SACRILEGE...

A book I certainly wouldn't keep on my coffee table. A book I felt ashamed after reading. Everyone I have talked to tell me it is one of the most awesome books that they ever read. Well I don’t think the Fountainhead deserves that kind of praise.

The book doesn't deserve the readership that it has acquired over time, the sense of glamour and foolish pride people take in claiming to have read the book. It comes as a slap on the face to the intellectual community of the world. It has not been written for the purpose of people to read it. The book influences the dormant mind of the naive man, convincing him to believe that he can live his life directed by his own whims and fantasies.

The book glorifies the perspectives of the capitalistic world, places the self above the society, the individual above common good and achievement over sacrifice. The book challenges the very essence of altruism, charity, equality and fraternity as it is seen by the world. It preaches uncompromising obstinacy of individual ideals. It comes as a thorn in the flesh of the society that has developed with emphasis on attributes like sharing, helping and harmonious symbiosis.

The protagonist of the story, Howard Roark, proclaimed to be a master in all he does. He is portrayed as a paragon for an ideal human being. The ornate and clever writing of the author fires a spark in the ingenuous readers mind, makes him crave to be like the protagonist. Whenever someone tells me that they would want to be like Howard Roark, I get outraged and feel like burning down every copy of the book, the character doesn’t deserve such patronage.

The storyline is not a saga of success, as one would generally expect. But of failure, and more failure because of Roark's unyielding and inexorable nature. At points in the book, the story spawns some sympathy on the minds of the reader, an unworthy sympathy that our hero does not deserve.

I pondered for a long time, trying to figure out what was the point the author has to prove, but I have come to realize that the author has no point to prove at all. A book that has been written, because it had to be written.

From the seeming popularity of the book I guess the molestation of ideals and perspectives shall continue. Nil Magnum Nisi bonum