"The Fountainhead" - by Ayn Rand

[fncceo]

I'm re-reading Ayn Rand's second most famous novel (and the only one to be made into a Hollywood movie) , "The Fountainhead", since I last read it 20-years-ago. Written in 1943 and just under 800 pages in the hardcover edition. It should take me the better part of the week.

I forgot just how many really excellent quotes there are in that book ... and just how relevant it is to our time and place today.

The Fountainhead Quotes by Ayn Rand

852 quotes from The Fountainhead: ‘[Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?’

www.goodreads.com

 

[cnm]

I tried to read it once. It was foul. I may have managed twenty pages. At least it was useful in teaching me to not bother with her other works.

If you insist on Russian authors I recommend Tolstoy in your favourite translation.

 

[fncceo]

I tried to read it once. It was foul. I may have managed twenty pages.

I doubt seriously that anyone could have formed any kind of lucid opinion of this work, or any other, from 20 pages.

Instead, I suggest someone might have shamed you reading something not on the approved reading list.

It is safe to say that after only reading 20 pages, you really have no idea what the book is about. You only know what others have told you it's about.

 

[konradv]

I'm re-reading Ayn Rand's second most famous novel (and the only one to be made into a Hollywood movie) , "The Fountainhead", since I last read it 20-years-ago. Written in 1943 and just under 800 pages in the hardcover edition. It should take me the better part of the week.

I forgot just how many really excellent quotes there are in that book ... and just how relevant it is to our time and place today.

The Fountainhead Quotes by Ayn Rand

852 quotes from The Fountainhead: ‘[Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?’

www.goodreads.com

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Remember reading that and thinking what an a**hole Roark was. Read Atlas Shrugged and realized it wasn’t the characters, it was the author.

 

[gipper]

I doubt seriously that anyone could have formed any kind of lucid opinion of this work, or any other, from 20 pages.

Instead, I suggest someone might have shamed you reading something not on the approved reading list.

It is safe to say that after only reading 20 pages, you really have no idea what the book is about. You only know what others have told you it's about.

Well…it’s not like an easy read.

 

[fncceo]

Well…it’s not like an easy read.

No, indeed. Rand isn't a particularly great writer. She is long-winded and she writes sex scenes like a police report (one can only imagine what she was like in the sack).

However, she is creative, and she creates very good characters. I still enjoy her books, plodding as they may be.

I'm more impressed by what she has to say, than in the way she says it.

 

[cnm]

It is safe to say that after only reading 20 pages, you really have no idea what the book is about. You only know what others have told you it's about.

The writing and ideas in 20 pages is more than enough to determine whether any book is worth persevering with. Rand is complete adolescent crap. It got the deserved over the shoulder heave.

 

[fncceo]

Remember reading that and thinking what an a**hole Roark was.

I can see where someone might get that opinion of him. I'm sure many people have read "The Illiad" and came away thinking that Achilles was a real jerk.

But, that is kind of the point of the hero of the Greek ideal (and Rand is very much a writer in the classical Greek style). Greek hero's are strong, beautiful, and unwilling to compromise. While their villains are soft, perfidious, and inconstant.

But, while Achilles was a great taker of human life, Howard Roark is a great creator of artistic masterpieces.

 

[gipper]

No, indeed. Rand isn't a particularly great writer. She is long-winded and she writes sex scenes like a police report (one can only imagine what she was like in the sack).

However, she is creative, and she creates very good characters. I still enjoy her books, plodding as they may be.

I'm more impressed by what she has to say, than in the way she says it.

I don’t want to imagine that. Ugh!

The best way to read her novels is when you’re really stoned.

 

[fncceo]

The best way to read her novels is when you’re really stoned.

Time tends to slow down when you're stoned ... so, I can't really say that's a good idea.

Her novels are quite long enough.

Actually, my favorite Rand novella is "Anthem". Under 100 pages and pretty much straight to the point.

 

[gipper]

Time tends to slow down when you're stoned ... so, I can't really say that's a good idea.

Her novels are quite long enough.

Actually, my favorite Rand novella is "Anthem". Under 100 pages and pretty much straight to the point.

Well you have to be in a different state of mind, to comprehend the novel. I speak from experience.

 

[fncceo]

Well you have to be in a different state of mind, to comprehend the novel. I speak from experience.

I have spent most of my life in a different state of mind.

 

[Flopper]

I doubt seriously that anyone could have formed any kind of lucid opinion of this work, or any other, from 20 pages.

Instead, I suggest someone might have shamed you reading something not on the approved reading list.

It is safe to say that after only reading 20 pages, you really have no idea what the book is about. You only know what others have told you it's about.

I read it but so many years ago, I don't remember it very well. I saw the movie about 10 years after it was made and it seem dated even then. I don't think Gary Cooper was right for the role of the arrogant architect who sees himself as misunderstood. It was a stylish movie with lots of symbolism which I don't think audiences picked up on. Anyway it was a flop at the box office but the critics liked it.

 

[fncceo]

I read it but so many years ago, I don't remember it very well. I saw the movie about 10 years after it was made and it seem dated even then. I don't think Gary Cooper was right for the role of the arrogant architect who sees himself as misunderstood. It was a stylish movie with lots of symbolism which I don't think audiences picked up. Anyway it was a flop at the box office but the critics liked it.

The movie was actually quite good. Ms Rand wrote the screenplay and the dialogue in the movie is remarkably close to that in the book. The studio insisted on a much less convoluted story (good for them) but the main story is essentially the same.

Gary Cooper was the wrong guy for the part. Way too old at that time to play the 27-year-old Roark. On top of that, Cooper (by his own admission) didn't understand the dialogue, particularly his courtroom speech, and this made him uncomfortable with the part. He lobbied, unsuccessfully, to get the dialogue he didn't understand cut. The end scene where he is standing atop a skyscraper under construction and is supposed to look strong and heroic, well ... someone in the effects department had the wind machine turned up to hurricane speed and he looks silly, gritting his teeth against the wind that looks like it will blow him off the building. Also, that "speedsuit" he's wearing is not the least bit flattering to his physique (unlike the suits and work clothes he wears in most of the film).

Dominique Francon (played very well by a 22-year-old Patricia Neal) is a very complicated character and I don't think the 114 minute movie did her justice. Instead of coming off as Rand intended, a woman seeking perfection and angry at being unable to find it, she just comes off as petulant and capricious.

The movie is a good introduction to the subject matter for anyone can't quite bring themselves to read the 800-page novel. If you watched the movie and then read the book, you won't be disappointed because the plot and dialogue are essentially the same, just a lot more of it in the book.

 

[g5000]

I'm re-reading Ayn Rand's second most famous novel (and the only one to be made into a Hollywood movie) , "The Fountainhead",

Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) - IMDb

Atlas Shrugged: Part I: Directed by Paul Johansson. With Taylor Schilling, Grant Bowler, Matthew Marsden, Edi Gathegi. Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and steel mogul Henry Rearden form an alliance to fight the increasingly authoritarian government of the United States.

www.imdb.com

Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012) - IMDb

Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike: Directed by John Putch. With Diedrich Bader, Jason Beghe, Jordana Capra, Jennifer Cortese. Railroad owner Dagny Taggart and steel mogul Henry Rearden search desperately for the inventor of a revolutionary motor as the U.S. government continues to spread its control...

www.imdb.com