since teens are (in general) the most self-absorbed creatures on the planet. Its only later on that you figure out that she's built an edifice out of a pile of total crap, both in the style of her awful prose and the content of her philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality and humanity. If you've got Rand and Neitchze, you don't need another fucking person on the planet, and for a moment there in HS, thats a pretty good place to be.

Bret Sabermetric May 23 2006 09:50 AM

I teach The Fountainhead in my freshman class on Romantic Thought--they suck that shit down like it was cold beer on a hot day, and I slowly expose them to the true repugnance of the ideas they're so enthralled by. Basically, the book elevates visionaries like Roark, but doesn't really have much use for the unenlightened sots (like all of the rest of us) who must live like drones so that King Bees like Roark (and Queen Bees like Dominique) can spread their wings. This summer, I'm doing it as an on-line course. If anyone's interested in following along, I'll try to find a way to extend reading (if not posting) privileges here.

old original jb May 23 2006 12:17 PM

Back when I was in the dating pool, when a girl said she was a devotee of Ayn Rand it served as a giant Red Flag. I suspect that I owe some of my present domestic bliss to my vigilance about Ayn Rand fans. Mind you, I'm talking about those whose intense Aynrandmiration extended well past college.