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“’It’s interesting to speculate on the reasons that make men so anxious to debase themselves. As in that idea of feeling small before nature. It’s not a bromide, it’s practically an institution. Have you noticed how self-righteous a man sounds when he tells you about it? Look, he seems to say, I’m so glad to be a pygmy, that’s how virtuous I am. Have you heard with what delight people quote some great celebrity who’s proclaimed that he’s not so great when he looks at Niagara Falls? It’s as if they were smacking their lips in sheer glee that their best is dust before the brute force of an earthquake. As if they were sprawling on all fours, rubbing their foreheads in the mud to the majesty of a hurricane. But that’s not the spirit that leashed fire, steam, electricity, that crossed oceans in sailing sloops, that built airplanes and dams… and skyscrapers. What is it they fear? What is it they hate so much, those who love to crawl? And why?’”
This is a good little quote from Gail Wynand that seems to sum up the attitudes of Roark, Dominique and Steven Mallory. It's pretty obvious where it fits in with Rands philosophy but feel free to discuss. You can start with what the heck a bromide is. JK. At this point, 464 pages into the centennial edition, I am wondering what place Wynand has in the story and the general philosophy of The Fountainhead. Feel free to offer your opinions although from how things have been going in my reading the answer usually becomes more obvious with the more pages I turn... but philosophize away.
This is a good little quote from Gail Wynand that seems to sum up the attitudes of Roark, Dominique and Steven Mallory. It's pretty obvious where it fits in with Rands philosophy but feel free to discuss. You can start with what the heck a bromide is. JK. At this point, 464 pages into the centennial edition, I am wondering what place Wynand has in the story and the general philosophy of The Fountainhead. Feel free to offer your opinions although from how things have been going in my reading the answer usually becomes more obvious with the more pages I turn... but philosophize away.
posted by Matthew at
6:07 PM
3 Comments:
Talking with Morgan this weekend shed some light on who Wynand is to the story. Post up Moe.
Rand is a slave to duality. Nature wins or Man wins. Nothing is ever synergistic. How does appreciating and admiring nature evoke fear, hatred, and submission. When someone stands in awe of nature does it diminish or empower them? Can someone experience both feelings simultaneously?
From my perspective, Rand is obsessed with categorizing, labeling, and ranking things to the point that it twists her perspective on reality. I'm guessing that she calls this "reasoning."
I think it’s interesting that the greatest "Reasoner" of the 20th Century tried to think his way past dualism to the "Unified Field Theory."
Apparently, the possibility never occurred to Ayn Rand.
Post up Moe.
Wynand could, but didn't. He was a character opposite that of Roark, but after meeting Roark he tilted. Ultimately, Wynand's destiny or fate or whatever you want to call it was up to him and in the end he succumbed to the masses. Right?
You don't feel powerless and small when you stand in front of nature? You don't feel that anything beautiful or wonderful you have ever done or created is in actuality nothing compared to nature? You don't feel that nature is so great and permanent; you don't feel impermanent? You don't realize that this giant redwood will outlast you, your children, your children's children, their children, and most likely man itself? This feeling makes me unafraid. Because in the end, will it really even matter?
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