Ayn Rand said The Fountainhead was an overture to Atlas Shrugged
Posted by richrobinson 8 years, 5 months ago to Books
Ayn Rand once said that she was asked about the practical applications of The Fountainhead. She said she answered those questions with Atlas Shrugged and that you should think of The Fountainhead as an overture to Atlas Shrugged. I'm not sure I understand what she means by that.
atlas Shrugged illustrates what happens in the world as a result of society and individuals adhering to certain philosophical positions.
One of the problems with only having read the Fountainhead and trying to get a bead or application of the philosophy of Objectivism, is that you run into that end game of personal happiness can be achieved anywhere, which I personally disagree with.
Roarke = Galt
Toohey = James Taggert
Rearden is closer to Dominique, IMO. I would off the cuff say Keating and Taggart are more aligned-but Peter continues to question important ideas throughout the story. They both are second handers though
Just like Star Trek and other franchises, there must be slash fan fic out there with Reardon and Dominique doing the "normal female/male dance." Rearden was never down-and-out working for a plumbing company welding metal pipes with a blow torch, but things would have gone along the same lines nonetheless.
IMO
What about the guy who told Dagny about how at the motor plant the effort to avoid pitting people's abilities against each other's led to the worse problem of pitting their needs against one another's? One person's need for surgey was weighted against the needs of another person who's kid needed a filling and someone else who car was broken down. That contemptible woman doled out the money to sycophants. Galt said he wouldn't have it. That guy who didn't particpate but told the tale is my notion of the everyman of the Gulch.
I don't understand. Why did he accept it first and then reject it?
About the same time - 1952 or 1953 - Fortune magazine's annual review of books complained mildly of the mild state of novels about business. Executive Suite by Cameron Hawley failed to inspire. However, said the critic, rumor has it that Ayn Rand is writing a book about business that will be as new and influential as was The Fountainhead. (I would have to sort through boxes for that. But I have it because the 11x17 color xerox cost a small bundle to get right.)
Also, to the point here, Rand's philosophy continued to grow and evolve. For one thing - just detail, but it is revealing - In The Fountainhead she quotes Hegel in a positive way. At that stage in her intellectual development, she was still open to whatever good ideas came from however culpable a source. By 1957 her attitude had changed.
Right now, I am reading The Deerslayer. The Leatherstocking Tales comprise a narrative as Nathaniel matures. However, they were written out of sequence. The Deerslayer was the last written, though it is subtitled "The First Warpath." The author does not always know where the story is going to go.
Also, for a comparison of characters, as she was asked about here, wouldn't Cheryl Brooks be analogous to Catherine Halsey?
I remembered it as Hegel who coined the term Zeitgeist (Spirit of the Times), but that was incorrect.
In fact, after much googling, and even time in JSTOR with academic papers, I cannot find a reference to a philosopher who wrote of the "style of a civilization".
Good post! I will be waiting anxiously to read thoughts on this one.
Your making me think Rich. Good way of starting the day!
I think the plot of the Fountainhead only allowed for a more limited exposition of her philosophy.