imageThis year, I’ve been reading some of the best books I’ve ever come in contact with. The Fountainhead is Ayn Rand’s philosophical allegory illustrating her vision of the ideal man and his struggle with the forces of modern evil. This one of the most interesting, solid, intelligent works of fiction I’ve ever read. All of the characters, even the dumb ones, have individual mazes of thought, worthy of close examination. This book is crammed with brilliant speeches, bombastic lies, and fractured ideologies. Some of the conversations are similar to the final parts of 1984. Both books make me think so much that I consider taking Advil, but then I remember that Advil looks like tiny pellets of Big Bird poop. I ain’t eatin’ it.

This book is about an architect named Howard Roark who gets kicked out of school for refusing to do any design work that insults his grand, creative genius. If Roark were a physical education major, he might have gotten kicked out for refusing to play badminton, because let’s face it, that sport’s for people who suck at tennis.

Roark’s quasi-acquaintance Peter Keating is a tiny piece of terdlet clinging to the butt hairs of the creative spirit. Keating is to Roak, as Jay Leno is Conan O’Brien. While Keating sucks up and uses Roak’s ideas to gain success in the world of architecture, Roak pays his dues, gets laughed at a lot, seldom gets any credit for anything, but lives with the knowledge that his precious integrity is intact. When I see Conan O’Brien I think, there’s a man that has a vision of what “funny” should be, and to him, it’s robots on the toilet. And even if he’ll never have the prestige that redundant butthead Leno has, every time that robot takes an electric poop, Conan can smile knowing that his integrity is intact.

imageThe story follows Roark and Keating through the ups and downs of their careers. Keating is shown to be a failure for his inability to do anything that he truly wants to. The prestige he sought destroys him. If Paul Rubins wasn’t famous, no one would have made a big deal out of the movie theater thing. See, prestige isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Roark holds true to his convictions, gets a lot of crazy, eccentric allies, and fights an uphill battle against the forces of collectivist evil doers like Ellsworth Toohey, a noted-dork who preaches altruism merely to keep people subservient to his wishes.

If your brain on drugs is a fried egg, your brain on Ayn Rand is something like Moons Over My Hammy at Denny’s. It’s really complicated, and you’ll either love it or hate it. Religion is kind of chucked out the window in this, and the book focuses more on the troubles of visionaries in a society centered on mutual benefit and equality. This book deals with everything from sex to big business.

There’s a lot of stuff in here, but nothing to be scared of. You don’t have to be afraid that the creepy Ayn Rand clan of hooded Objectivists are going to bash open the skull of your baby Jesus when you read this book. It’s not all that bad, and no one said you had to agree with the philosophy in order to get a lot of meaning out of it.

Anyone who likes philosophy at all should probably check this book out at some time. The young folk will like Howard Roark’s unbreakable, rebellious spirit. Old folks may not like Peter Keating’s perfect illustration of a wasted life that so many of us are doomed for. In fact, he has me scared, what am I doing wasting my writing skills on this crummy article.

-Hazzard

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Resources for the Fountainhead:
The Ayn Rand Institute
Reviews of The Fountainhead by ApnaGuide.com