Read "The Fountainhead" or "Atlas Shrugged"?

[@CavalieriTom]

Atlas Shrugged is a-ma-zing! I have just read it. Sooo good.

[@michaelscherer6416]

Just started listening to The Fountainhead today, it sucked me in. Thank you for your words of excitement for these books! Looking forward to them all!

[@EllenLewit]

I first read Anthem at 16 years old and fell in love with her ideas. I got the other books available at the time and have read the essays as they came out - I am now 73. I still recommend Anthem as the first book to read, it is short, easy to read, exciting, has the basic philosophic ideas and leads into her thinking and now it is in the public domain with lots of copies available. To see her editing skills which are remarkable get the copywrited edition which has the marked copy of the early British version with the newer American version. She changed a fairy tale into a sci fi novel primarily by tightening the language and deletion of extra words. In any case, enjoy Anthem. And of course read everything including the non fiction. Miss Rand was a great writer as well as a philosopher with several important contributions to human knowledge in both how we think and how we should behave - epistemology and ethics.

[@SaintGeorge7]

I like the novel review style of this video, dogs and books are the best. Your lighting and camera angle is perfect, I'd love to watch more videos like this.

[@TOMsReason]

'the extreme conservative right really loves to claim her' Actually, Rand has never been smeared more badly than by the extreme conservative right; when Atlas Shrugged was published, National Review published a 'critisicm' about it, but it was a complete distortion of her work. NR even had the guts to re-publish this 'criticism'. The conservative right HATE Rand, because she will have nothing to do with religion and explicitly critisizes that religion is based on faith and is anti-reason.

[@TOMsReason]

Rand's ethics is based on rational self interest ( proper egoism ), with the wellfare of one's own life as the standard of morality, and excahnge of values for mutual benefit when dealing with others. This is in stark contrast to what the conservative right proposes, they advocate self-sacrifice (Altruism) as the moral ideal. In Rand's view, self-sacrifice is evil, because it is detrimental to one's own life. Rand's purpose was to explicitly challenge Altruism by setting up a new morality.

[@mrcabasa5507]

As an atheist, Rand had to fill the God void in order bolster self indulgence to point it could stand on it's own as a pedestal worthy ideal, vs "endowed by our creator," hence justifying or swapping selfish gain for motivated by love which in her eyes would have no author.

[@toadtoadersson2239]

Thank you for this. I'm gonna buy it finally

[@daveandbrendainvegas]

I love your dog! WIJG?! :-)

[@donkaiser491]

I am 47 yrs old and just launching into Fountainhead and will read Atlas Shrugged next. It’s interesting to be diving into this material later in life where it seems to make such an impression on so many young people. Thank you for your enthusiasm! I have been studying Ayn Rand’s philosophy and watching KZbin videos on her as I waited for Fountainhead to come in from the library. She is so extremely polarizing!!! I don’t understand the visceral hatred out there for her and her work. There is absolutely no “‘in the middle” when it comes to her work. You either seem to love it with all your heart and it touches your soul or her and this work is the most palpable construction of evil ever put between two covers!!! lol 😂 I would love to hear some of your other thoughts on Ayn Rand and her work!

[@fantasizer8473]

Yep, shes vastly underrated and her philosophy personified in characters in her novels are top level. Psychic change from reading it.

[@markocynamon5921]

I’ve read Atlas Shrugged over eight times...it’s like a old friend ...

[@fatimahaljifry9830]

Does it matter which order you read the book? Can I read Atlas shrugged before the others?

[@davegarciaofficial]

I love the audiobook but never did understand why the train is on the cover. AS is the “train book” :)

[@goldilockszone4389]

Completed reading Atlas Shrugged yesterday. The plot laden with chicanery and a lathario Business man who eventually seems to congregate with others in a world of "purpose". i love the idea, but I felt the book was more of an idelist ramble than a realist roadmap for the future. Like most authors Ayn was able to identify the problem but her solution was mere figment of imagination of a fancy world devoid of any subterfuge. Thus is perhaps why the books appeals to a teenage and mid twenties group more than it does to more mature men. I also found the plot to be really devoid of any real meat. Dagny the protagonist seemed to be a "slut" who didn't mind sleeping around with married men or otherwise. She dated all the leading men in the book and slept with all of them. What surprised me the most, was how they were so happy and devoid of any envy for the each other despite the fact that all three loved her, which was a little too much to begin with and they all live "together" happily ever after. It seemed to me that Ayn Rand was visualizing herself as Dagny and living her fantasy through this character. Being a misogynist myself, I simply find this behaviour, very typical of most young girls or even some older woman, who want intelligent and handsome to love them, from where they can cherry pick one. What blew my lid off was the portrayal of "John Galt" the main protagonist. She goes to a great extend describing the physical feature of this greek god, who happens to be a great engineer, and a great orator and a leader. That's the most ludicrous description of a character and clearly a figment of her imagination which perhaps will savour to the taste of the impressionable youngster who wants to change the world. I would have had no trouble if the book was presented a fictional piece of work in its entirety, but it was a portrayed almost as contemporary evolution of events around the world. She was cleverly using the word USA but what she actually meant was USSR. Perhaps she should have candid about the society which she was portraying. Never mind the length of the book, the soliloquy which each character incessantly falls into so darn frequently, that it almost feels like a pattern. I had to pretty much skip most several parts, though i never lost track of the plot or key words which would typically be spoken the end of a chapter. The book, end so abruptly where a never world is created by perhaps a magic wand which Rand was always carrying in her arsenal. She had to end it and she decided, all right here comes the new world and don't ask me how. Anyways, on a lighter note I managed to learn several new words which I realised, were her favorite - "Brusquely" was one of them, "Insolence" was another and "recalcitrant" was another. There were many others of course but I seems to remember these quite distinctly. All in all I think, you should read this book not for the love of it but for the fact that you can always use it to stir up intellectual debates and play along in any "arrived" club. Perhaps, its is also a good book for those who want to connect with the younger generation who will definitely have strong association with the concepts. I am not planning to read " The fountain Head" which was more of prologue to this book. Perhaps, I can approach the second one with a lesser expectation which could it a better read.

[@at0mic11]

too long didnt read

[@megumuisatrap3195]

Same

[@yoloswag6242]

I read what you wrote and it's 50% drivel, much like Ayn Rand

[@john42t]

@TOMsReason Back when it was released, yes. But these days there's Ron Paul and various others who embrace her.

[@chigbarg-archives]

there is an objective lack of color in that bedroom

[@angelacarleton9575]

She likes neutral colors - perhaps a little green would lighten up the room with certain shrubs or ferns.

[@toadtoadersson2239]

She liked what she likes

[@kathleenslattery]

You're right, I oversimplified the 'conservative right' too much (I was trying to keep the video short/sweet). For those on the right steeped in social issues like religion, I definitely understand there was backlash. I'm talking more about fiscal conservatives who are using her books to serve their platforms. Shouting her from the rooftops in fact. I came @ her from a completely different angle because I didn't know her personal views before reading. Irony? Howard Roark: Most truly giving man.

[@LuckyGuu]

The 1st 100 pages are boring. (Fountainhead)

[@alg11297]

Doing what you want to regardless of society was the basis of "You can't take it with You" a play written in the 30s which won the Pulitzer Prize. This woman never had an original idea in her life. And her books are not taught in any literature classes.....I wonder why.