Ayn Rand and Leonard (AFT) Peikoff - Fountainhead

Celebrate True Greatness: that is the theme of this book.

Many people don't get that. This book, along with other Rand writings,has become territorialized by the Republican right wing. They would like to think they engender concepts espoused by this book, but they don't really get it. The bad part to this is that they have cast Rand and her writings into the negative light of politicized literature, and that is a disservice to her books.

The protagonist is a person who has great natural talent. This person strives to lead his life in a manner that capitalizes on his talents in a positive, creative way. In the process he butts against people and a society would not want to acknowledge his innate ability by either changing the rules, or by outright theft, literal or idealogical.

*This* is what makes this book great; I know of no other writing that makes a fictional account so concisely detailing idealogical hypocrisy in regards to true talent. Talented people have to fight to do anything, even when it appears things are going smoothly. They also have to face people who are insanely jealous of their ability, people who will reflexively attempt to destroy for the sake of not having greatness shown for what it is. That is a true evil, an evil that is a constant in today's society and this book makes a wonderful tale out of pointing out the archetypes of this mindset.

I don't care about the superfluous political connections with Rands book. This book, as far as I'm concerned, has nothing to do with modern politics whatsoever and I encourage anyone who has an interest in a book about a different, "road less travelled" perspective on life to ignore the punditry and give it a read.