For the third selection in my Audible library building, I selected Ayn Rand’s epic novel The Fountainhead. This choice was kind of a surprise. I’m not a fan of older books, and the public perception of the author’s works kept me away from reading about this or Atlas Shrugged.
It was a friend reading Atlas Shrugged that got me thinking about it and looking into checking out Rand’s earlier novel (Fountainhead) to see if I would like her style. Unabridged, this Audible production is 32 hours long.
I’m very conflicted about The Fountainhead. It was both a lot better than I thought, but it also exceeds all the stereotypes that kept me from reading it long ago.
The reason I went so long without reading any Rand was because it was so attributed to a style of thinking and reasoning that I always felt was overly intellectual in an annoying way. In high school and college, it always felt like an author championed by those who did nothing but read, ponder, and gather with the like minded while slighting those that they didn’t accept as equals. I favored the notion of experience in addition to educational rhetoric and philosophical topics.
Unfortunately, I can see exactly why her work achieves this type of devotion and stereotype. There are a lot times in the book that feel so over thought or over rationalized – which I attribute to the time it was written. This was embracing too much of the then current theories in psychology and sociology. Way too much Freud (so much reference of ego this and ego that).
Thousands of words could have been omitted with little to no effect to the reader.
Some of the length is good in that the book shines is in its depth. Its depth in character. Its depth of description. Its depth of reasoning. I got a much better understanding of the characters, places, and surrounding things than the over metaphor laden works considered to be classics.
I didn’t expect a book like this. I expected an older writing style that made the work feel more stale and dated. Instead, I found it to have stood the test of time with the exception of all the Freudian ego stuff… Sure, it was dated for clearly being a period piece, but not so far as to not be
I think I liked it so much because there was a pretty large part of me that identified with a lot of the themes. Much of it was the place of originality, creativity, art, and architecture in society.
The characters aren’t something that I necessarily identify with, but I defiantly can attribute some of their traits to myself or those I have known. I’ve met many that have the Peter Keating quality of skating by on the talents of others with no apologies or acknowledgment. I know those that think they are all knowing and manipulating in a Ellsworth Toohey sort of fashion. I’ve never met anyone totally like a Howard Roark or Dominique Francon. There have definitely been a few Gail Wynand wannabe’s in their supposed building of an empire. It’s an interesting character study taking place in an interesting time in American history.
If you’re into architecture, then you should give this a chance at some point. It’s at least mildly interesting for Rand’s take on that alone. But I’m a geek like that I guess.
Atlas Shrugged will be my next audible selection. I liked The Fountainhead, and I hope Atlas will be the same if not better. I know it’s not a book for everyone for different reasons, but I’ll actually pick up a hard copy to keep.