Title: The Fountainhead
Author: Ayn Rand
Genre: Philosophical Fiction
Year Published: 1943
*Happy Banned Books Week!!! This post has nothing to do with Banned Books Week but I thought I'd be festive right here*
*Happy Banned Books Week!!! This post has nothing to do with Banned Books Week but I thought I'd be festive right here*
I'm baaaaack! Yes it has literally been months since I have posted... and I have really missed this! I attribute my absence to this 694-page monster, The Fountainhead. This novel is required reading for my A.P. English Language and Composition class that I am taking in 11th grade. As well as read it, I had to annotate every page and keep a list of vocabulary words to define. As if that wasn't time-consuming enough, my soon-to-be teacher heaped on 12 reflective response essays. I can honestly say that I have never taken so long to read a book in my entire life. I started around the beginning of July an have finished at the close of August. Fountainhead was my second Ayn Rand work. The first was Anthem, a novella, that I read for school in freshman year which I enjoyed. It was short, concise, and to the point. Fountainhead however was drawn-out, repetitive, dry, and terribly boring. I'd say it was 200-300 pages too long. The book is divided into four sub-books and each contains like 20 chapters. So enough about the size, time to get to the good stuff; the story.
To make a LONG story short, the book starts off with the expulsion of protagonist Howard Roark from the Stanton architectural school. Roark is a stubborn individualist whose nonconformist values get him booted out of college. Enter Peter Keating, the polar opposite of Roark: a 'goody-two-shoes' type with a charm, good looks, and conformist nature. Keating graduates Stanton and immediately takes a job offer at the acclaimed Francon & Heyer architectural firm. Roark goes on to struggle financially and fails numerous times during his architectural endeavors because he refuses to be a people-pleaser. Even though Keating hates Roark (as result of his intense jealousy of him), he still comes to him for help and Roark always gives it to him. All of Keating's notable works are actually designed by Roark but he takes the credit for it. Keating falls prey to the cunning Ellsworth M. Toohey, a journalist with hopes of one day ruling the world through Collectivism. Keating 'sells his soul' to Toohey in exchange for success. Toohey writes articles praising Keating's 'achievements'. Then Dominique Francon comes along, Guy Francon from Francon & Heyer's daughter. She's beautiful, mysterious, and cold. After seeing Roark working at a granite quarry because he is financial trouble, she falls in love with him. Roark and Dominique proceed to have a really creepy/weird relationship that made me feel uncomfortable and that I will never truly understand... and Dominique, the weirdo that she is, insists she will try her hardest to destroy Roark. At first this made absolutely no sense to me. But then I figured out that since Dominique admires Roark's work so much and feels it is brilliant in reflecting the human spirit, she feels the world does not deserve him because it is a corrupt place. Really, Dominique only has intentions of protecting Roark by destroying him... yeah I know it's strange. It gets worse I assure you. So Dominique ends up marrying Peter Keating. Like, legit. Bet you didn't see that coming! Her rationale for doing this is that it is her way of punishing herself because society has rejected Howard Roark... do y'all understand that wacky logic or is just me? This Dominique girl really does confuse the life out of me. Especially when she dumps Keating and marries yet again; her new husband being ruthless businessman Gail Wynand who owns a popular newspaper called The Banner. The Banner caters to the mass populace appeal which is why it is so successful. When Gail and Dominique marry, he is impacted by her way of thinking and he sees life in a different perspective. Roark comes along again as expected and develops a friendship with Gail who is married to the woman he loves whom is just pretending to love Gail when really she's gaga over Roark... thus you end up with an awkward love-triangle thing and Ayn Rand goes all Twilight on us.
But seriously... this story just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Roark dynamites a building he designed because it was 'defiled' by some other architects and he has a total diva meltdown. There's a trial and Roark engages in like a hundred page speech preaching the gospel about individualism and all that fun stuff. Guess what happens next? He wins the trial! I know, I was dying of happiness too. Peter becomes a failure because his time of success has expired or something like that because Toohey dumped him as a friend. Heavy stuff, huh? So Roark wins the in the end because Dominique marries him at last! AW THE HAPPY COUPLE. How warm and fuzzy. The book closes with Roark constructing a glorious skyscraper to prove to the world that he has risen from the ashes mwahaha...
So here's my take on the book... I have organized them into numbered points for your convenience:
1. I like what Roark stands for, but I'm not too sure I like him per se. He's so sure of himself but in almost cocky way... and anyone that would put up with that Dominique has to be a little off.
2. As much of an irritating baby Peter Keating is, I felt a little bad for him at the end of the book because he honestly does resemble an innocent child at times.
3. Dominique... I don't even know what to say...
4. Gail Wynand was all right I guess. He was kind of bossy. Yes I get that he is indeed a boss (in a literal sense) but I was hoping he'd have this hidden sensitive side and it'd be all emotional...
4. Ellsworth Toohey, why do people like you exist? You give me headaches.
5. Ayn Rand... oh Ms. Rosenbaum... couldn't you have cut this book down to like 300 pages and I'd be okay with that. But 700? Woman, ain't nobody got time for that! Also, you're not a priest so please don't try to preach to me... you could have summarized your philosophy in 2-3 sentences and I would have been on my way. You repeated yourself easily over a thousand times and we certainly heard you the first time so really you could have saved a lot of ink. Another thing, um no offense but I didn't know what the heck you were talking about when you rambled on and on about the architecture of the Parthenon... yeah it just wasn't clicking in my brain. I praise you for being such an expert in accelerated vocabulary though, you sure do know your stuff!
Overall, Fountainhead was an exhausting read and I'm relieved that I've read and annotated it and I never have to look at it ever again... besides when I receive my grade on it. What could have easily been a 300-page (or even less) novel turned into The Odyssey. I did agree with a lot of the themes presented in the book, but I would have preferred if it wasn't so preachy. Would I recommend this literary work? Not in particular. If you read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's Anthem as I did, don't bother with Fountainhead because your feelings towards Rand will most likely become hostile.
Thanks for reading and always remember...
Stay in school, be a Potterhead, soar like a Mockingjay, respect the nature and above all... be your magickal self!
~Sam
AKA The Black Rose Librarian ^_^
To make a LONG story short, the book starts off with the expulsion of protagonist Howard Roark from the Stanton architectural school. Roark is a stubborn individualist whose nonconformist values get him booted out of college. Enter Peter Keating, the polar opposite of Roark: a 'goody-two-shoes' type with a charm, good looks, and conformist nature. Keating graduates Stanton and immediately takes a job offer at the acclaimed Francon & Heyer architectural firm. Roark goes on to struggle financially and fails numerous times during his architectural endeavors because he refuses to be a people-pleaser. Even though Keating hates Roark (as result of his intense jealousy of him), he still comes to him for help and Roark always gives it to him. All of Keating's notable works are actually designed by Roark but he takes the credit for it. Keating falls prey to the cunning Ellsworth M. Toohey, a journalist with hopes of one day ruling the world through Collectivism. Keating 'sells his soul' to Toohey in exchange for success. Toohey writes articles praising Keating's 'achievements'. Then Dominique Francon comes along, Guy Francon from Francon & Heyer's daughter. She's beautiful, mysterious, and cold. After seeing Roark working at a granite quarry because he is financial trouble, she falls in love with him. Roark and Dominique proceed to have a really creepy/weird relationship that made me feel uncomfortable and that I will never truly understand... and Dominique, the weirdo that she is, insists she will try her hardest to destroy Roark. At first this made absolutely no sense to me. But then I figured out that since Dominique admires Roark's work so much and feels it is brilliant in reflecting the human spirit, she feels the world does not deserve him because it is a corrupt place. Really, Dominique only has intentions of protecting Roark by destroying him... yeah I know it's strange. It gets worse I assure you. So Dominique ends up marrying Peter Keating. Like, legit. Bet you didn't see that coming! Her rationale for doing this is that it is her way of punishing herself because society has rejected Howard Roark... do y'all understand that wacky logic or is just me? This Dominique girl really does confuse the life out of me. Especially when she dumps Keating and marries yet again; her new husband being ruthless businessman Gail Wynand who owns a popular newspaper called The Banner. The Banner caters to the mass populace appeal which is why it is so successful. When Gail and Dominique marry, he is impacted by her way of thinking and he sees life in a different perspective. Roark comes along again as expected and develops a friendship with Gail who is married to the woman he loves whom is just pretending to love Gail when really she's gaga over Roark... thus you end up with an awkward love-triangle thing and Ayn Rand goes all Twilight on us.
But seriously... this story just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Roark dynamites a building he designed because it was 'defiled' by some other architects and he has a total diva meltdown. There's a trial and Roark engages in like a hundred page speech preaching the gospel about individualism and all that fun stuff. Guess what happens next? He wins the trial! I know, I was dying of happiness too. Peter becomes a failure because his time of success has expired or something like that because Toohey dumped him as a friend. Heavy stuff, huh? So Roark wins the in the end because Dominique marries him at last! AW THE HAPPY COUPLE. How warm and fuzzy. The book closes with Roark constructing a glorious skyscraper to prove to the world that he has risen from the ashes mwahaha...
So here's my take on the book... I have organized them into numbered points for your convenience:
1. I like what Roark stands for, but I'm not too sure I like him per se. He's so sure of himself but in almost cocky way... and anyone that would put up with that Dominique has to be a little off.
2. As much of an irritating baby Peter Keating is, I felt a little bad for him at the end of the book because he honestly does resemble an innocent child at times.
3. Dominique... I don't even know what to say...
4. Gail Wynand was all right I guess. He was kind of bossy. Yes I get that he is indeed a boss (in a literal sense) but I was hoping he'd have this hidden sensitive side and it'd be all emotional...
4. Ellsworth Toohey, why do people like you exist? You give me headaches.
5. Ayn Rand... oh Ms. Rosenbaum... couldn't you have cut this book down to like 300 pages and I'd be okay with that. But 700? Woman, ain't nobody got time for that! Also, you're not a priest so please don't try to preach to me... you could have summarized your philosophy in 2-3 sentences and I would have been on my way. You repeated yourself easily over a thousand times and we certainly heard you the first time so really you could have saved a lot of ink. Another thing, um no offense but I didn't know what the heck you were talking about when you rambled on and on about the architecture of the Parthenon... yeah it just wasn't clicking in my brain. I praise you for being such an expert in accelerated vocabulary though, you sure do know your stuff!
Overall, Fountainhead was an exhausting read and I'm relieved that I've read and annotated it and I never have to look at it ever again... besides when I receive my grade on it. What could have easily been a 300-page (or even less) novel turned into The Odyssey. I did agree with a lot of the themes presented in the book, but I would have preferred if it wasn't so preachy. Would I recommend this literary work? Not in particular. If you read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's Anthem as I did, don't bother with Fountainhead because your feelings towards Rand will most likely become hostile.
Thanks for reading and always remember...
Stay in school, be a Potterhead, soar like a Mockingjay, respect the nature and above all... be your magickal self!
~Sam
AKA The Black Rose Librarian ^_^
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