Saturday, October 20, 2007

the fountainhead

Back at work... not one person has come in yet this morning :(. WInter's always slower.

I just finished the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It was one of the best books I've read in a while. Wrong, but good, well written and interesting. It's not every book that can hold your attention throughout its entirety, and almost never through 700 pages. Ayn Rand grew up in the Soviet Union (adding her to my list of favorite russian authors) and once she escaped from that she came up with a new philosophy she called Objectivism which she somewhat discovered through writing. I should say, she portrayed her ideas in her writing which helped her in her formulation process.

The Fountainhead was written to portray the ideal man and the contrast between collectivism and egotism. There are no mediums for Ayn Rand. Her "ideal man", Howard Roark, is an egotist. It's not that he doesn't care about other people, it is simply that he does not think of them. Ms. Rand wanted to make his character as real and alive as possible so she went into great details and descriptions about him, however I didn't get a sense of his being "alive" until he showed a hint of compassion. Until then he seemed more robotic than anything.

It was a very interesting book, and philosophy. She needed to make room for love and compassion though.

I have a question. How far do you think Jesus meant for us to take the whole "turn the other cheek" thing? My roommate and I had an intense conversation with someone about it on our trip. I think I've always put a limit on it. Did Jesus though? It's a kinda scary thing to think about. It would mean changing a lot about the way I think.

People came in, gotta go....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think turning the other cheek is limitless unless the situation involves holding the person accountable. For example, what if we turned the other cheek when a crime was committed against us? The criminal would most likely go on hurting others without being stopped.

It can be like that in smaller things though, not necessarily huge crimes, but what if a family member was taking advantage of another one constantly? There is unconditional love and forgiveness and there is love that desires the best for each other, even if it means holding them accountable for some things.

Does this make sense? Or is it not the direction you were heading?