Book Notes: The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

What the book is about (spoiler alert)

It is about the life of an architect named Howard Roark, a man passionate about his work and his freedom of thoughts, living in a world where everyone is afraid to raise their own opinion. That is a world of “second-handers,” i.e. people who live for others, not for themselves, who have no opinion because their opinions are of others.

Roark loved designing buildings in the way he believed is meaningful. He did not care about any form of reward, be it money or reputation. That attitude made him extremely unpopular with almost everyone: his university (who kicked him out right before graduation because he refused to complete a class which he intellectually disagreed with), a few of his bosses, most of his potential clients (who got mad at him because he did not follow their artistic requirements and insist on his own), and society at large (who thinks his designs are so free and wild that they are an insult to humanity). He designed buildings because of the buildings themselves, not because of the people who will live in them. He would find clients who wanted to live in his houses, instead of building houses for any particular clients. If any client wants him to build things in a particular way, he would turn down the offer, including million-dollar ones.

After being kicked out of school, Roark started his career by working with Henry Cameron, a used-to-be-famous architect who has a unique artistic style. Everyone told him he was crazy for following Cameron, including Cameron himself; but he was very happy with that decision, because he liked Cameron’s style of art. He worked hard in Cameron’s office, doing the most mundane jobs possible because Cameron did not have a lot of clients. But he always did it with utmost attention. At the end of Roark’s internship, Cameron told him: “I’ve taught you a great deal and nothing. No one can teach you anything, not at the core, at the source of it. What you’re doing–it’s yours, not mine, I can only teach you to do it better. I can give you the means, but the aim–the aim’s your own.”

After his first success with a client who could appreciate his art, he had enough money to open his own office. But his stance did not change: he designed buildings in the way he liked, and clients either had to accept it or walk away. He got a few surprising contracts, but eventually went bankrupt. At those points, he could have earned millions by working as ordered by some wealthy corporate clients.

Opposite to Roark is Peter Keating, the valedictorian of the class at the same university who liked money and fame, never had his own ideas but had to copy from others (mainly Roark), and […] He hated Roark for knowing what he wants, but always asked Roark for help in every important professional milestones. There was one time Keating asked Roark about choosing between two different options after graduation: going to a famous design firm, or taking a scholarship to continue his study at a prestigious school in Paris. It was a beautiful conversation:

• Keating: [Slowly brought up the question about the two career choices, seeking for advice.] I don’t know which to take.
• Roark: If you want my advice, Peter, you’ve made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don’t you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?
• Keating: You see, that’s what I admire about you, Howard. You always know. […] How do you always manage to decide?
• Roark: How can you let others decide for you?

Later, Roark described Keating as follows: What was his aim in life? Greatness–in other people’s eyes. Fame, admiration, every–all that which comes from others […] He didn’t want to be great, but to be thought great. He didn’t want to build, but to be admired as a builder […] The man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others thing he’s honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand.

Further about Keating, his mom, Mrs. Keating, is the realization of lifestyle all about money and fame. Talking about Roark to Keating, she said “You’ve got to watch your prestige before those boys.” Talking about Keating’s modest girlfriend, she avoided commenting directly but “chatted about penniless girls who hooked brilliant young men, about promising boys whose careers had been wrecked by marriage to the wrong woman; and read to him every newspaper account of a celebrity divorcing his plebeian wife […]”

And brilliant was how the book describe the second-handers of the world:

(At a formal party) The guests stood about, self-consciously informal, working at being brilliant.

(About a potential client of Roark) There was no such person as Mrs. Wayne Wilmot; there was only a shell containing the opinions of her friends, the picture post cards she had seen, the novels of country squire she had read

(About how people were angry at Roark’s radical actions) All were united as brothers in the luxury of common anger that cured boredom and took them out of themselves, and they knew well enough what a blessing it was to be taken out of themselves.

Roark’s love with Dominique Francon was a relationship that almost feels supernatural. She saw him when he was a worker at a quarry, at the “bottom” of his career. But somehow she noticed something special in him. And most of the time, they understood each other without saying much.

It amused him to wait, because he knew that the waiting was unbearable to her.

She made no effort to ignore him.

(When Dominique visited Roark while she was married to another man, and asked about where he lived, what furniture were in the room) “A table, chairs, a bed” – “No, tell me in detail”

Across the book, Roark was always calm about things happening in his life, not in a pretentious way, but because he expected all of it.

(Someone asked Roark why he was not angry about a terrible thing happened to him) “I can’t pretend an anger I don’t feel”

And his work was the best thing in life that he enjoyed.

I hate incompetence. I think it’s probably the only thing I do hate. But it didn’t make me want to rule people. Nor teaching them anything. It made me want to do my own work in my own way and let myself be torn to pieces if necessary.

The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself.

I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I’m an utter egotist.

In the end, Roark left people in one advice: The choice is not self-sacrifice or domination [because both are about others]. The choice is independence of dependence.

Remarks

I was introduced to the book by anh Tuan Mon on my trip to Vietnam last winter. We were in a cafe in District 4 of HCMC, catching up on life after 3 years not seeing each other. At that point in time, I was obsessed with one question: how to be more “accomplished”. I was trying to get into a big tech, build cool open-source products, and write more impactful papers. In other words, I want to be more outcome-oriented.

Then, anh Tuan told me that he is the opposite – aspired to work for the joy of it, process-oriented. He brought up the book as a reference for the two modes of living. I don’t remember exactly why, but I feel peaceful as soon as I hear that sharing, because I have not heard it for a long while.

Also during that trip, in a coffee shop in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam, I was reading a copy of Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk. A few pages into the introduction, it read:

Musk had struck me as a well-intentioned dreamer—a card-carrying member of Silicon Valley’s techno-utopian club. This group tends to be a mix of Ayn Rand devotees and engineer absolutists who see their hyperlogical worldviews as the Answer for everyone. If we’d just get out of their way, they’d fix all our problems.

Now I know that the book is referring to Howard Roark, an archetype of process-oriented humans who values independence of thoughts above all else. There are worrying extremes in there, but I think the account of Roark is a good refresher for the modern world or, we may say, a society of glamour.