Why howard laughed

The front windows are large enough and admit plenty of light, as well as the feet of the marble cupids that roost on the outside.

According to Mayhew, Rand was probably influenced during this period by Sinclair Lewis, whose barbed commentaries in such novels as Elmer Gantry showed the power of social satire. Watching them, Dagny thought suddenly of the difference between Francisco and her brother Jim. Both of them smiled derisively.

But Francisco seemed to laugh at things because he saw something much greater. Jim laughed as if he wanted to let nothing remain great. Young love. Spring and dawn and heaven and drugstore chocolates at a dollar and a quarter a box. The prerogative of the gods and the movies. I understand. And I approve. Man has always insisted on making an ass of himself. Oh, come now, we must never lose our sense of humor. Kill by laughter.

Laughter is an instrument of human joy. Learn to use it as a weapon of destruction. Turn it into a sneer. Tell them to laugh at everything. Tell them that a sense of humor is an unlimited virtue.

As Mayhew explains, he is laughing at his dismissal from architecture school and at all the hardships that lie ahead, laughing because to him these obstacles seem small and inconsequential relative to the prospects for achievement and joy that he knows are open to him.

Explore unique philosophical content that challenges conventional views — in courses you can take on the go. Available on Google Play and the App Store. Media Inquiries. Privacy Policy. For no person works and creates and then benefits from that work and creation without first having a social foundation and culture built on others' past experiences and achievements on which one draws as an investment.

And as an aside, I would insert the personal concern that just as the Soviet Union's economy collapsed under rampant collectivism based strictly on society at the expense of the individual, so too is the danger that the American economy may very well collapse under rampant get-rich-quick individualism at the expense of societal concerns. Something to ponder But that's not really what I wanted to say with this particular post.

No, what I wanted to say is much briefer than all that: Creating is a hoot. Examining a problem from all sides and all facets, meditating on it, even pounding your head on the razor sharp edge of failure's abyss Nevermind that three quarters of all those new ideas may still be pure garbage.

The trick to creating comes in two steps: first, conceiving new ideas; then, evaluating those new ideas. As it's said that every good writer needs a good editor, every architect needs equally good judgment.

Some of the most creative architects I know can't begin to successfully evaluate their ideas. So everything goes in -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. The projects of these uber-creators succeed if there's more good than bad, and darned little ugly. But that doesn't always happen. My process is best described by Gene Fowler's famous words, when he wrote, "Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.

When designing, I conceive of and then ultimately reject hundreds of ideas each hour. I would like to think that I have rejected thousands of moderately interesting ideas that lesser architects might have still exploited for fame and fortune. But not me.

The difference is that those hack ideas all get tossed. When The Fountainhead's "Howard Roark laughed", he was reveling in his own creative urges and architectural ambitions in the midst of the tremendous personal and professional turmoils he would soon face from his architectural school and from the world. But he just knew that he could do it armed with total confidence in himself made possible by the complete lack of compassion that Ayn Rand endowed him with. Only in fiction.

It's damned hard work creating and evaluating ones own creative efforts. It's damned hard work believing in the delicate and necessary balance between the heroism of rugged individualism and the social compact. And it's damned hard work trying to be compassionate and not caring what others think. These are all efforts worthy of heroes, highly conflicted heroes!

I thought you were going to comment on the Howard Dean rage-laugh, but that was more of a scream, or perhaps just an expression of the exhultation felt after ripping the head off an opponent after grappling for many long hours in the mud the blood and the beer, and then feasting on his entrails. So, though obviously this blog is architecture-oriented, I pose this question: Why did Howard Dean let loose an expression of his exhultation, and upon whose entrails did he feast?

Nice comment. Hadn't occurred to me that multiple Howards laughed. And here I am a devotee of political blogs. Fool me once Howard Dean is clearly a highly-conflicted hero to have let loose such a primal yalp while surrounded by emotionally crushed fanatics immediately following his Presidential demise.

He was feasting upon his own entrails, simply put. And I would gladly subsidize him again if he chose to re-run for President.

Once I discovered that Ayn Rand was a refugee from the newly Communist USSR right after the Civil wars of the early 20's, and then came to Hollywood where she became a screen-writer, I realized why I found no logic in her writing.

All she had to offer was a spew of unexplained and unevaluated emotion placed on paper. Wow, richard, that's one of the more unexpected and bizarre readings and interpretations of Ayn Rand that Howard has ever encountered.

The beauty of this is that Howard Roark does not care about your interpretations of him or his creator. Howard Roark achieves where you settle, creates where you consume, and finds happiness in individualism while you crave acceptance and praise.

I can see why so many people hate his ideals and philosophy, I hope you've read atlas shrugged you remind me of a few characters portrayed on that novel :. I've read everything Ayn Rand ever wrote