Fountainhead

Rating:
Summary: TO THE ANTI-OBJECTIVIST
Review: This review is written in response to the "anti-objectivist" review that you can find on this same page. I feel that "The Fountainhead" has many great things to offer the reader and I definately recommend it. I have read some extremely intelligient dissenting reviews of this book and had to bow to those reviewer's reasoning abilities. BUT - the "anti-objectivist" should not be allowed the status of monkey for his horrible pseudo-logical take on why he doesn't like "The Fountainhead".

Rating:
Summary: I can't describe it
Review: Reading this book gives me a strange feeling in my stomach which i have never had experienced before. This book is something that is too, i don't know what, for words. I think i'm going to read that book as much as possible, because you can't understand it after reading it only once

Rating:
Summary: Read the book in context
Review: Many of the low marks for this book are from people that either did not read it, are incapable of understanding the material because they are projecting their own psychological dysfunction's and problems into it, or just too stupid and close minded to understand. The bottom line is that you have to think for yourself, and that parasites rely on your thinking and efforts to survive. Anything taken out of context can be used as a non-sequitor, which is to twist the truth into meaninglessness. If you read the book objectively, that is with a clear mind, free from bias, I guarantee that you will understand Rand's concepts. Yes, Rand did not live her life according to her own philosophy, and yes the Randites are rather rabid, viscous narcissists; but so are any groups of zealots. Look at the content and framework of her work, not her life. She was a narcissist, but she was also one of the most brilliant women to have ever lived. Many of our greatest geniuses were nuts and quite eccentric, look at Newton and Edison, they were extreme egotists, but it doesn't take away from their work, it has even been suggested that you have to be a bit nuts and an egotist to really be creative. That's just my opinion, I may be wrong but at least I think for myself and take responsibility for my actions.

Rating:
Summary: Hmmm...
Review: It is unfortunate so many people don't understand how bad thisbook is. Roark, Rand's "ideal" man, is without kindness orhumor. He likes no one. He sees others as there to serve him. In fact, others barely exist for him at all. And he is a rapist. Don't believe me? Read the book carefully. It's all there. Roark is not a hero, he is an Anti-Social Personality--a sociopath/psychopath, just like the serial killers and serial rapists he has so much in common with. This is not surprising, since Rand suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. A psychopath is just the extreme form of a narcissist. Rand's narcissism is why she split the world into such black-and-white terms. This is what narcissists do--everything is either grandiose or devalued. Rand was mentally ill, people. The evidence from her life is overwhelming, She was vicious, hateful, envious, vengeful, consumed with complete power and control over her unstable followers. And her philosophy, being narcissistic/psychopathic, will of course attract such people, as in the case of the Objectivist "psychotherapist" Lonnie Leonard, who was--guess what?--a serial rapist. By the way, Rand didn't invent the free market. She appropriated ideas from such free-market giants as Ludwig von Mises. Of course she never credited him or anyone else. In fact, she denigrated them. But then, this is what narcissists do.

Rating:
Summary: Howard Roark, Congenital Sociopath
Review: How does protagonist Howard Roark - a man who, according to Ayn Rand's JOURNALS, was 'born without the ability to consider other people' (i.e. a congenital sociopath) - nevertheless manage to design houses and other buildings which (also according to Rand) are so well adapted to the needs of their occupants that said occupants can't imagine ever living or working anywhere else?

Simple: it's fiction. This novel takes place in Randworld, where congenital sociopathy is a virtue and the best way to fulfill other people's needs is to give them no consideration whatsoever.

This grand doorstop of a novel might deserve a second star for sheer heaving-shoulders melodrama if it hadn't driven so many fat, pimply, nerdy teenage boys into the field of architecture, where they thought they could lord it over their clients and finally get the girls who wouldn't give them the time of day in high school. Any architectural school or firm will tell you that the LAST thing they want is an architect who became an architect because of THE FOUNTAINHEAD.

Of course the book isn't *literally* about architecture, as such 'concrete-bound' mentalities may have thought; it's *actually* about being a self-absorbed putz in ANY CREATIVE ENDEAVOUR AT ALL. (Self-absorbed putzes, you see, are the 'fountainhead' of human progress in ALL fields.)

Nevertheless this consideration does not suffice to induce me to award two stars to Rand's delusional projections. I doubt the practitioners of those other fields are thanking her either.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ FOR ANY TRUE FAN OF FINE LITERATURE
Review: I must admit that even though I was an English major, I did not read this book until just recently. I was surprisingly pleased with the ideas and characters that Ayn Rand expounds upon in "The Fountainhead." This novel takes quite a while to get through, but it is well worth the effort. Be sure to set aside the time not only to read it, but to think about the material!

Rating:
Summary: absolutely fabulous
Review: Rand is undeniably influential. The book demonstrates its beauty and survives on its own merit, although the philosophy's beauty combined with the majestry of its presentation should not be the vehicle to sway anyone to immediately join her cult. Examine it, and think for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Go with the unabridged!
Review: Aloha, The Fountain head is the most pleasurable audio tape I have never finished. I drive allot for pleasure about 1,000 miles a week. I borrowed this book from an east coast library, along with a lot of others. I loved living with the unabridged Fountainhead driving across country.

I had recently seen the movie, so as I was loading the thirteenth tape, I could not understand, how they were going to wind it up in one tape. Was I surprised and delighted to find that I only had part one.

Of course I will start it from the beginning and do all 24 tapes in a row next time.

Not much to say. If you make the mistake of getting it abridged you will spoil the full version. This book needs to be complete. Go for the Unabridged version.

Rating:
Summary: Heroism based on Reason, Individualism, and Integrity.
Review: This book is about individualism and integrity. By individualism Ayn meant "A Primary orientation to reality", and by integrity Ayn meant "Loyalty to Rational Principles". This is what makes Howard Roark a hero. While many of the other characters in the novel derive their self-esteem and their beliefs from other people, Howard Roark is an individualist who fights for what he believes is true - not because "The Majority" say so, nor because of what God commands - but of his own reason and volition.

This is a truely romantic and inspiring novel, and is almost a tribute to all those throughout the history of mankind whom have fought for science and reason.

Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: Shows most of us the goals we should set for ourselves...