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I always find it interesting when Ayn Rand is discussed. I'm not from the US and I got The Fountainhead as a present and without any knowledge of who she was or

I always find it interesting when Ayn Rand is discussed. I'm not from the US and I got The Fountainhead as a present and without any knowledge of who she was or what her books were about. I quite enjoyed it. There is something appealing about the idea of people who are excellent at what they are doing and stick to their ideals no matter what life throws at them. I then bought and read Atlas Shrugged but it wasn't a great read as it drifted off into the rambly and preachy. But again the idea of someone starting a society somewhere remote where things are right is appealing in some daydreaming romantic kind of way. It then boggled my mind when I learned that people take this seriously. And it means something. Rather than it just being a work of fiction. I'm not sure where I'm going with this comment. But if you haven't read The Fountainhead and you can mentally distance yourself from the political side of everything around it, it's worth a read. (Saying that as someone who read The Lord Of The Rings and thought it was okay but couldn't get through The Simarillion because it was just a bit too odd)

api 4y ago
Any Rand was a Russian expat Jew whose family fled the Bolsheviks. She wanted to create a kind of anti-Marxism to inoculate America and succeeded I think to a very limited extent. In the end I often compare her to Marx. Both were great critics but their work breaks down when you get to the “and then what” part. And then… magic happens and utopia! You just need the enough unicorns. Followers of these two tend to criticize a lot. Marxists can pen deep critiques of capitalism and Randians of socialism. But they start sounding magical when it comes to solutions. I’ve come to be skeptical of criticism and its value. Doing things is way harder than criticizing them.
- deathbyrtlmt 4y ago
  Thanks for nanopond it was hugely inspirational to young me.
antognini 4y ago
The way I think of it is that The Fountainhead is a novel that was informed by Rand's philosophy. Atlas Shrugged is Rand's philosophy in the form of a novel. One of my professors in grad school was extremely liberal but loved Fountainhead and would defend it on the rare occasions that it came up.
- climb_stealth 4y ago
  > The way I think of it is that The Fountainhead is a novel that was informed by Rand's philosophy. Atlas Shrugged is Rand's philosophy in the form of a novel. Oh yes, that describes it perfectly! Thanks for mentioning it, for some reason that makes me feel much better about the whole thing.

api 4y ago

Any Rand was a Russian expat Jew whose family fled the Bolsheviks. She wanted to create a kind of anti-Marxism to inoculate America and succeeded I think to a very limited extent. In the end I often compare her to Marx. Both were great critics but their work breaks down when you get to the “and then what” part. And then… magic happens and utopia! You just need the enough unicorns. Followers of these two tend to criticize a lot. Marxists can pen deep critiques of capitalism and Randians of socialism. But they start sounding magical when it comes to solutions. I’ve come to be skeptical of criticism and its value. Doing things is way harder than criticizing them.

deathbyrtlmt 4y ago
Thanks for nanopond it was hugely inspirational to young me.

antognini 4y ago

The way I think of it is that The Fountainhead is a novel that was informed by Rand's philosophy. Atlas Shrugged is Rand's philosophy in the form of a novel. One of my professors in grad school was extremely liberal but loved Fountainhead and would defend it on the rare occasions that it came up.

climb_stealth 4y ago
> The way I think of it is that The Fountainhead is a novel that was informed by Rand's philosophy. Atlas Shrugged is Rand's philosophy in the form of a novel. Oh yes, that describes it perfectly! Thanks for mentioning it, for some reason that makes me feel much better about the whole thing.