The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead has been on my reading list and a recent post here on Minds prompted me to read it next.

This novel is not as long as Atlas Shrugged (which I felt compelled to review in 10 parts), but it is still pretty long.

Reading Ayn Rand's novels is like watching a foreign movie versus an American movie. They're more about character development than action. Don't think that there is no action in her novels. There is, but not to the extent that you have in James Patterson novels, for example.

Ayn Rand is very insightful about people, society, government, and life in general. The Fountainhead clearly demonstrates this, as did Atlas Shrugged. I would hesitate to declare her ahead of her time because I believe that basic life does not change that much between generations.

You might be confused if you think that this novel is simply about architecture. Architecture is simply the scene, the background for the novel. The Fountainhead is about men who are "creators" and men who are "second-handers." The main difference between the two is that "the creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men." The creator does not need anyone's approval.

The main character in this novel, Howard Roark is a creator. Another character is Ellsworth Monkton Tooley who is "a second-hand man par excellence." One is an architect and the other a critic. Guess who is which.

There are other characters in this novel and it is very revealing as the reader gets to know them.

This is a novel which everyone should read, but won't. This fact simply proves Ayn Rand's point that most people don't really want freedom. They would prefer less choices (or no choices) versus the myriad of choices offered by freedom.

Just like Atlas Shrugged, I have highlighted countless passages in The Fountainhead so I can easily find them again. I will leave you with one which made an impression on me. It is difficult limiting it to one quote because the entire book made a deep impression on me.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received - hatred. The great creators - the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors - stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced.

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