400 Pages and Gagging
I only wish Ms Rand had made her point as succintly as Ms Halla. After reading 427 pages of The Fountainhead, I feel as if I've been bludgeoned by a dull intstrument, perhaps a Steven Mallory statue. I get it. I got it. I had it in the first 100 pages, maybe the first 10 pages. "One must remain true to one's self, uphold individuality, and act independently from society." How could I miss it? The author makes the point often and obviously. Spare me any more pain. I think my happiness lies in not reading anything else by Ayn Rand.
A number things annoy me about this book. The first, of course, is the heavy handed moralizing of the author. The Fountainhead is a philosophy lecture disquised as a novel populated by philosophic points of view disquised as characters. They're not people. They're simply abstractions, representations of principles, caricatures. Like characters in a SuperHero comic book, they are good or they are evil with nothing in between. The second thing that annoys me is the content of the lecture and it's advocacy of egoTism as a basis for human action. There's no point in trying to take the edge off the term by refering to it as Egoism. That's simply an attempt to make the term "socially" acceptable which is, of course, unacceptable. The third thing that annoys me is that, despite it's uncompromising advocacy of individuality and originality, there's nothing here that's individual or original.
When speaking of Howard Roarks sketches, Rand writes, "They were sketches of builidngs such as had never stood on the face of the earth. They were as the first houses built by the first man born who had never heard of others building before him." If such originality was ever possible, it eluded Ms Rand. Unlike the fictional work of her SuperHero, Howard Roark, Ms Rand has clearly built her edifice on the foundations of philosophic and literary figures who proceeded her and the traditions they created. Apparently, the author did not aspire to the same greatness as her main character. Her philosophy is taken from Friedrich Nietsche, her art from Charles Dickens.
A number things annoy me about this book. The first, of course, is the heavy handed moralizing of the author. The Fountainhead is a philosophy lecture disquised as a novel populated by philosophic points of view disquised as characters. They're not people. They're simply abstractions, representations of principles, caricatures. Like characters in a SuperHero comic book, they are good or they are evil with nothing in between. The second thing that annoys me is the content of the lecture and it's advocacy of egoTism as a basis for human action. There's no point in trying to take the edge off the term by refering to it as Egoism. That's simply an attempt to make the term "socially" acceptable which is, of course, unacceptable. The third thing that annoys me is that, despite it's uncompromising advocacy of individuality and originality, there's nothing here that's individual or original.
When speaking of Howard Roarks sketches, Rand writes, "They were sketches of builidngs such as had never stood on the face of the earth. They were as the first houses built by the first man born who had never heard of others building before him." If such originality was ever possible, it eluded Ms Rand. Unlike the fictional work of her SuperHero, Howard Roark, Ms Rand has clearly built her edifice on the foundations of philosophic and literary figures who proceeded her and the traditions they created. Apparently, the author did not aspire to the same greatness as her main character. Her philosophy is taken from Friedrich Nietsche, her art from Charles Dickens.
posted by KHalla at
6:36 PM
5 Comments:
Quit being so positive.
I was just being true to my Self
I don't understand why it's NOT okay to incorporate other's ideas into ones own. It sounds to me as if you are in favor of inward-oriented practices--increasing from within and avoiding interaction with the rest of the world. This is a policy which some of the world's poorest countries engage in in hopes achieving more rapid economic growth. However, this practice proves unsuccessful due to the fact that trade is not involved. These countries are then responsible for making ALL of their goods which is just utterly inefficient/ridiculous. If a technology is produced in France which allows me to more rapidly, and efficiently produce greater amounts of wheat wouldn't i want to accept that technology so i could then spend more time producing wheat AND frijoles? Duh. And if Argentina was better and more effiecient at producing steel and i was better and more efficient at producing lead, wouldn't i want to solely produce lead and trade Argentina for steel? Duh.
THUS: if someone such as Nietzsche produces an idea which i favor and believe to be productive and effiecient, wouldn't i want to incorporate that idea into my countries' ideas/mind/philosopy? And if i take bits and pieces of other philosophers philosophy and further incorporate these pieces into my patchwork of a country (philosophy) does that make it any less my own? Does it not instead make me more efficient? More productive?
Next question.
I think the point is that Roark would not be influenced or use references from past architecture but then this is exactly what Rand is doing by referencing Nietzche.
Did she ever say don't do this in your (you the readers) own life? No, but then you have to get into a debate about what the point of producing literature is. Entertainment? Influence? I would say probably influence in the case of TF... but then Rand is a selfist,right and she therefore probably only wrote this book for herself or to have a fat book to boost her ego but then you have to think XXXXX, etc., etc. an on and on.
This book is intense enough let alone trying to think of authors motivations, add Nietzche and then I am not sure if anything I am saying is correct because it is refutable by a million other things and then my head hurts.
Any easier books out there?
U R Smart.
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