Did you read Fiction or Non-Fiction first?

[Steve O]

I have seen the question raised of when people first read Ayn Rand, but my question is a little different.

Did you read the non-fiction works first to learn of the philosophy, and then read the fiction? Or was it the other way around?

And more specifically, if you read Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead or Anthem first, was it with the knowledge that it was a philosophically based work, or was it with the intent of reading it as a novel as with any other work of fiction?

I first read Atlas Shrugged four years ago (I am 40 now, so I was a late bloomer), and did so with no knowledge of objectivism, or that it was Ayn Rand's personal vision of how her philosophy would work in the world. I loved it, then read The Fountainhead and Anthem. I have since read any non-fiction works that I could get my library to bring in.

I am a new member, and have been enjoying reading the postings for the last couple of weeks. I have been intrigued by Objectivism, although I am wary to say that "Objectivism is the philosophy for me". More in the line of "Objectivism is the philosophy which most closely describes the philosophy I have always had (even before I was aware of philosophy itself).

Look forward to a lot of discussions in the future!

[JMeganSnow]

I read the fiction first, but I'm a big fiction buff regardless. They were recommended to me by a friend in high school.

[DarkWaters]

I first read Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal and then The Virtue of Selfishness. However, I mostly read non-fiction and I was initially most interested in learning more about Objectivist Ethics and Objectivist Politics.

[Steve D'Ippolito]

Hmm, I just told the story in another thread but I'll encapsulate it here. In high school I stumbled across a short description of the philosophy and it at least half seemed right which was more than I ever saw in any other philosophy--so off I marched to Waldenbooks and went to the Philosophy section, and bought FTNI. Within a year or so I had purchased or read everything that was readily evailable in bookstores (it turns out my parents had the novels not that they ever showed signs of having read them--I doubt, actually that my mother ever did), with the exception of Romantic Manifesto. This was 1980-1982, pre Gaetano cover art. My Romantic Manifesto has the Gaetano artwork on it.

(So I am one of that majority of first time Atlas Shrugged readers who skipped the speech, but I cannot be condemned by anyone (sadly some people like to build themselves up by sneering at people who skip the speech) for this. Because I had already read it, as reproduced in FTNI. Beat that, O sneerers! )

Unfortunately the part I rejected was the egoism. I accepted LF capitalism on utilitarian grounds.

It took me something like 22 years to recover from that, and I am still not sure I am really an Objectivist. THere is always the chance I will find something I disagree with and be unable to reconcile it as semantics (which is usually what it turns out to be), or what-have-you (so far the rest of the time). I do know I am much, much closer to it than any other systematic worldview I have come across.

[Benpercent]

I read Anthem in tenth grade English, but that actually steered me away from Objectivism for a good two years. It was okay in class, but I did not and still do not appreciate her style of fiction. Then one night during the second semester of my senior year, I was talking books on the internet with my good friend and I told her to steer clear of Ayn Rand. She told me that she LOVED Ayn Rand and that she has read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I remembered the conversation.

A few days (maybe weeks?) later I was at Barnes & Nobles in the philosophy section (which is only one shelf small ) and I saw The Virtue of Selfishness. Keeping my friend's words in my mind, I gave it a chance and been into Objectivism ever since.

So I started with the fiction, but was persuaded by the nonfiction.

[cilphex]

The first book I read was The Fountainhead, in my senior year of high school 5 years ago. A friend of mine had given me a little book called "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," where a vein of the story relies on the main character completing increasingly intellectual extracurricular book assignments for a teacher. Eventually the kid (Charlie) is assigned The Fountainhead, whereupon he is warned to "be careful" reading it, or something to that extent. Its mentioned later, and the character quotes Roark's line to Wynand: "I could die for you. But I couldn't and wouldn't live for you." This intrigued me, and I faintly recalled that it had been an optional choice for a summer reading assignment. So, I picked it up.

Needless to say I was enthralled. Shortly thereafter I read We The Living, and that summer I read Atlas in one week on vacation. Eventually I read Anthem, and have been wheedling away at her nonfiction ever since. I hadn't known before I started, beyond the book jacket text, about The Fountainhead's philosophic basis and implications. But my sense-of-life recognition of them, I think, is what made me love it.

Edited December 24, 2007 by cilphex

[D'kian]

I've always been a voracious reader. When I run out of new books I re-read older ones. Anyway, that's how come I hit upon We The Living. Just in time, too, when I was beginning high school. It might have stopped there, but I did like Rand's style and a friend told me she'd written a science fiction novel (SF being my one true literary love). Therefore I read Anthem.

Then I did what I usally do with writers whose work I like: I searched for other titles. Thus came The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, then The Night of January 16th and The Early Ayn Rand. Atlas intrigued me enough to read Rand's non-fiction. Naturally I tried to read all of it (eventually I did, including all the bound volumes of her various periodicals).

[CmdrBretz]

When I first discovered Objectivism, I was reading my values come to life in Atlas Shrugged. The non-fiction, I read later as a means to articulate and better apply Objectivism into my daily life.