Sunday, May 15, 2011

Thoughts: The Fountainhead

One of the things that got me the most about The Fountainhead is the way the relationships are constructed, particularly the power play between Howard and Dominique. It was probably pretty clear in class that I had some issues with it: I do understand where Rand is coming from and what the relationship was depicting. I just find the place she is coming from very disturbing and highly problematic. But then again, that probably applies to the rest of the novel, and my issues with the Howard/Dominique relationship are basically just a synecdoche for the mixed emotions I felt while reading the entire novel.

An idea that was brought up in class, which incidentally seems to be the only note I wrote throughout the entire seminar, was this idea that what Rand is representing is a kind of capitalism of desire. It seemed to me that all of the principles of objectivism and individualism that operated throughout the novel turned into this intense sado-masochistic dynamic when it came to Howard and Dominque’s affair. I did a bit of reading, and I found an article by Eva Illouz called The Rise of Homo Sentimentalis, which I thought was really interesting. In it she points out that in sociological accounts of modernity the two biggest points of analysis tend to be the advent of capitalism/individualism and the advent of modernity in terms of emotions. What she does is conflate the two and look at how both capitalism and one’s emotional life influence one another. Her basic argument is that the making of capitalism went hand in hand with a specialised emotional culture, and so while desire was put at the centre of production, intimate relationships increasingly enacted political and economic models of bargaining and exchange(p.4). I don’t really have a lot of space to talk about that much further, but suffice to say I think it’s a really interesting way of looking at the Dominique/Howard relationship.

In addition, I think it’s really interesting to look at how that might affect the people who use The Atlasphere. A couple of months ago Elena pointed me to what is basically a dating and social networking website designed specifically to hook up admirers of Rand’s books and philosophy. In it’s ‘About’ section it says: “The values dramatized in The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged — the values of reason, independence, hard work, and personal integrity, among others — provide the framework for a unique moral vision, one which can be profoundly inspiring.” I also found this article in the New York Times – it’s the beginning bit that’s important – which outlines how one couple got together through the website. But all I can think about is how these people’s relationships must work if they’re so committed to Rand’s ideals. Do they torture each other in their professional lives and then go home and have violently passionate sex all over their functional furniture?

I might just leave that as a question.

I also thought it was interesting Ayn Rand was referenced in an episode of Mad Men. Burt Cooper, the head of Sterling Cooper, talks about Atlas Shrugged with the kind of reverence usually reserved for religious text. Which, I suppose, is almost what Ayn Rand has become: a holy text for capitalism and individualism. I think a lot of her ideas are present in Mad Men. This has quite literally just occurred to me, but there are a lot of similarities between Don Draper and Howard Roark. Yet another point of discussion...

9 comments:

  1. I laughed quite heartily at that rhetorical question. Too true.

    But I think the reason i find this humorous is my reaction to the relationship between Howard and Dominique. It was very strange watching the film for me as it actualised pretty much all my own 'fleeting' feministic desires. To be independent, to be emotionally and physically detached to anything that might spark desire or human attachment. The Fountainhead proved to me the ridiculousness of these ideals and their impracticality. Howard and Dominique were probably the most dysfunctional couple i have ever encountered. It was almost funny in some points of the film/book as i see the characters struggle with these man-made and socially created ideals of the modern individual. Their relationship taught me the impossibility of this reality.

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  2. I don't have much to add but for the fact that The Atlasphere is the most horrifying thing I've ever seen on the internet.

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  3. Dearest Madeleine. I love how all your posts have such strong personal reverberations. I remember discussing that blasphemous rand dating site with you. I think among the COUNTLESS frightening dating sites that do exist these types of sites are quite interesting in that they are strongly politicised, if thinly veiled. so the rand site is probably no different to a scientology dating site- where rand has been canonised in a similar way to hubbard?

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  4. The Draper/Roark comparison is really interesting.

    I think that Mad Men in many ways rejects the stereotype that Cooper applies to Draper when he tries to “quantify”/monetize his creative value.
    It’s interesting that, while Draper says he’ll read Atlas Shrugged, O’Hara’s Meditations in an Emergency has a much more profound effect on him later on (O’Hara and his predecessors could easily be the satirical target of Rand’s attack on beatnik writers in The Fountainhead). Though Draper seems to be the ideal egoist, he frequently finds outlets in the counterculture brewing in the 50s and climaxing in the 60s. Some of his best campaigns (like the Kodak Carousel episode) are profoundly sentimental.

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  5. i enjoyed your points regarding powerplay and the parallel to Mad Men very interesting

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  6. This "Atlasphere" thing seems to be very popular fodder for people but thank god someone mentioned that it is no worse than a religious or any other politicised dating site. I just wonder if all the men are as chiselled as Roark and the women as strongly feminine as Dominique.

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  7. The Rand references in Mad Men really interested me too. In the next episode or two after that Rand discussion with Cooper, you see the impact of Atlas Shrugged on Don's behaviour towards clients, when he refuses to work with a lipstick manufacturer unless they agree to follow his advertising plan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y4b-DEkIps

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  8. Nooooo! Not Don! (thinking) yeah totes... Really interesting take on Rand Madeline, I loved the associations you drew into your reading of the entire novel through the frame of the power negotiations present in Roark and Dominique's "relationship".
    And to Merrick's comment.. "Strongly Feminine?" What?

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  9. As an Objectivist I can tell you simply (take it or leave it) that Rand's ideas on gender roles in sex and her personal romantic preferences are not fundamental to the philosophy as a whole. In fact, she was once asked what philosophy had to say on the subject of sex. Having already said that sex belongs largely to psychology and not philosophy, she responded briefly, "It says that sex is good." Only that much.

    For further details, refer to Chapter 9 of "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand."

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