Kontextmaschine

27th January 2013

Post with 21 notes

Off The Top Of My Head: The Fountainhead

Okay we start out with this architecture student, Roark, in a meeting with like the dean of architecture school? He’s getting kicked out for being too awesome, and coming up with original ideas instead of rehashing romanticism. He says goodbye to this other student - not a total twerp, but not as cool.

Notatwerp graduates, and gets a job as a drafter at a firm. He works his way up and starts dating this chick, meanwhile Roark’s become a construction worker. One day the chick goes to a site he’s drilling at and he forces himself on her, and she’s like “okay that was awesome” and starts seeing him on the side.

Meanwhile there’s a prissy newspaper columnist? Or maybe that was Atlas Shrugs.

There’s a competition to design apartments for workers, and Roark works up this plan for a really sweet-looking building with units that would be awesome to live in, they even have balconies.

Wait! First, Notatwerp gets a commission to design a church and goes to Roark for help, Roark designs this thing with like, subterranean entrances that gives people the total opposite impression of a greater glory, it makes them feel exalted about humanity and themselves. It’s awesome but people don’t appreciate it because they suck.

Meanwhile, the chick totally loves Roark so she stops seeing him and gets engaged to Notatwerp and totally rubs this in Roark’s face every chance she gets ‘cause it’ll make him more awesome.

So then Roark’s apartments win the competition, only when they build it the funders (maybe the priss is on the board?) change it to make it cheaper and more conventional, in particular they take out the balconies 'cause what do workers need balconies for?

And Roark’s like “NO, you are NOT going to make my idea suck” and before anyone moves in he rigs the building with dynamite, and it blows up behind him as he walks towards the camera. And the chick’s like “oh Roark, you so sexy!”

THE END

(Only that was like 800 fucking pages, 'cause it was written on written on amphetamine and not edited. I can see why Ayn Rand books don’t make good movies. 'course, I can see why publishers would reject the book in the first place, but joke’s on them so…)

Tagged: off the top of my headthe fountainheadayn randottomh