Why do the bashers of this novel always resort to strawman arguments

I actually enjoyed the characters' presenting greater ideals as opposed to their being more lifelike, with the exception of Dominique, who, as you put it, reeked of self-insertion.

Honestly, this book made me feel motivated after I read it, though I concede that if I read it at a different point, it may have only embittered me, so I can understand why there are critics, but I'm hesitant to attribute much value to the sorts of critiques you've identified. I think that when people critique any form of media, their opinions are muddled by their prior emotional states. If you jumped from the Genealogy of Morals to Swann's Way, you're going to frame Proust differently than if you had read something like Frankenstein first. Or even if you read infrequently, being consumed by some obsession or pervading thought can contaminate the mind in a similar manner. Have you ever read a book, picked it up again a few years later, and realized that your opinion of the material had completely changed? Or maybe it's something small- maybe one day someone smiles at you and the movement serves only as an irritating reminder of the displeasure you feel.

I'm going through one of those periods now where I am aware of the way I used to think, but I do not know how to return to that mindset. The world is all distorted, like the old Gameboy Colors would sometimes get if dust got in the framework. It feels as if my mind is corrupted, and by trying to return to my previous thought process, I am mentally stunting myself. I don't believe it's possible to ever become a past version of yourself in the way I dream, but I'm hoping that I can clear away the bad parts.

i think Ayn writes quite well actually
she just wants you to not wallow in the base natures of humanity and instead strive for greatness. she isn't popular because qualities like discipline and master work are things not popular in todays culture.

>>9375280
>Do most people hate it because they this novel is constantly reminding them to hold higher ideals and to better oneself? Do people really hate being reminded and scolded for their flaws?

I hate it because of Ayn Rand.

>>9375304
>I think that when people critique any form of media, their opinions are muddled by their prior emotional state

that's a good point, I'm currently in a very productive period irl

The majority of the bashers of this novel have never even read it. Seriously.

Soon as you do a bit of digging and ask specifics that becomes clear.

Great novel, profiound thinker. Dante, Shakespeare, Rand. The trifecta of the modern mind as TS Eliot called them

>>9375304
Good post. I feel like I'm going through much the same thing.

>>9375280
When reading Ayn Rand should one start with The Fountainhead then proceed to Atlas Shrugged then return to the early works if you enjoyed those two, or should one read them in order from We the Living to Atlas Shrugged?

>>9376652
>start with The Fountainhead then proceed to Atlas Shrugged then return to the early works if you enjoyed those two
This one.

>>9376669
Thank you

>this is an allegory of social evil
>these are the evil characters
>lol they're basically Archie cut-outs, how droll
>these are the good characters
>lol they exhibit characteristics typically associated with maladjusted cranks
>lol my world has been turned UPSIDE DOWN
>and at last I finally see the light, brought to you by LucasArts, a Disney property

the problem with the book is that, politics aside, the prose reads like harry potter fan fiction

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141KB, 465x477px

Will I enjoy this book if Atlas Shrugged bored me to death?

It's written with prose indistinguishable from those "atheist marxist jewish aclu college professor debates a marine" chain emails
The Good Guys are flawless paragons who constantly make everyone listening to them drop their mouths open in shock at their wisdom and irrefutable points, while The Bad Guys are caricatures of evil who just can't understand virtue in any way
It's vacuous trash

>>9378194
Should add that this is based on Atlas Shrugged, I assume her writing wasn't significantly better in Fountainhead

>>9378194
>The Good Guys are flawless paragons who constantly make everyone listening to them drop their mouths open in shock at their wisdom and irrefutable points, while The Bad Guys are caricatures of evil who just can't understand virtue in any way

I don't see the problem with this when what you're writing is essentially a romantic tract in the first place.

But I also see how anything that remotely comes close to Romanticism or Modernism is axiomatically horrible today because it doesn't have 5000 layers of irony.

>>9378114
Maybe.

>>9378214
The Fountainhead is actually a lot better on those points.

Ayn Rand has a good way of writing but the world her characters inhabit is completely unrealistic, and it's only through this unreality that her ideology is supported

For example, you're not going to be a successful architect by flat-out ignoring everything your clients want you to do.

I also hate to say it but the rape shit was creepy and unneeded, it came across as some 1940s BDSM fanfic