Xarpolis
Life's a Dream
When I was in 7th grade, my teacher assigned us to read the Fountainhead. I was a big reader at the time (Dean Koontz mostly), and I loved that book. We were supposed to do 2-3 chapters per week, but I finished the book by the first week. The teacher liked that I did it, but didn't like that I failed to write reports about each completed chapter. But she knew I was reading it, because every day she saw me, I was further and further along the story.Twice in two weeks I have been met with the contention that "She isn't worth reading because her characters aren't interesting."
All I can do in such a situation is smile bluntly and contentiously and wish that I hadn't brought the subject up to begin with.
So here, on FoH, I bring the subject up.
To criticize Atlas Shrugged because it 'lacks interesting characters' is like criticizing Star Wars because it 'lacks interesting shoes'.
It's retarded. And yet, if you were to try it for yourself you would find that almost everyone who hears this name, Ayn Rand, thinks that 'her characters lack depth'.
They can not speak to the characters, or the depth. They know only that both are lacking in some way. Some indescribable way.
I asked my brother in law last week if he had ever read The Fountainhead and he said, "parts of it."
I know that this was a lie. He has read parts of Fountainhead? Which parts exactly? What if that book was not intended to be taken in parts but as a whole?
'Parts of it' is what you say when talking about movies, not books. He was absolutely full of shit when he said he had 'read parts of it'. It was a kneejerk reaction on his part in a public setting, but it does illustrate the fact that there is an almost religious response when people hear her name, and many of them aren't even sure why this response exists.
That book was awesome. As a result, I named my Iksar monk, Szerak Roark. Keep in mind that I'm now 36, and I CLEARLY remember Howard Roark from this book. It made me very interested in architecture.
Years later, I finally read Atlas Shrugged. Holy shit, this book was perfection. Everything I've resented about society eloquently furnished into words for my young mind to indulge. I wonder if I would ever be good enough to survive in a utopian society the way they created. Rearden Metal was awesome. I'm pretty sure it was just Stainless, but the blueish hue left me questioning (This is coming from someone that's worked in Sheet Metal Fabrication my entire working life as I read the book).
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