• On theater: ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Rabbit’ on Mesa stages 
Tom Titus, Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, CA) The Fountainhead  Architecture is not a subject around which tense and often inflammatory dramas revolve. One must reach back to Ayn Rand’s melodramatic “The Fountainhead” to find a story in which the architect’s vision is of paramount importance.     Share on Facebook

• • • Ayn Rand in Uganda 
Scott Noble, Dissident Voice Altruism  Ayn Rand Institute  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  The Virtue of Selfishness  Capitalism  Personal life  Inaccurate  Rand’s philosophy represents a revolt against human nature. Not only are we hard-wired to feel emotions like empathy, it is precisely our ability to share, commiserate and act collectively that allows us to survive as a species. Moreover, recent data suggests that the great bugaboo of libertarianism – equality of outcome – is actually the single most important determinant of health and happiness in society.     Share on Facebook

• • The wrath of independence 
William J. Derosa, Jr., Guru Focus The Fountainhead  Going it alone certainly has its advantages. Standing apart from the crowd gives one a unique perspective provided one has the courage. Being able to assert one’s opinion can be very gratifying indeed. Famed and controversial author Ayn Rand has written extensively about this topic. To paraphrase her words - Most people can accept anything except a person who stands alone. They can forgive criminals and violence. These harsh critics are consumed by fear of the loner. They relish the mutual dependence of the relationship and independence destroys that relationship. However, for the independent spirit there is no dependence. There is no sense of social community. If one were to take notice, there is resentment against any idea that espouses independence.     Share on Facebook

• • Mike Daisey reveals secrets of the world order 
Chris Kompanek, Flavorwire The Fountainhead  [Q:] Who are some of the guests we can expect on [your] show? [A:] [....] I believe we’re going to have someone who’s starring in a film adaptation — this is fascinating — a musical film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. They’re going to be singing some really fantastic songs about libertarianism and female submission. The actress is just charming. A little freaky but charming. I think that’s going to be tremendous. It’s really a wide range of things that I feel capture where we are as a country and a people.     Share on Facebook

• • Editors’ picks 
C. Rollyson, Choice Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  The Virtue of Selfishness  We The Living  Capitalism  Egoism  Personal life  Review of Ayn Rand and the World She Made, by Anne C. Heller.Although not stinting a concern with Rand's ideas, Heller is mesmerized by Rand the novelist and the person. The biographer pores over Rand's early years in Russia with brilliant results, showing how much Rand (born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum) drew on her experience in the 1920s Leninist state for her impressive novel We the Living.     Share on Facebook

• • Tequila sunrise & into the sunset 
Kasmin Fernandes, Mid-Day The Fountainhead  "I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline," author Ayn Rand wrote in The Fountainhead, "The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need?" she asked. "Come to Mumbai," we say.     Share on Facebook

• • • Ayn Rand, Chapman University and serial killer love 
Matt Coker, Orange County Weekly - Navel Gazing (CA) The Fountainhead  Image  Inaccurate  The Mother of Objectivism and author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged "is the 28th notable figure to have a bust dedicated on the campus of Chapman University," reports Chapman Now. [....] [I]t's a good bet Rand is the only Chapman bustee whose first love dismembered little girls.     Share on Facebook

• • • Internal affairs: How Ayn Rand followers rationalize “welcomed” rape 
Amanda Hess, Washington City Paper - The Sexist (DC) Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  Rand reportedly had this to say about the [rape] scene [in The Fountainhead]: “If it was rape, it was rape by engraved invitation.” But for young people with no practical experience with sex, Rand doesn’t provide any instruction on how exactly to seal the note. If your sex partner is biting you and beating you in the face, how can you be sure they’ve consented “internally”? Between Rand’s idealized heroes and heroines, why is the ideal sexual scenario a violent rape that the woman only privately desires? And for Rand, who was fond of invoking the tautological principle that “A is A,” when is rape not rape?     Share on Facebook

• • • Ayn Rand’s books are deliciously anti-statist, but her philosophy is borderline Nazi 
James Delingpole, The Spectator Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Inaccurate  What I find most off-putting about Rand is her hardness of heart. She has a Nietzschean (indeed, borderline Nazi) contempt for human frailty and a total lack of sympathy for the underdog. In her weltanschauung, you’re either a hero (rare) or — much more likely — a mere filler of latrines. Any form of charity, she suggests, is a kind of grotesque liberal indulgence towards people who really aren’t worth saving.     Share on Facebook

• • • Ayn Rand, the philosophy of freedom, and a serial killer 
Gus diZerega, Beliefnet.com - A Pagan’s Blog Atheism  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  We The Living  Egoism  Rand's admiration for a sociopathic murderer is an eye-opener as to the moral sensibility that appeals to all too many 'conservative' and 'libertarian' Americans. She was one very disturbed and deeply wounded person, as her biographies show.     Share on Facebook

• Chesterfield student wins T-D spelling bee 
Melissa Ruggieri, Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) The Fountainhead  [Ryan Oppenheim is] a devoted reader, currently plowing through Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" for a school project.     Share on Facebook

• •From canyon to cove: A visit to Hangover House 
Cindy Frazier, Coastline Pilot (Laguna Beach, CA) Ayn Rand Archives  Ayn Rand Institute  The Fountainhead  Personal life  As one might expect of such an old and notable dwelling [Hangover House] has its mysteries and urban legends. One such legend surrounds a purported visit that Ayn Rand made to the home before writing her monumental novel about a modernist architect, “The Fountainhead,” where she allegedly interviewed [architect William Alexander] Levy about his theories of architecture. Levy apparently believed that some of his words and ideas were used in Rand’s book, and that scenes in “The Fountainhead” were set in Hangover House. But Benec said this is now being debunked by a representative of the Ayn Rand Archives in Irvine who responded to Benec’s original house listing with a letter citing various facts to prove that Rand “did not set foot in California” from 1934 to 1943 and therefore could not have visited the house or used it in her novel. The archivist also said there is no written evidence, such as notes, in her papers indicating a link between Rand and Levy. “They said it is not possible,” Benec said. But the story persists.     Share on Facebook

• • • Beast of conviction would be much better protagonist 
Claire Luchette, The Doings Hinsdale (IL) The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  Emerson wrote, "...believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius." Howard Roark, then, according to Emerson's criteria, was a genius. He saw his own principles as the only ones fit for architecture and mankind. He sacrificed the need to be admired and took upon himself the burden of originality. In exclusive settings, the one who is outcast but not downcast is the one I find most respectable.     Share on Facebook

• • • Debating merits of Ayn Rand philosophy 
Spencer Case, Idaho State Journal (Pocatello, ID) Anthem  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Egoism  I think of Objectivism as a kind of intellectual chicken pox; most smart people get it when they're young, but usually it runs its course before causing any permanent damage. Don't get me wrong, I think "Atlas Shrugged" is well worth reading , just not as Holy Scripture.     Share on Facebook

• Diary of a tax-free state 
Marshall Fine, Huffington Post The Fountainhead  Humor.Day 33. Didn't get much sleep last night because I had to bone up to teach an English class at the high school. In addition to my new job at the smelting plant, I have to volunteer for a regular teaching rotation, since real teachers were paid in despised tax dollars. I'd never read The Fountainhead before, which is now part of the fourth-grade curriculum.     Share on Facebook

• • Five books I’d read 
Justin Moyer, Washington City Paper (DC) The Fountainhead  Here’s the scenario: [....] Valentine’s Day is over but, by some miracle, you just met a member of the opposite (or same) sex during a trip to the T-Mobile store who, inexplicably, is attracted to you (or purports to be) despite your penchant for Sudoku, secret appreciation of Ayn Rand (“I know it’s wrong, but I kinda liked The Fountainhead,” etc.), and love of the interminable Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire (snoozers).     Share on Facebook

• • Movie time in Westport 
Dave Matlow, Westport Now (CT) The Fountainhead  Image  It was movie time at the Westport Public Library today as it hosted more than 75 persons for a showing of the 1949 film “The Fountainhead.” The event was in conjunction with the “When Cool Was Hot” Westport Historical Society exhibit featuring modernism architecture. “The Fountainhead,” starring Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, and Raymond Massey, is based on Ayn Rand’s 1943 monumental best-selling book about an uncompromising visionary architect who struggles to maintain his integrity despite pressures to conform and compromise his artistic and personal vision.     Share on Facebook

• • • Ayn Rand’s character model of a “real man” was child killing sociopath 
Tim McCown, The Examiner Altruism  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Inaccurate  Ayn Rand's writings have no more business being the guiding principles of our political and economic policy than do Marx's. Sadly a brilliant but extremely mentally ill woman never got the help she needed. But sociopathy is not a solution but a mental illness to be treated. Rand's ideas were given very little credibility when she wrote them and they deserve even less creditability now.     Share on Facebook

• • Why no writer can match Salinger’s voice 
Shoba Narayan, LiveMint.com The Fountainhead  Capitalism  Tomorrow, as you scramble to get red roses for a candlelight dinner with your sweetie, you could raise a champagne toast to any number of things [...]. Or you could dismiss the whole lot as damn “phoneys”. Jerome David Salinger, who died last month at age 91, would approve. He, along with Ayn Rand, inspires hyperbole and cultish devotion. Their books achieve the troika that every aspiring author longs for: original, long-lasting best-sellers. Best of all, not only are their books and characters unforgettable (remember Howard Roark?), they are immensely readable.     Share on Facebook

• • • “A despicable hatchet job, by a clueless non entity, pretentiously posing as a degenerate scum 
Roger Kimball, Pajamas Media Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  I never made it through either of Rand’s two big novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. To enjoy either, I suspect, you had to have encountered Rand in adolescence, when so many of life’s lasting enthusiasms are forged. In recent years, a few friends have urged Rand on me, and I dutifully tried both novels more than once. Each time, I found myself oscillating between fits of the giggles, at the awful prose, and irritation, at the jejune philosophy. Among the many reasons I am thankful to Whittaker Chambers, his having rescued me from making further attempts to scale the Everest of Atlas Shrugged comes high on my list. His review of the book in an early issue of National Review is a masterpiece of literary demolition and moral interment.     Share on Facebook