Fountainhead

[Aishwarya]

\"I think therefore I am\", said the great French philosopher Rene Descartes. About two hundred years later, a middle-aged lady wrote a book which gave a name to Descartes\' philosophy - objectivism. We are whatever we are because of the way we think. Individuality, they said, is the essence of mankind. This book won worldwide interest and acclaim and was regarded as philosophically the most challenging book of its time. The author Ayn Rand, the book - The Fountainhead. <br><br>Talking about this book is very difficult. It is very easy to review a book with a story and very easy to review an idea, but it is extremely difficult to review a school of thought because there is so much scope to it in so many directions from a single source that catching hold of one track and explaining it would not only mean limiting the scope of the book but also belittling the greatness of the author.<br><br>

Fountainhead is the story of an intransigent young architect, Roark, who\'s fighting against the conventional styles of architecture. Nothing bothers him except his work. He has the quiet complete calm of a man who has realized that he doesn’t belong to the world of the second-handed. The world hates him, branding him as an egotist, a selfless cold-blooded emotionless creature. But Howard is at complete peace with himself. He gets rusticated from his college because he doesn’t even oblige his principal over the design of a small arch. He feels the building should be like an honest man, plain and simple which is exactly the opposite of the norms being followed then.
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Howard has a friend, a fellow architect called Peter Keating. Now he\'s just like any of us, wants to be successful by depending on others, by living for others. Peter is a mob man at heart with tremendous vanity, who’s willing to be a parasite for something as short living as a brilliant career. His triumph is his disaster. He has no self and therefore cannot have any ethics. When there is a competition for the design of the building, he approaches Howard for help. Howard draws sketches and helps Peter win the contract for the design of the building. Howard doesn’t have any animosity, as it is not success that he is after, he wants to be himself at any cost.
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The third character is Dominique Francon, the rich, extremely beautiful girl. She too, like Howard Roark, feels that she doesn’t belong to this world. When she meets him, she vows to destroy him, because she feels that Howard is insulting his own greatness by surviving in this hypocritical, parasitic world.
<br><br> Ayn Rand has excellently depicted the chemistry between Roark and Dominique. The moment they meet, sparks fly. Even something as voyeuristic as sexual union between them has been described so spiritually that instead of getting titillated or disgusted, one begins to respect the whole act.
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Then there is the fourth and the most dangerous character of all, Ellsworth Monkton Toohey Ellsworth - evangelist, philosopher and intellectual par excellence. Apart from Dominique Francon, he is the only other person who has been able to understand Roark. He believes in collectivism and he has got the lust for his superiority, and this can be expressed only through others by dominating them. He is the genius of modern democracy in its worst meaning and is also considered to be a walking encyclopedia. This is natural since he is no creative mind and only repeats and apes - he is like a sponge and not a fresh spring. He wants to destroy individuals like Roark. His manipulation is well brought out by this incident. An industrialist, Erwin Stoddard wanted an architect to design an idol for the temple he wanted to build. Toohey, knowing Roark, very well recommends his name to Stoddard. Roark obliges, and when he finally completes the idol in the temple, everybody is shocked. In a place of worship, the idol was that of a nude woman in a state of exaltation. For Roark, religion meant being free from inhibitions, free from bondage and an eternal state of bliss attained only by being oneself. But Toohey condemns it as a sacrilege, the antic of an insane egotist idiot - the very Toohey who recommended Roark’s name for this assignment.<br><br>

The climax of “Fountainhead” is one the most dramatic endings I have ever come across. Roark is given an assignment to build a home for the aged. The only fee Roark charges is that the building should be designed exactly the way he wants it to. But the builders, in order to create more room for the building, do some slight alterations. Realizing this, he goes one night and blows up the building with a dynamite. He is arrested and summoned at the court. He acts as his own defense counsel and the speech he gives in the end to defend himself is simply mind-boggling. He says “creators, thinkers and artists have stood alone against men of their time, their every new thought was denounced. But these people were not selfless, they were selfish, self-motivated. On the other hand we have the parasites, the second-handed people who choose to depend on others. That building was mine - I created it and I destroyed it”. He gets acquitted.
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Characterization is slow. The style is a metaphor for smoothness. Every word makes you think. But let me warn you, it is a very dangerous philosophy for those who get inspired by Roark after reading this book - not understanding ego and selfishness in their truest sense would end up in their being branded as mental wrecks.
<br><br> You don’t have to believe and take for granted whatever is written in the book, you don’t even have to contradict or refute what’s being said. You weigh and consider it. Every time you read “Fountainhead” you get a new meaning of it, because as I mentioned it earlier it is not a book, it is a school of thought.

[vivek of themavericks remember!!]

Try \"Atlas Shrugged\" by the same author - it\'s even harder. Fountainhead is for beginners.

[friend]

Are you the same Aishwariya of Salmaan or who????

[popesmokesdope]

I think, therefore I am... not related to you! --> the \'pope\'

[Aishwarya]

vivek i am thru with \"atlas shrugged\" and also \"capitalism\"... i think the latter is much better and less abstract. \"atlas shrugged\" doesn\'t seem original in the sense that she seems to have repeated the style as well the philosophy, whereas \"capitalism\" seems fresh.

[Aishwarya]

no i am not the Aiswar\"I\"ya of the salman... sadly i dont belong to anybody...

[Hyderabadi Banjara]

Have you read any Joseph Heller books? There is one particular book all about absurdism. Read it, you will like it.

[lucifer-in-disguise]

Aishwarya, you do belong to somebody n I know it....

[Bhargaw]

Your only true possession is self-possesion, glad to know that you don\'t belong to anyone, thus maintaining your individuality. Not my quote, to ppl who are thinking that its a good one.

[vivek of themavericks remember!!]

I got a better one \"don\'t think you are... know you are\" ...from the movie MATRIX

[Aishwarya]

i just read \"catch 22\" and it was very witty and i could relate much with the book coz i always find myself in sitations that Joselh hellar has mentioned in the book. It is a good satire.

[popesmokesdope]

tsk tsk....do u happen to be a MATRIX fan?

[anita]

i didn\'t understand why u have given this review. and why do u want us to study this book madam?? are u mkting this book??

[Aishwarya]

well i find that book to be very nice ..a book worth reading atleast once... and i am not marketting for that book and even if i were,whats your problem lady?

[Gulmohar Hyderabadi]

Hey \'A\': Ayn Rand also says \"man\'s ego is the fountain head of progress...\" and \"man is a volitional being\" etc. Well,as some one said, Atlas Shrugged is an advanced course. The portrayal of Reardon, Francesco and Dagny are very interesting. Keep going on this subject.

[Aishwarya]

Ayn Rand\'s forte lies in her characterisation, be it in Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged... Hey, have you read Hermen Hesse\'s Siddhartha? That\'s a good book too... In fact, it is on the same lines as Fountainhead, but with an Indian touch...

[Gulmohar Hyderabadi]

I read a few pages of Siddhartha and found it not very exciting. Maybe I should take one more look at it . Have you read Shermer\'s Why People Belive Weird Things. It\'s not a novel kinda thing, but general essays on people and their beliefs in astrology etc.

[Aishwarya]

Nope i didnt read that book,i am not so enthu about astrology actually,probably will try reading that book now though... thanks anyways!!!

[Gulmohar Hyderabadi]

Dude, I am not recommending an Astrology course for you:-).
I should quit my profession, the day I recommend astrology books for junta . This book \"Why People...\" is an intellectually stimulating one. Shermer even freaks out on Ayn Rand. You can find a few reviews of this book @amazon.com.

[Hyderabadi Banjara]

Now now... looks like its getting the heat. From Objectivism to Absurdism and where to? Existentialism? Any takers for Sartre, Jean-Paul?

[anita]

I don\'t have any problem, madam, I just asked and you cud have said yes or no, that\'s all!!!

[sandeep]

gr8 review aishwarya, after reading the book and analysing the character of roark one feels that he is an perfectonist born in a world entangled in the selfish deeds..one needs to rise above all these to recognize the great work done by such great artists ..dominique character was equally interesting , a woman craving for a man who is totally immersed in his own world. Keating,an ambitious lad who wants to attain success at any cost, many times he keeps going to the same person(roark) whom he hated the most in the world..could anyone recommend any other gr8 work to read as that Of fountain head.

[SpyGlass]

i'm sorry , i havn't bothered to read your probably painstakingly written lil review ,ash ... personally the task seemed a bit daunting ... .. but i happened to have read fountainhead ... and i have a coupla questions...

Dont you think it was very convenient of Ms Rand to make all the characters the perfect epitomes of what type they represent ... are people that black and white ?!

Ok so Roark was lucky he was born an orphan (acc to RAND) , so redemption for anybody is only available for ppl who defy all relationships...and follow his own path like a stubborn git with blinders... are relationships really what chain us down .

It'll all be nice if what Rand sez were practical ... life would be so much easier ... dont you think.

ps: the reason i didnt like the book is probably also the fact that Rand is not much of a feminist .... i hate the fact the Dominique has no ambition beyond Roark . She's potrayed as the types who stilently endure all the torture bestowed upon her by men and the quitly fades away into the background .

[SpyGlass]

Ahem BTW did somebody mention Joseph Heller !!!!

Heller is God...and Catch 22 is The Book !

One of the first novels i picked up ... took me a long time to read ... but soaked in every word . Acid dripping sarcasm , down and dirty and has no qualms about human imperfections . it is imperfections that give us our identity, attribute uniqueness to us .

Thru the book(heller), drowns u in absolute misery ,in the end gives you one last gasp of fresh air and then coldly cuts lifeline. now thats a thriller!

[Arch]

You said it, Spyglass.... Felt the same when I read 'Fountainhead'.. as if she had nothing to do in her life and yet Roark loved just the same for her physical 'beauty' alone !!!!

Try out 'Atlas Shrugged' though ..Dagny Taggart is the one whom I enjoyed most ! most characters come out strong and interesting.. I enjoyed it.. most of it.. except for the ..

well maybe I shud not give that in.. yet