Daystorm's Full Review: Ayn Rand and Leonard (AFT) Peikoff - The Fountainh...
I may be in architecture, but I don't read a whole lot about it.
When I read, it's more for pleasure, not so much for enlightenment, though that's certainly welcome. Pleasure for me comes from fantastical worlds and wildly creative stories that are masterfully woven and usually fall into the sci-fi/fantasy/comic book genre.
And don't tell me those things are useless, because they aren't. You just have to know where to look.
One of my architecture friends convinced me to take a look at the Fountainhead, and I conceded, despite my predisposition towards the genres I listed above. It was described as a must-read for every architecture professional and student alike. Right. I was prepared to be quite bored since although I had an interest in architecture and at times am passionate about it, I really get bored by reading the verbal excrement that comes out of a lot of analysts' mouths and pens.
So I approached the Fountainhead with a bit of trepidation, cracking the thick paperback cautiously and turning to the first page. Interestingly enough, the book, though focused in and around the world of architecture, was more a study of social mores and pressures than the actual profession of architecture. Much like in American Beauty, Ayn Rand explores social ills through highly exaggerated characters, stereotypes, if you will, of the aspects in every day people taken to the extreme.
The story follows two young architects and the kind of lives they lead as defined by their polar opposite personalities. One is stoic, seemingly unfeeling and lives his life based on his ideals of what architecture should embody. Howard Roark is an old oak tree that is being attacked by the fierce winds of society, threatening at every turn to snap him in half. His literary foil, Peter Keating, though an architect as well, is every bit the opposite of Roark. His success stems from his eagerness to do what is expected, pandering to his professors first, then to the critics, sculpting buildings that fit the social norm instead of what he believes a building to be. In essence, he is like a willow which, upon the onslaught of the wind, is bent so far that its leaves and branches are scraping around in the dirt.
It's a startling look at the age-old architectural (amongst other thing) question of integrity versus capitalistic gain (if those should be so compared). It's very apparent who, to Rand, is the hero, that to her, integrity is paramount, that integrity in design is the ideal. The book paints its characters a stark black or white, with nearly no middle ground. Caricatures, of sorts. But humorless ones. Keep in mind, they're not done to be realistic, they're created to make a point. And she executes that point extremely well, making the reader question his own moral and ethical integrity. Should we all be living our lives like Roark, rigid and unbending and completely arrogant in his integrity?
Rand weaves the story well, making the tale of one idealistic man and the torrent of corruption and moral decay around him flow easily into the readers mind to spark an inspiration and an idea.
The problem with the book is that it can easily be misinterpreted as a glorification of Roark's Modernistic style of architecture. Truthfully, I don't think Rand knew much about architecture except for what was on its surface, the face that architecture shows to the public. She deals with architecture as a strictly formal aspect, a mistake many architects make. The spartan, stark vision of Roark's architecture and of many Modernist architects of the day failed to take into account that buildings aren't sculptures and it takes more than an interesting form for a person to live in them, no matter how much integrity it's imbued with. Rand's simplistic look at architecture and her charasmatic writing may in fact give readers an entirely wrong view of what architecture should mean. Which probably gave rise to some of this era's most influential and terrible architects such as Frank Ghery (who used to do interesting stuff).
I don't even agree with what Roark stands for and certainly not how Rand glorifies his character (the guy's a brick), but the book does succeed in making you think about the wrongs and rights of the world and about what integrity means. It's a great book and easily read as a peek into the human mind and how social pressures can bend our wills.
Just remember not to take the book TOO seriously. If you do, you may be falling into the trap that she's attempting to warn her readers of in the first place.
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