Are the characters real? What do the characters show about integrity? Who are the “good guys” and “bad guys”? Which characters did you like? What is “Objectivism”?
Some (most) of us hated this book or, at least, found very little to like, including the characters. The characters didn’t feel real. As one person put it, “After thinking about it while reading the dialogue, it is simply impossible. Their conversations with each other are far too soul searching, the conversations read like therapy. Everything, every thought, every sentence strives to explain, and reveal character and motive. There are no casual conversations, just like there are no feelings.” Every conversation is a logic problem.
Having said that, we did talk about the themes of Socialism, Individual v. Collective, and Integrity. It seems that the most worthy thing is the integrity of the individual and that the individual is more important than the group. Many of the characters “test limits” and are able to survive.
Rourk and Wynand represent the self-made man, but Rourk is unwilling to compromise (everything is done on his terms or not at all), which apparently makes him better than Wynand. This is unrealistic because he seemed to be able to live and help others, without ever having much money. Please explain how these people are NOT egotistical, self-centered, will hurt anyone on their way up to the most important thing of all (money), even the ones they so-call love?
And if you are interested, some folks see this
philosophy as the one which would bring out the best in humanity.
BACKGROUND (everything below is from Book Rags)
Sales are currently near three million copies. Readers respond not only to the story of brilliant architect Howard Roark's struggle to gain success in New York City; they also become intrigued with the philosophy Rand outlined through the characters and their interactions. Many readers became devoted followers of objectivism, Rand's vision of how to achieve an ideal self as expressed in the novel.
Ayn Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905 to Fronz (a chemist) and Anna. Alisa taught herself to read at age six and by age nine, she determined that she would become a writer of idealist heroes like those created by Sir Walter Scott and Victor Hugo. The family fled the Bolshevik Revolution soon after it began in 1917 and relocated to the Crimea. The Communists confiscated her father's business and, as a result, the family was thrown into poverty. During this period she studied American history and became enthralled with the democratic system, which would have a profound effect on her fiction. When she and her family returned to Russia, she began studies in philosophy and history at the University of Petrograd where she graduated in 1924. That same year, her passion for films prompted her to enroll in the State Institute for Cinema Arts where she studied screen writing.
In 1925, she was granted permission to leave Russia to visit relatives, but she would never return to her homeland. She stayed in New York City for six months, extended her visa, and then moved to Hollywood where she changed her name and hoped to start a career as a screenwriter. Rand met Cecil B. DeMille on her second day in California, and the movie mogul immediately offered her a job as an extra and then a script reader on his film King of Kings. A week later she met actor Frank O'Connor, who became her husband until his death fifty years later.
The Fountainhead, along with her popular last novel, Atlas Shrugged, expresses the philosophy she termed objectivism, which she would outline in lectures and essays from 1962 through 1976. During the last decades of her life she became a popular and controversial public philosopher, speaker, and cult figure. Her death in New York City on March 6, 1982 triggered new public and academic interest in her life, fiction, and her objectivist movement.
BRIEF SUMMARY
Toohey, who has falsely assumed the role of humanist, feels threatened by Roark's individuality and so sets out to ruin him. On his recommendation, Roark is hired to build a "Temple to the Human Spirit," which upon completion, Toohey claims is heretical. As a result, Roark's career suffers.
In an effort to bolster his own reputation, Keating asks Roark to design a low-cost development called Cortlandt Homes. Roark agrees, with Keating's promise that he will not alter the plans. When Keating passes the design off as his own and allows it to be altered, Roark blows up the project with Dominique's help. When Roark goes on trial for the bombing, Wynand supports his friend, which turns public opinion against him. Toohey sees the situation as an opportunity for him to destroy Wynand, who has just fired him, and Roark. Toohey engineers a strike against the Banner. To save himself, Wynand writes an editorial condemning Roark, which salvages his career but breaks his spirit.
At his trial, Roark convinces the jury that he had a right to destroy his project and is found not guilty. Roger Enright buys Cortlandt Homes and commissions Roark to rebuild it. Keating's reputation is destroyed after the public discovers that he put his name on the designs. After Dominique divorces Wynand, she marries Roark, who agrees to build a skyscraper for Wynand, who tells him, " 'Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours . . . and could have been mine.' "
Imitation, Roark might argue, is a practice of "seeming: without actually "being." This relates to two major themes, Innovation versus Tradition and, of course, Being versus Seeming.
Peter sees architecture as a means to an end. He is not, like Roark, concerned with the integrity of his designs. His first concern lay with social mobility, fame and wealth. Ironically, were it not for Roark's support, Peter would fail. Roark, by comparison, doesn't need anyone's help or approval. He relies only on himself.
THEMES
Reason
Rand believed that "reason is man's only proper judge of values and his only proper guide to action." She called her philosophy "objectivism" because she wanted to promote a sense of objective reality based on the power to reason. In the novel, Roark exhibits reason as he determines what nourishes his ego and thus sustains his life. The main quality that accomplishes these ends is his individualism. Throughout the novel, he continually refuses to allow others to alter his vision or to dictate the terms of his success.
Rand suggested that those who choose not to think rationally and look to others for guidance become second-handers as they refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. Peter Keating is the prime example of this type of individual. His insecurity prompts his lapses in reason as he tries to pass off Roark's work as his own. His inability to determine proper values and proper action results in his destruction.
Individualism versus Collectivism
Rand presents her philosophy of the merits of individualism and collectivism through two of her main characters: Howard Roark and Ellsworth Toohey. She champions individualism in her depiction of Roark, whose nobility rests in large part on his determination not to be influenced by others, especially in regards to his creative vision. Roark emphasizes that individuality fosters self-sufficiency, which enables him to successfully produce artistic architectural structures. Rand insisted in a 1934 letter to H. L. Mencken (as published in the Letters of Ayn Rand, edited by Michael S. Berliner), "I believe that man will always be an individualist, whether he knows it or not, and I want to make it my duty to make him know it" (Berliner, ed.).
Collectivism, which depends on self-sacrifice to the good of the group, becomes destructive in the characterization of Toohey and his followers. Toohey promotes this philosophy only to gain control of his followers who he has convinced to give up their individuality in their devotion to the welfare of others. This exploitative system requires followers to subordinate themselves to the will of other people. The resulting self-abnegation undermines the honesty of the self and the human spirit.
UPDATE 2/2014
Is Ayn Rand and her philosophy really responsible for the state of our country?
This
is an excerpt from an interesting article.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/24/ayn-rand-sociopathic/ A fat,
smug bastard friend of
mine (that’s his chosen nickname, The FSB) pointed out to me some time
ago that pretty much ALL conservative politics are selfish at their
core. Take any conservative position on a social or economic issue and
boil away all the rhetoric and what you are left with is “I got mine,
screw you.”
I thought about that for a while. I suppose its simplicity struck me
as being a little too easy, a little too sound bitey. So I sat down and
made a list of conservative ideas and what they really mean:
- No gay marriage – Homosexuality makes me uncomfortable (due to
misguided religious influence or poor upbringing or both). Gay people
should be punished because of my beliefs. Stoopid homos…
- No welfare, food stamps or Medicaid – I’m not poor enough to qualify for these programs so my tax dollars shouldn’t pay for it. Stoopid poor people and by poor I really mean black…
- No health care reform – Why should I help pay for other people who are sick when I’m not? Stoopid sick people…
- No environmental protection – Environmental laws makes things more expensive for me
and that’s bad. I also don’t understand the concept of long term
impact. I want cheap gas and gadgets now! Stoopid…ah, you get the idea…
- Don’t raise my taxes – EVER. The government can find its own money to pay for stuff I want.
- Medicare – Young conservatives: Why should I help pay for old people and the disabled? Older conservatives: Keep your government hands off my Medicare!
- Social Security – Young conservatives: Sacrifices need to be made,
people should take care of themselves, not depend on handouts from
people like me. Older conservatives: Sacrifices need to be made BUT DON’T YOU TOUCH MY SOCIAL SECURITY!
- No abortion – The government should tell women what to do with their bodies because I don’t like abortion.
- No prayer in school? – GOVERNMENT OVERREACH!! I like The Jesus™ so everyone should have to listen to my prayers. No Muslim prayers, though. That’s indoctrination.
Hades's sister is the baddie, Landon is eradicated, and Thursday is pregnant.
Thursday lives in the book world and she is still pregnant. Landen is still not there.
Friday is two years old, Landen comes back, and Goliath is starting a religious cult. There are also multiple Shakespeares, Mammoths trampling the garden, and a Minotaur on the loose.
Friday is sixteen and there are multiple Thursdays (#1-4, and 5, and the original outlander).
