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Tag: Ayn Rand

  • Book Review – Night of January 16th

    Book Review – Night of January 16th

    Night of January 16th is a murder mystery where audience plays the Jury.

    Night of January 16th is actually a play and is inspired by the death of the “Match King”, Ivar Kreuger. It takes place entirely in a court room and is centered on a murder trial. The most interesting part is that the play was designed to let audience decide the outcome of the trial. Thus the ending of the play is not certain. It depends on the audience (reader) and their perceptions and thinking and their ideals.

    The members of the audience are picked to take on the role of jury members in each act. The play does not directly portray the events; instead the “jury” must rely on character testimony and vote on whether the “defendant” is guilty or not guilty. The play has different endings depending on the verdict. Ayn Rand’s own verdict was “not guilty”.

    Another Amazing Work by Ayn Rand !

  • Great Book – The Fountainhead

    The Fountainhead has been one of Ayn Ryand’s most prolific work. Though it is famous for its philosophy of individualism, I love it for its intellectually challenging themes of passion, excellence, integrity and ethics. And yes it is a great love story too.

    The Fountainhead is a book every collegian reads and worships! The Fountainhead is a tribute to positive selfishness (?), individualism, ego and is based on Ayn Rand’s theory of objectivism. Once you start reading The Fountainhead, it is difficult to put it down. Though I do not always tend to agree with her, I am amazed at her thoughts. She is refreshing, creative and too engrossing. While The Fountainhead is about people behaving in a certain way, Atlas Shrugged is why they behave in that way. The Fountainhead is the favorite book of loads of people including students, celebrities and CEOs. Imagine this was a book that was rejected by many publishers.

    Sample these Ayn Rand quotes :
    1. Wealth is the product of a man’s capacity to think.
    2. I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

    The story of The Fountainhead is centered on an architect, Howard Roark. Howard Roark was a Brilliant young architect whose integrity was as unyielding as the granite of the buildings he created. This is the story of his violent battle against the world’s standards and conventions, and of his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who loved him passionately, yet struggled to defeat him. The theme of this record-breaking bestseller is that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress.

    The theme of individualism vs. collectivism, or self vs. selfless, runs throughout philosophy. The story is mostly concerned with ethics, though. The Fountainhead deals with issues of: selflessness, altruism, collectivism, creativity, aesthetics, love, sex, morality, and how to live morally.

    The Fountainhead is the fastest book that I have read. I was up the whole night while reading this book and while in the lecture next day, my mind was on the plot ahead. I completed the book in less than 48 hours. Go – read it!