[Flint]

I think Ayn Rand can be understood for what she was and what she represented, without being worshiped, vilified, or held accountable for who we think reads her books or what we think they got out of it.

Artistically, I think her books are a magnificent translation of stark ideals into compelling, if arguably one-dimensional, characters, who perfectly embody the concepts she is making her case for. Almost like comic-book heroes. I don't take her characters to be intended as poetically soft and mysterious human enigmas.

I recommend everyone who is interested in the creative arts to read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, then watch the Gary Cooper film adaptation. Ayn Rand's screenplay adaptation of the novel is an absolutely brilliant, condensed, version of the book, which loses nothing while taking up shorter space. She accomplishes this by combining characters / plot elements which embody similar concepts, effectively "collapsing" the story. A class in screenplay adaptation should be taught based on what she does here.

Howard Roark, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Dominique Francon, and Peter Keating are remarkably relevant character archetypes for many people you will recognize dealing with. Especially Ellsworth Toohey, the ultimate string-pulling, Machiavellian sociopath.

I think the ideas that Ayn Rand promotes need to explored and understood--not rejected outright, and then, like everything--in moderation-- taken as simply one "part of a well-balanced breakfast"