Good news! I’ve been reading and making notes on Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, and I’m nearly done with it now. I’m planning to write another chapter-by-chapter review, like the one I did for Atlas Shrugged, beginning in January 2017.
I’ll do my best to make it entertaining, but I have to admit that The Fountainhead isn’t as wacky as Atlas Shrugged. It’s slower, talkier, less action-oriented. It doesn’t have the disappearing-geniuses mystery plot, the mad-science sci-fi, or the world-falling-into-ruin disaster porn. It’s pretty much just one guy who has really strong opinions about architecture.
That said, it doesn’t lack those distinctive Randian touches. There’s a “heroic” rape that’s much more appalling than any of the sex scenes in Atlas; an attempted murder by one of the good guys that’s bizarrely and immediately forgiven; some disturbing cheerleading for eugenics; and a climactic scene where the protagonist blows up a building because it wasn’t built to his exact specifications. I’m sure there will be plenty to keep me occupied.
Plus, though Rand would never have admitted it, there are clear differences in her philosophy between Fountainhead (which came first) and Atlas. It’ll be amusing to compare the two and highlight the changes in her thinking.
Since this book is so tightly focused on buildings and architecture, I’ve been preparing by reading the excellent architecture series from McMansion Hell. It’s really useful reference material that I’ll probably find occasion to work into the review.
While I’m in the brainstorming stage, I’m open to suggestions about anything else I should be sure not to overlook. If you have any ideas for topics relating to architecture, property or real estate that you’d like to see me cover, or anything about economics and libertarianism that I neglected in Atlas, let me know in the comments!