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/lit/ - Literature

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1498955 No.1498955 [Reply] [Original]

Okay, this is not trolling.
Completely serious question.
I understand Ayn Rand is hated as a philosopher, and honestly, I can see why.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the Fountainhead, if only for the romance between Roarke and Dominique. I also thought that the characters and the story itself were both interesting.
So my question, if one were to completely take out all pretense of philosophy from The Fountainhead, and pretend Ayn Rand never wrote anything else....

would you like the book?

>> No.1498961

banned

>> No.1498969

>>1498955
I enjoyed it as well, OP. I didn't like the romance between them so much as how much of a badass Roark was.

>> No.1498977

I loved it, and I read it on my own time while in high school, neither for class, nor for "intellectual status," nor to try and impress myself with the accomplishment of having read one of the "Intellectual" books.

I picked it up out of curiosity, got into it, loved it, then tried Rand's other work. Unfortunately, never liked anything outside of Fountainhead.

>> No.1498990

>>1498977
I was the same way.

Enjoyed Fountainhead immensely.
Tried to pick up Atlas Shrugged.
Couldn't do it.

>> No.1498993

I'm guessing based on the lack of response people really hate Ayn Rand so much that they don't even like remembering her writing...

or most of the people on this board have never read her and hate it because it's the cool thing to do.

>> No.1498996

....I liked Anthem. There, I fucking said it.

>> No.1498997

Roark is such a kickass protagonist. He takes shit from no one.

But yeah, The Fountainhead is miles better than Atlas Shrugged.

>> No.1499003

litnewb here, why is she hated by /lit/ generally?

>> No.1499008

>>1498996
I did too, but it needed more post-apocalyptia, and less objectivism.

>> No.1499010

I did read Anthem. I don't know, I didn't really like it. But I remember when it made me a libertarian for a week.

I felt retarded after that.

If I ever get around to it, I'll read Atlas Shrugged and see why /lit/ hates it so much.

>> No.1499020

>>1499010
I wouldn't bother.
Just go into a bookstore, sit down, and try to read the first page.
You'll know.

>> No.1499024

>>1499003
Her philosophy is polarizing; you either agree completely or you're an "idiot."

>> No.1499036
File: 101 KB, 598x373, davidhume.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1499036

>>1499024
Thats something I always found funny.
She spouts the virtues of individualism at every opportunity but within her books all voices of dissent are seen as evil.

Be an Individual! Agree with everything I say!

>> No.1499068

rand in my opinion makes her point and the idea of the virtue of selfishness in the sense that everything you do is out of some selfish reason and its true but you should do good things for humanity out of your own desires because it gives you values

>> No.1499071

>>1499068

...
wut

>> No.1499082

Anthem was literally the work book I've ever read. to be fair, I haven't read as many books as the people on /lit/ make themselves out to have read, but it is sad when the work I've read by Benito Musilini has been better literature than Anthem. even worse that children's books, like for example, if you give a mouse a cookie, because those had a purpose which they fulfilled almost entirely. Anthem was a painful read, and I found myself shouting at the book, hoping to refute it with my logic, vehemently trying to make it realize it was was, only to find that it listened to my scorn with deaf ears.

>> No.1499116
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1499116

This is a fantastic article on Ayn Rand: how she drew inspiration for her ideal of the independent individual from her infatuation with a serial killer, and why this is directly relevant to political discourse in America today:
> http://www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand,_hugely_popular_author_and_inspiration_to_right-wi
ng_leaders,_was_a_big_admirer_of_serial_killers

I didn't read The Fountainhead, but her later opus, Atlas Shrugged, ends with a handful of plutocrats living in a magic force-field bubble in the mountains, smoking cigarettes with dollar signs printed on them, and the rest of the world's working class masses dying in horrible disasters without the guidance of thier former masters.
This fantasy was her supreme moral vision. 'Nuff said?

>> No.1499132

>>1499082

so what you're saying is Ayn Rand is a troll to the quasi-literate?

i enjoyed reading both atlas shrugged and anthem, though i'm more of a philosopher than a lit snob, my contemplation runs towards mysticism more than objectivism.

The people who hate rand seem(argument from anecdote) to be generally those who got fucked over by the fallout from her ideas with the NWO and what not.

IF GOD GIVES YOU LEMONS THEN FIND A NEW GOD -fnord

>> No.1499137

>>1499116

THIS!

>> No.1499147

This thread got derailed.

It seems that these people that hate Ayn Rand only read her shittier/later works...
:(

>> No.1499148

I honestly liked Anthem, which led me to read Atlas Shrugged. It was terrible

>> No.1499193

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/222482/big-sister-watching-you/flashback

Whittaker Chambers does a good job saying exactly why the works suck

>> No.1499378

I was entertained by both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. However The Fountainhead, in my opinion, was a lot better. It didn't seem as forceful in presenting Rand's philosophy, making it easier to just enjoy the story.

>> No.1499849

>Roark rapes Dominique and she just loves every moment
>Roark dynamites a shelter for poor people because they violated his copyrights

The ideas behind it are vile, whether Homer or Alan Smithee wrote it.