Which should I read first, "Atlas Shrugged" or "The Fountainhead"?
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M$4 Answers
I'd read the Fountainhead first, if I was determined to read both. It's kind of a like a first draft for Atlas Shrugged. The characters aren't as well developed and the story line isn't as engaging. And, given Ms. Rand's writing style, you're in for more than one evening of reading. In Atlas, the speech given by one character is 50 pages long in the hardbound edition! Still, it's an interesting read, and one that I've read many times.
Atlas Shrugged is the most fully developed of Rand's philosophy. People tend to cherry pick their favorite ideas, but amidst the extolling of personal worth and hard work watch for:
- denouncement of the "politics of pull" - getting ahead by knowing the right people.
- running a corporation versus a privately held company
- dark warnings about the merging of corporate and government interests (fascism) as well as socialism.
I suggest "Anthem" as an alternative to reading The Fountainhead. It's like the Cliffs Notes version of Rand's philosophy.
Fountainhead - Atlas Shrugged - Anthem - We the Living
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M$Interestingly, people's favorite book of the two seems to always be the one they read first. So I bet in either case you'll be equally as happy ...
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M$
I read Fountainhead a number of years ago as well. It is also an amazing novel.
Since I'm currently reading Atlas Shrugged, I'm going to have to recommend it!
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M$On a personal note: "Objectivism" is the theme of these and pretty much all of her writings. It is useful knowledge but not an end unto itself and is considered a juvenile and compassionless philosophy as one gets older. Do not be enamored by it.
Yes, I've read them both.
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M$
Objectivism is not considered "juvenile and compassionless" by everyone. It's your personal opinion.
Compassionless to the whom? Is it compassionate to steal the work of one to give to someone else? When I say work, let us take out the “profit” that you so clearly disdain. Let us say an actual work of art. Let us assume that you are an artist. You train at your craft for countless hours. You work and strive to be the best artist that you can be. After literally thousands of hours you attain such a level of expertise that people are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy your painting. But the collective steps in and say “you don’t deserve that much money for your painting.” “You don’t deserve to be compensated for your countless hours of training and your abilities and your mind.” “There are others that deserve that money more than you.” Am I being compassionate or compassionless?
It is explicitly compassionless. The philosophy assumes that if you are sweeping the floor of a factory for subsistence wages, it's because you deserve it. If you were any good, you'd become the owner of the factory. So poor people, sick people, oppressed people all deserve their lot. The only exception she seems to make is when the John Galt's are oppressed by the unwashed masses because they are not allowed to make even MORE money and do whatever they want.
As far as Juvenile goes, in my experience most people fall under the Ayn Rand spell as a result of teenaged identity angst, when looking for something to tell them they're special. The feeling fades when they have either received more education or enough life experience to see that all the situations in the books are very contrived. A few hang on, though.
And you certainly wouldn't find Objectivism taken seriously at an academic level, either in terms of philosophy or literature.
