The Fountainhead easily breaks into my top 20 favorite books I've read; possibly top 10. Rand's writing reminds some of Sinclair Lewis which is odd because it doesn't appear he was an influence on her. Like Lewis did in his novels, Rand worked her message into the novel. I still am not really sure what Objectivism is and all the Wikipedia definition did was make me feel like a college freshman again; confused and thinking of when happy hour starts. Whatever it is, it makes for great reading. I have a feeling that Howard Roark's testimony at the end of The Fountainhead is really Rand defining what Objectivism is. An excerpt:
Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways - by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary.
The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men
The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive.
Howard Roark
from The Fountainhead
Again, maybe that's not the epitome of Objectivism, but it's a great passage. Now that I know the difference between creators and second-handers, I see people differently already.
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