I read most of Ayn Rand’s books back in high school, during my teenage libertarian phase. I even slogged my way through all 17,000 pages of Atlas Shrugged, while lying to myself that it was actually really good. But I never got around to reading The Fountainhead.

I’m finally doing that, for some reason. It’s not quite as ideologically rigid as Atlas Shrugged or her turgid nonfiction books, and parts of it are genuinely interesting to read. But she seems fundamentally incapable of writing a villain who is not a fantasy cartoon version of whatever imaginary type of leftwing ideology she’s skewering.

This extends all the way down to the characters’ names! Like what the fuck is an “Ellsworth Toohey”???

I can just imagine Rand sitting at her writing desk, chortling over the fact that she’s christening this sad sack, pseudo-socialist villain with dumbest name anyone has ever heard of.

“Yeah! Take that you commies! I don’t have to fight you in a battle of ideas because I can just give you silly names! This is rational! I am RATIONAL!!!”