Sunday, April 17, 2011

I Don't Understand Ayn Rand

In high school, I had teachers talk about Ayn Rand and how great she was and how everyone needs to read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. So finally, in college, I've made it to the latte - The Fountainhead - and over 100 pages in, I'm trying to figure out what the hype was about because really, she doesn't deserve it.

While her ultra-conservative views are definitely disconcerting, the main problem for me right now is The Fountainhead is incredibly boring. So far, it's a bunch of architects drawing and talking about drawing and going through architect drama. Nothing is happening. And I have lots more pages to go.

Going along with that is the fact that the characters are incredibly flat. They're all simple and they're all alike, to the point that I have trouble distinguishing between them. And because of that, I don't care about any of them. The dialogue is unrealistic and cliched. And the characters are unlikeable - they're all self-interested and boring, with nothing notable about them.

Am I alone in this?

2 comments:

The Mistress of the Dark said...

I could never make it through Fountainhead. However is is good medicine for insomnia

RigbyMel said...

You're not alone.

I find Ayn Rand rather useless and boring generally. (Which is interesting because I find her hard core fans/acolytes/wonks useless and boring as well. *evil grin*)