The Fountainhead By Rand, Ayn - Paperback

Strength of pages glued to the spine of the book is poor- this means that, considering that it's a 700 pages book, pages will eventually fall out.

On its surface, this book is about two different architects who simultaneously embark upon their careers in New York City. At its core, it’s about the difference in philosophy between individualism and collectivism. If you know Ayn Rand, then you know she is a champion of individualism, and thus her protagonist is a man named Howard Roark, an architect who expresses his individualism with every project he designs. He is innovative and fiercely independent and simply doesn’t give a damn what other people think. Sometimes, his indifference to the opinions of others gets him in trouble, and yet there are also times when other characters express their admiration of his strong will, lamenting the fact that they themselves care what other people think. Roark represents Rand’s ideal of the creative individual who lives for himself and not for others. Rand is the mother of a school of philosophy called Objectivism, which she once described as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” With this definition in mind, it is evident that Roark embodies her philosophy as he is a man who only cares about his own happiness, to varying degrees of success and failure. Roark’s classmate and counterpart is Peter Keating, a man who represents collectivism in all its forms. Keating is a natural conformist whose architectural designs are all reproductions of past styles—like Renaissance, Gothic, or Beaux-Arts—and are based on whatever he thinks will win him more clients or public approval. He is constantly seeking validation from others and is dependent on them for his success. While Roark’s designs come from his own creative soul, Keating’s designs are simply a mirror of popular taste and client demands, but never anything original. While he initially finds success, by the end of the book Keating has become a shell of a man. The main antagonist of the book is a journalist, architecture critic, and political activist named Ellsworth Toohey. Toohey is a power-seeking intellectual and collectivist who uses his talents to shape public opinion. He organizes numerous groups and committees and uses people’s desire to help others (their altruism) as a means of control and mass manipulation. He wants to crush individuality (often in the form of Howard Roark) and promote collectivism, and what he ultimately gets for this endeavor is mediocrity. One of the other major themes in this book is the relationship between power and the media. This is first expressed in the character of Toohey as he uses his circulated writing in order to mold public opinion, and is then later encountered again when the character of Gail Wynand is introduced as one of the most powerful newspaper magnates in the city. At one point, Wynand tries to use his newspaper to uplift Roark and is nearly run out of business for it and must relent his efforts. The take-away from this is twofold: both the power of those in charge to manipulate public opinion, and the power of a collectivist mindset once an idea takes hold. All in all, this book is a philosophical novel that expertly expresses the struggle between creative independence and societal conformity. While Rand lands firmly on the side of the individual, I was very aware of points throughout the book when I did not. I won’t share specifics so as not to spoil the plot, but my take-away was not that we should all champion the creative rights and rationality of the individual and condemn those of the collective, but that a balance between the two is necessary. There are certainly times when individual creativity and ingenuity should be put on the front page of the newspaper and celebrated by the world, and also, there are times when we should all come together and adopt a hive mind. Take architecture: If I’m designing a new train station, perhaps I should be allowed to express my individual talents and make a one-of-a-kind train station that is beautiful and functional and unlike any other. Alternatively, if I’m designing a community of one hundred houses, perhaps I should model them after a community that has already been constructed elsewhere so as to keep costs down and make them affordable to families. I believe that whether we should adopt an individualist mindset or a collectivist one should depend on the context. With that as my own personal take-away, I must praise the prose of Rand’s writing: her book, while long, is exquisite. Her characters are well defined and not afraid to speak their minds and often said and did things that I did not expect. Her vivid descriptions of people, places, and things brought them to life in my mind. Her writing is engaging and full of ideas, and while I speculated that individualism would win out in the end (knowing the author’s philosophy ahead of time), at no point did I know what was going to happen next. I enjoyed this book wholeheartedly, both for the surface story and for the underlying philosophy.

Bought it as a gift, she loved it

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The story portraying a Man how a Man should be.. In the form of a creative thinker and an innovator, self joyous, independent from the second hand opinions and desires, self sustained and free of all kinds of second hand suffering.. The protagonist is a individual architect who designs a building with all his spirit, unaltered by second hand opinions and thought process.. A man who knows only to give the best of himself to the cause he is best at.. To not surrender to the world in manner of winning hearts of the mob, but to keep his soul out for the cause.. For the cause of betterment of mankind and its progree forward.. He is best at what he does.. The world opposes him just as it opposed all the innovators through ages.. Wheel, Sun, Fire, and so on... All the first hand thinkers are made to suffer by this world... People make him suffer.. but the Man is beyond all the suffering the world can impart on him.. He knows the best what to expect from this majorly unworthy world.. He sticks around till the end with his selfless integrity and soul.. And he wins just as such person should win through time.. He is not dependent on any other man for his joy or other's acknowledgement.. Just keeps on doing what is best for the Mankind.. Just what a Man should be.. Other few like minded people stick along his crusade.. Giving meaning to their own lives.. The Man wins just as a Man with such callibre and attitude towrds Life should.. Wonderful story with a wonderful philosophy.. Must read..

I first read this book at 18 (to enter an essay for a scholarship - which I didn't win) and was captivated by the story (even though I disagreed with much of Rand's personal philosophy - and still do). This book should make you think about yourself and what sort of person you are and what sort of person you want to be (whether that's someone Rand would have approved of or not is irrelevant). If you keep in mind that the author was a person who naturally valued autonomy, who was born and raised in communist Russia where she wasn't allowed to be who she wanted to be, where the State controlled every aspect of her life (under the real threat of death) you can understand why she advocated so strongly for the individual self. But that's not why I love this book! In my copy I have this excerpt underlined (page 633) (Roark and Gail are talking) Gail asks, "What have you been thinking about, these past weeks?" "The principle behind the dean who fired me from Stanton." "What principle?" "The thing that is destroying the world. The thing you were talking about. Actual selflessness." "The ideal which they say does not exist?" "They're wrong. It does exist - though not in the way they imagine. It's what I couldn't understand about people for a long time. They have no self. They live within others. They live second-hand. Look at Peter Keating." "You look at him. I hate his guts." "I've looked at him - at what's left of him - and it's helped me to understand. He's paying the price and wondering for what sin and telling himself that he's been too selfish. In what act or thought of his has there been any self? What was his aim in life? Greatness - in other people's eyes. Fame, admiration, envy - all that which comes from others. Others dictated his convictions, which he did not hold, but he was satisfied that others believed he held them. Others were his motive power and his prime concern. He didn't want to be great, but to be thought great. He didn't want to build, but to be admired as a builder. He borrowed from others in order to make an impression on others. There's your actual selflessness. It's his ego he's betrayed and given up. But everybody calls him selfish." "That's the pattern most people follow." "Yes! And isn't that the root of every despicable action? Not selfishness, but the absence of a self." That sums up the world we live in. Clambering hordes running to stand on a stage and be the next big this or that...hordes of people, most of who don't know themselves. People devoid of self awareness, or understanding of what they are or are not good at. People who want to be "A Star!" as if being famous for being famous was some sort of pinnacle of accomplishment. We're living in a Narcissistic age with millions of people all wearing masks pretending to be what they think people want them to be so that others will think they're special because deep down the mask wearers don't feel special and have no intention of putting in the effort to develop themselves until they become something special. For me, The Fountainhead encourages us to tear off the mask, look in the mirror and be whoever that may be. The world doesn't need a million clones of this singer or that actor. It needs individuals who will put in the hours, blood, sweat and tears to become the best they can be as individuals so they can then help build a better society by doing what they do well.