Fountainhead

Rating:
Summary: Forget About Rand's Philosophy and Enjoy a Magnificent Story
Review: I seldom care to read books of this length. However, I was mesmerized and intrigued by the first 25 pages. While the story and characters were larger than life and quite twisted, I couldn't get enough. I was completely drawn in by Howard Roark. And the relationship between Roark and Dominique was explosive.

I like to be taken away in a novel. In this case, I felt completely transported to the world of architecture, the powerful, and the elite. I wouldn't want to live there, but it was a great ride. Rand's philosophy and politics while interesting, was not the attraction for me. This book did not profoundly change my views, but Rand's style of writing and storytelling did have an effect on me as a creative individual.

Rating:
Summary: More than a book
Review: In Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, Rand paints a world with two extremes of human nature. On one side of the spectrum there is Peter Keating. Keating illustrates the second-hander, a chameleon, willing to adapt himself to his surroundings to appease others. Juxtaposed to the second-hander is Howard Roark. Never adulterating his own opinion, Roark remains an originator, a first-hander. Between these two extremes, lies a middle ground where people are a mixture of both. Gail Wynand, a newspaper magnate, believes he controls the public because of his power and wealth. But in the end, he realizes that it is they that control him. A man who controls others through the acquisition of souls, Ellsworth Toohey is a first-hander who promotes second-handedness. Through these characters, the novel is an allegory of real-world people. There are selfish individualists and then there are devout followers of altruism. Whatever it may be, all people exist on a continuum between Roark and Keating.

Peter Keating lives his life through others. When Keating is first introduced, he is valedictorian at his graduation looking for a former competitor to reaffirm his triumph over a rival. Keating cares only for defeating someone else. He does not care for himself. Keating has no passion, no driving force to make decisions for himself. His mother decides he will accept the offer from the Francon firm. The lack of an individual self manifests itself also in his pliable code of ethics. On the job, Keating repeatedly uses sycophancy and other such ruses to woo Francon and to propel himself to a higher position within the firm. He caters to their vices and lets their tastes dictate his life. Keating's pretentiousness cannot hide his incompetence in designing buildings. Second-handers need the help of others to achieve success. Peter Keating needs Howard Roark do his drawings for buildings through his career. Keating needs journalists like Dominique Francon and Ellsworth Toohey to give him a good name. Peter needs his fellow men for their respect and competency. By the end of the novel, Peter Keating realizes that he has tried to live his life through others. But it is too late; Peter has already compromised his life so that it is more acceptable to the general public.
The second-hander represents the foil to the individualist. The individualist relies on no one. Howard Roark embodies the soul of the individualist or first hander. Growing up, Roark had no family and thus worked on building projects to support himself through school. After being expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology for designing free-thinking houses, Roark is called into the Dean's office. The Dean offers him a second chance to return to the school and begin anew. Roark refuses; he asserts that he has learned all that he has needed from the school. With this tone set, Roark's resolve will be tested. When asked by his mentor, Henry Cameron, to develop projects more suitable to popular tastes, Roark responds with a decisive answer that he would rather starve. His uncompromising attitude toward catering to tastes prevents him from attaining numerous commissions. But the few that Roark does receive are from individual men who admire his audacity. Throughout the novel, Roark is static, never compromising his morals.
While Keating is naïve and easy to manipulate and Roark is obstinate and maverick, there is a middle ground. The self made man, the American businessman, closely resembles Gail Wynand. As a youngster, he was always told by superiors, "You don't run things around here." He rises to this challenge and through individual effort; Wynand builds a vast newspaper chain that sways popular opinion. However, Wynand rarely agrees or qualifies the opinions presented in his paper. In fact, he privately despises them. He compromises his beliefs in order to attain greatness. When Wynand marries Dominique, he adamantly pursues a hard policy of banning his wife from being mentioned in the papers. He creates a barrier separating his personal life from his public life. His love for his work is tested morally when Roark is put on trial for dynamiting Cortlandt. On one hand, he can give up his newspaper and power in order to try and sway public opinion for Roark. The alternative is to let his passion sit idle while he sees his paper denouncing his friend. He fails to realize it is the people whom he holds power over that ultimately control him. When he finally does understand his mistake, he decides to compromise his morals to maintain his newspaper and reputation. Wynand is a creative man capable of capturing the unattainable, but in the process he sacrifices his morals to reach his goals. In that sense, they have lost their place among the respected in society. Wynand is not a true uncompromising first-hander, yet he is not a leeching second-hander. These people may attain greatness but at a hefty price.
The Fountainhead illustrates an allegory of characters that symbolize types of men. In the novel, there are true first-handers and second-handers. The few extremists like Keating and Roark represent only a minority of men. Wynands meet a tragic end And it is the Keatings that feed off Roarks to prevail. It is ultimately the individualistic spirit of Howard Roark that will rise above it all.

Rating:
Summary: None too subtle
Review: I loved this book and admired Ayn Rand's philosophy. As a novel, however, it is about as subtle as a jackhammer. Pulp philosophy, but unforgettable nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: The pinnacle of objectivity in philosophy
Review: The depth and inner conflicts of rand's characters creates a fluidly readable and purposeful novel. The philos of the characters and the plot weaves into a intricate tapestry of chalenging interactions, between the ego of the architect and public opinion. A subtle contrast is also created between the depth and scale of domonique's persona ans the relative complex simplicity of howard roark. this book is an icon of publishing and has inspired many young architects and thinkers alike.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating and Illuminating Character Study
Review: It is almost as interesting to absorb the responses of readers to this text as it is to absorb the text itself. Almost invariably, they fall into two camps: those for whom a weight is lifted and a hateful thing is explained, and those for whom the truth of the text is so unbearable that they feel compelled to somehow diminish its relevance. Therefore, though I think The Fountainhead is one of the most important works of fiction ever written in the English language, I do not necessarily recommend it to others. However, I will say that if you decide to read the text, you will almost certainly receive it with either the relief Ayn Rand writes about in her 25th anniversary introduction when she says that a rare few people will recognize Howard Roark and his struggle, and it is to them that she addresses her work, or you will receive it with the desperation of Peter Keating to justify his existence and his choices.

If you are in the former camp, then I salute you. If you are in the latter, I invite you to read the rest of Ayn Rands aforementioned introduction and continue to freely offer your opinions about the text, so that I might recognize you by your words.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the Bible
Review: Is another wonderful review really necessary? I had to think about that long and hard. I believe it is, but i'll keep it short. I don't believe in giving too much away in a review that will persuade a new reader one way or the other. I'll let the artist do that; although there are several reviews here that do, I will not. However, I couldn't keep myself from promoting somthing that has made such a wonderful impact in my life. Before reading this novel, I had many questions, and the world seemed very confusing to me. I've now found somthing that makes sense, completely, that doesn't beg more questions, or leave me with a feeling of an incomplete explanation. I believe it is universal for man to be curious and have so many questions. Ayn Rand has broken thru a barrier that no other Man/Woman has ever broke through before, and hence shown a world with light and clarity. Many owe much gratitude to her hard work and piercing drive that has created such a brillant masterpiece.
I don't reccomend it, I believe it is a NECESSARY read for a mans' progress.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest American novel
Review: The Fountainhead is Ayn Rand's greatest novel, and in my opinion the greatest American novel as well, surpassed only by the likes of Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo.

It is the story of a man struggling to survive on his own terms, without compromise. Howard Roark, an architect, wishes only to design buildings that are beautifully functional. But he is thwarted at every turn by an establishment that views adherence to worn out traditions, and mediocrity by concensus, as the only acceptable course of action. He fights back with hard work and argument, and ultimately triumphs as a romantic hero should.

The Fountainhead is also a philosophical justification of rational selfishness. Rand understood better than anyone how our culture has perverted the concept of selfishness until it was stripped of all real meaning. In the Fountainhead she will make you see this concept without the tainted lens that we are all taught to view it with. Agree with her philosophy or no, it is radically different than anything else forced down our throats via modern education.

The only flaw in Rand's masterpiece is the character of Dominique. Dominique is too abstract, and her inner struggle is unrealistic. Dominique is more idea than character, and while she works as an idea, some of her actions are simply unbelievable. But read it for yourself, and see if you concur...

Rating:
Summary: A Compassionate and Heartbreaking Tragedy
Review: In this humanizing work, Ms Rand, with typical objectivity and lack of hateful editorial voice, explores a maligned and troubled member of modern society - the sociopath. A sociopath, for readers not studied in psychiatry, can lie without any rise in nervousness, has difficulties relating to or empathizing with others, and may be prone to violence. For obvious reasons it is a hard disorder to detect and indeed, many sociopaths are economically successful. Understandably, the sociopath has historically rarely been presented as anything other than the most cardboard of villains, and it is this wall that Ms Rand breaks down in her opus the Fountainhead, where - perhaps relying on the experience of an afflicted brother or aunt - she shows a heterodox, humanized conception of such a person, whose condition causes as much pain to himself as it causes him to, unwittingly, cause to those around him.

Howard Roark is the protagonist of this tale, and the author never wavers from he strict first-person viewpoint, so much that she never explicitly mentions sociopathy. Howard Roark is - at least by his own dubious account - a brilliant architect screwed by The Man, and views himself as misunderstood, hardworking, and honorable. This is the supreme tragedy of the work - isn't full of just the smug self-assurance we expect but a desperate, burning desire to know of his own moral rightness. Possessing an adolescent's desire to buck the authorities, be original, and simply be a badass all-around, the reader also comes to realize that Roark, although he will never admit it, also possesses the child's need for parental approval of his being good, in the right. But since he does not believe in God and refuses to admit his vulnerability to any other person, he has only one way to turn - himself. Science has yet to validate whether complex psychological causes like this, or some defect of genes, or a chemical imbalance is responsible for sociopathy but this implicit explanation is certainly sufficient for literary purposes. There are overtones of paranoia as well, and some of the most heartrendering scenes involve his imagining his percieved "enemies" conspiring against him in the most cardboard of manners - "Blast that Howard Roark! His architectural originality threatens our plans for world domination!", etc. - while Roark's train of thought, as represented by the text, is unable to waver from this. Although he initially grates, the sheer annoyance and/or hatred one holds against him eventually gives way to sympathy, much like the sympathy any decent human being feels for Gene Ray, the troubled founder of Timecube.com.

Unlike many of the clichéd novels which chronicle some person's descent into depravity, Roark is neither aware of, nor in control of, his actions and the harm that they cause, and so even as he proceeds from mere rudeness, to raping a woman, to blowing up a building, he is fundamentally innocent. He is not evil, merely just another victim of his own disease - for instance, when he rapes Dominique, he sincerely believes that she wants him to, even as she explicitly says "no" and he physically overcomes her. Milton's Lucifer invented elaborate intellectual justifications for his narcissistic rebellion, and so does the windy Roark - indeed, his most common act of unconscious sadism may be in the boredom-inducing speeches he is prone to give, and that Rand forces the reader to endure these is an ultimately rewarding experience as it personalizes the pain that he causes. But Milton was never so fully (perhaps for his own sanity; Rand has unselfishly cast off such concerns in pursuing her compassion for all persons) committed to the character, but neither does it romanticize or try to give crecedence to its narrator's justifications, and that may be why the Fountainhead is the righteous successor to Paradise Lost. For one of the most courageous and complex literary acts of the century - as well as a call for greater public commitment to the treatment of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, the mentally ill, and if the tragic "not guilty" verdict was any indication, reform the legal system to ensure that sociopaths are not allowed to slip through the cracks of the legal system but find a safe home in publicly-funded institutions - I heartily recommend the Fountainhead.

Rating:
Summary: Review from an Ordinary Reader
Review: This book goes to No.1 on my list. I have read this book 6 times and it has inspired me in ways that lead to what I am now.
To Ayn Rand: Thank you for giving us Howard Roark.

Rating:
Summary: A radical Philosophy
Review: Since the first man who could think conciously the human race has been searching for the elusive philosophy of life. I think in every twenty years or so there emerges some radical new line of thought which is against everything which was thought true uptill then. Ayn Rand by some stroke of genius has atleast for me opened up a new line of thought.

The book is essentially based on the glorification of the human race and more specifically we as concious individuals. It deals with the struggles and aspirations of a young architect who is determined to do things the way he knows is right. The power of one against his thousands of detractors.

But actually this book transcends all boundaries like age, career etc and caters to the basic human being in us and urges to realise our selves and our dreams.

But like all other philosophies Ayn Rand's one isnt totally complete. It is a bit extreme in its approach but the book is extremely useful in the sense that it opens the door to a new line of thought rather than takes you to utopia. It gives you the crucial push needed to complete and augment your philosophy.

Any reader who reads this book with an open mind will understand the virtue of this book and if possible adapt himself. It takes us one step closer towards perfection.