I have a question...If you were going to an island to relax for a week and you only had room take along Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, which would you take? I’ve read The Fountainhead (twice) and about 1/3 of Atlas Shrugged... somehow got distracted and never got back to it. What Rand concepts does one learn in Atlas Shrugged that aren’t in The Fountainhead?
Between just the two, Fountain head but Rand is not exactly what I’d call vacation reading.
Great question... following
It is a crazy though poignant part of the book where they are simply ‘out brained’ by their antagonist.
John Galt cannot be forced into submission, and he acts. Howard Roark as well will never submit but he has no urge to convince others to form an alliance with him. He gets things done. John Galt got things ‘undone.’
The basic concepts of Objectivism in that 50-page section near the end.
I suggest buying "Who is John Galt: A Navigational Guide to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged" from Amazon. Two excellent FReepers wrote the book as a product of a FReeper Book Club dedicated to "Atlas." Then pick up "Atlas," read a chapter, and then go to the chapter in "Galt." You'll get so much more out of "Atlas" if you read it that way.
It's been a while since I read Fountainhead, but I think Atlas Shrugged lays out the concepts of objectivism more comprehensively, and the story is a bit more compelling.
In Fountainhead, I felt like Howard Roark was living by some principal, but couldn't quite articulate what it was.