Deb and Kat read "The Fountainhead" 2009 discussion

hi gang - this is one of my all-time favorites - intensely dramatic and passionate - I was dominique francon for halloween once in college. Of course the ideas have some holes, and figuring those out now - 30 years after I first read this book! - would be wonderous fun. count me in...marta

I got through the first 150 pages or so on my own, but wasn't seeing the big philosophy come through . . . big trouble trying to connect with the characters emotionally--which perhaps is Rand's intention? I'm sensing she's not big on the emotional response, but more about rational thought.

I have to actually go get this book - so you guys will be way ahead of me - thanks for the invite. Ill be back soon...

I read this book when I was 17 and felt like it changed my life. The Virtue of Selfishness was a totally new concept to me and shocked my Presbyterian-Upbringing sensibilities. It would be interesting to read it again 35 years later. I'm off to the library...but I want to finish Middlesex first. N

yup that was my hit, too....just the ideas in rand's virtue of selfishness theories were so terribly new to me as a college student in the midwest who had been raised that EGO IS ALWAYS BAD......that "pride goeth before fall"....God first, others second, me always last of all....the idea that one has the right to OWN one's work, well shucks! What a new one!

first 150 pages of Fountainhead are, if I remember, fairly distancing....she was so young and so new at fiction...have you all read atlas shrugged? It goes even further, but fountainhead's the one to start with....the big philosophy doesn't come through until later....

Count me in, Deb -- I need to go buy the book, but I've been meaning to read this forever and just haven't gotten around to it. This is a great incentive!

Marta wrote: "yup that was my hit, too....just the ideas in rand's virtue of selfishness theories were so terribly new to me as a college student in the midwest who had been raised that EGO IS ALWAYS BAD......th..."

I think my understanding of selfishness will be colored as a tail-end gen-Xer. I am on the cusp between the X's and the Millenniums (born in 78, but really grew up in the 80's and 90's). But already in the first bit of the book, I could appreciate Roark's need to do it "his way."

Nannwagner wrote: "I read this book when I was 17 and felt like it changed my life. The Virtue of Selfishness was a totally new concept to me and shocked my Presbyterian-Upbringing sensibilities. It would be intere..."

Interested to hear what you think of Middlesex. It wasn't at all what I expected (my book club read it a couple years ago), but what epic storytelling that was!

I read this 30+ yrs ago. I worked with a woman who was absolutely obssessed with Rand & frankly was not impressed. Very interested to see how I feel all these years later.

I read this when I was 17 so about a year ago,I liked Atlas Shrugged better but they are both good albeit with bad morals and a trifle too long.