Fountainhead

by Ayn Rand

This book was recommended to me almost 7 years back but somehow never got down to reading it until now. But let me tell you, I'm happy I read it now after having... lets say "grown up" ! Its very difficult to describe it, its about this architect Howard Roark, who believes that Man is born to be a creator, and altruism is actually way to rid him of all his abilities and keep him from achieving greatness. The book is written in a very gripping manner and it has a very distinctivly different way of writing. The characters are developed and explored very well, and atleast for me there were quite a few "Wow" moments. The characters leave an impact on you and it questions quite a few of your beliefs. Definately worth a read, irrespective of who's philosophy you agree with, Roark or Toohey ( the other end of the spctrum from Roark) so somwhere in between.

The Fountainhead - by Ayn Rand

Ed: This post was originally made on May 18, 2005 at my blog. This is a reproduction of the same.

Most B-schoolers discover Ayn Rand classic during their MBA preparations. In fact it is probably a matter of prestige for B-schoolers to have 'The Fountainhead' as their favourite book. But I have met quite a few people who call 'The Foutainhead' their favourite just because everyone else does so. By doing so they go against the very philosophy that this book tries to teach. Such people are the living copy of the character - 'Peter Keating'.

Relievingly, I have found many people who have a mind of their own and do not feel ashamed to confess that they either do not understand Rand or the book itself is complete bullshit!

I just completed my 3rd reading of the book. I had failed to complete it 2 times and had to restart every time. After completing the book I felt that the core of the book is the testimony given by Howard Roark (the protagonist of the story) in the court at the end of the story. However, Roark's (or rather Ayn Rand's) ideas are so fundamentally challenging to the dogmas of the society that Ayn Rand had to create a story filled with extremely unnatural characters to explain it.

This is one reason why many people start reading the book but give up in the middle finding the story too absurd or extreme. I myself came very close to being one of such people and know at least two of them.

I feel that such people can read the above mentioned speech and try to understand the concept presented here. I had earlier pasted the text of the speech on my blog but it was too long to be posted here. So I have made good use of my Yahoo! ID which works on all Yahoo! affiliates like geocities by creating a webpage dedicated to Howard Roark's Testimony.