giovedì, dicembre 30, 2004
:: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – A Review ::Genre: philosophy (objectivism)
It’s funny how many people shy away from books simply because they are in the genre of philosophy. I don’t deny that I’m one of them. Philosophy, being such a chunky word, was a symbol of an equally chunky book and equally chunky amount of information that would be thrown at the reader’s face. However, I found this assumption completely wrong. The first time was when I read ‘Sophie’s World’, and the next, when I embarked on the 729-pages long ‘The Fountainhead’. Despite knowing near to nothing about philosophy except a few names like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle (whose theories/philosophies were like Greek to me), I was able to understand this book. In fact, I was ‘hooked’ on it! From the time since this book was published, a school of though gradually evolved. It was called objectivism and was lead by Ayn Rand. Heck, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what objectivism is… I didn’t either. What’s more important is understanding the ideas involved in this school of thought. For those interesting, you could check out this link.
The story evolves around the lives of four people – Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand and Howard Roark. All are connected via an interesting character, Dominique Francon. Peter Keating represents a second-hander, which means a person who takes the work of a creator and uses it to please others. He is the representation of what is so-called ‘important’, ‘popular’, ‘good’ and ‘acceptable’. He rejects the idea of originality and of creation. Yet, he is the one loved by all. Howard Roark, on the other hand, can be placed in the lines of Edison, of Adam, of Ptolemy and of all the great people whose works/actions were rejected by mankind, because they were simply –different-. Yet, the second-handers took these ideas, and made them famous, made them into universal standards of society! Ellsworth Toohey, is almost the equivalent of Stalin/Hitler/Karl Marx/Lenin… all the influential people who believed in collectivism/communism (with the exception of Hitler). To me, he is the most revolting of all the characters, no matter how Keating might debase himself. Yet, to all the rest, Toohey is the GOD, is their SAVIOUR, their CHAMPION and their LEADER… (You’ve got to read to understand what I’m trying to say here…) Gail Wynand, is a highly interesting character: he’s like a Howard Roark who has become forced to be like a Peter Keating. As for Dominique… hmmmm it’s too complicated to say, but she’s such a COOL character!
It’s queer, this is a totally fictitious story, yet as I read it, I could relate to each character within and the characters seemed like real living persons to me. In many ways, it’s true. What Ayn Rand writes is what we see in our lives… these people that I’ve mentioned are as real as can me, masquerading behind the names of our loved ones/ our family / our friends. On the other hand, it also serves to show the mastery of the author – an author who brings her characters to life.
PS: Thanks to my dearest cousin, who claimed that she accidentally bought the same book, and gave it to me…
PPS: EW interested?
about me
francesca chiu
2 eyebags & 5 wrinkles
on long-term dormicum drip
KIV IMH
icq: 58631104
more...
Español
EJournals
Cortislim
taggie
Epidemiology
SEER
IARC
Classification
WHO
AFIP
Staging
AJCC
UICC
Treatment
NCI
NCCN
links
Navigation
Emedicine
MuggerLand
"Survivor"
Blogarama
Blog Directory
Rice Bowl Journals
Technorati Profile
archives
aprile 2004
maggio 2004
giugno 2004
luglio 2004
agosto 2004
settembre 2004
ottobre 2004
novembre 2004
dicembre 2004
gennaio 2005
febbraio 2005
marzo 2005
aprile 2005
maggio 2005
giugno 2005
luglio 2005
agosto 2005
settembre 2005
ottobre 2005
0 Comments:
Posta un commento
<< Home