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Comment by randrus | Hacker News Reader

Hah! I had a similarly visceral reaction to Fountainhead - I finished reading while pacing angrily, and afterward threw it as far as I could.

The only book I intentionally destroyed though was Kaplan’s Advanced Calculus, but that was just the frustration talking.

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Why? I never get the hate for Ayn Rand - aside that it's weirdly cool to hate her books so people jump onto that bandwagon.

I remember really liking Fountainhead.

Atlas Shrugged is a long book with unrealistic characters. The whole thing feels out of touch, like a podcast run by elitist trust-fund people complaining about the mind-numbing mediocrity of everyone else.

I never read Fountainhead, maybe it's better.

> There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html

It's also super frustrating to know the author lived on a public pension. Couldn't even live the fantasy.

There are those who believe it is morally questionable or even a crime to take back any portion of what was stolen from you in an armed robbery, it now belongs to those who employ coercion to obtain things etc.

We are not amongst them and have NEVER ONCE apologized about it or otherwise suggested we care to accomodate you perverse moral principle. But do go on ...

Fountainhead triggered a kind of moral indignation in me. I read it as arguing that the path to happiness and success was to ignore social mores, hold your vision firm, and take what you want. I think I described it as glamorizing sociopathy.

Also, I want to reject the imputation of faddish dislike for her. I read this 40+ years ago - I'm not some johnny-come-hately.

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