 I wanted to ask this question because I've been harping on this for years and I've said this publicly. I love The Fountainhead. It is in my top five, maybe my top three favorite books. It just connects with me so much. And I wanted to ask you guys, and you're gonna bulk at this question probably, but I wanted to ask you which is the better novel and I'll give you my take. Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged? Clearly those are your two choices in terms of I and Rand. I think they're both great books, but I've argued in the past that Atlas Shrugged is designed and I think I and Rand admitted as much that it's designed to consciously and systematically flesh out her philosophy. And I've said this before, I've had discussions publicly with Mike over at Mike's Books and a few other booktubers that there are like three or four characters in Atlas Shrugged that are very much. And guys, by the way, I love Atlas Shrugged. It is brilliant. It's a masterpiece. But as a novel versus a work of philosophy, there are characters in Atlas Shrugged that feel a bit wooden and feel like mouthpieces for Ayn Rand's worldview. They speak like her. They espouse her ideas to the letter at times. Some of the characters in Atlas Shrugged just kind of feel wooden to me. Whereas the Fountainhead, I feel like it's different. It was written before Ayn Rand had fully concretized her philosophy. And so to me, it's better art. And I know you guys would disagree with that. That's why I brought you on. You should read Atlas Shrugged. It's amazing. It's gonna change your life. I'm gonna review it on this channel. But for me, it's less, the Fountainhead is less rigid. It's less dogmatic. The story is more graceful. It's about individualism versus very hyper specific nuances of her philosophy. Rourke is one of the great heroes of literature. And so I just wanted to ask you guys, how do they compare and contrast these two books? And do you agree with me? Probably not. Do they serve different purposes and that sort of thing? And how do you think they compare? Or is it impossible to say that? Should we just look at them as serving different purposes and they're each good in their own way? Start with you, Yaron. Well, I mean, I think they're both masterpieces. I'm sympathetic to the idea that many people have that Fountainhead either resonates more with them. I can completely understand that or that it's even the better novel. I'm not a literature expert. I'm not in a position to rank the best literature. You know, my favorite is Adler Shrug, partially because I read it first, partially because it blew my mind. It changed my life. And partially because I think the achievement in Adler Shrug is greater. Adler Shrug is a book that integrates an entire philosophy into a story, an entire world from the political realm all the way to the aesthetic realm all the way down to the personal realm. I consider Reardon and Dagny as fleshed out and as real personalities and people as Warke and Dominica. And yet, and so she manages both to give us these personal heroes of immense integrity who change, Reardon changes through the novel. I mean, people talk about her wooden characters, but Reardon is the opposite because he is really affected and changes and has to resolve those conflicts through the novel. So to me, it's a great novel. For me, certainly personally, it meant more, it means more, but I certainly understand people who prefer the fountain head. It's certainly a more personal, more intimate novel. The Adler Shrug is about the world and about integrating a perspective of the world into the story. And yeah, and also I don't mean to cheapen the book, but because of course, and I've listened to Don's podcast where he talks about this. So I don't mean to over-allegorize it, but I mean, Adler Shrug is happening right now. And you can say that I'm sure you can go through any like presidential administration, you could say, this is, we're living through Adler Shrug. It isn't, it isn't because Adler Shrug doesn't not about the politics of it. It's not about, it's about Reardon and Dagny and all in Francisco and ultimately about Gold. So what's happening around is the backdrop to illustrate something really, really crucial and do we have Dagny's, Reardon's and Francisco's to some extent, do we have John Galt? We don't. So it's not happening around us. And indeed, if it was happening around us, I'd be a lot more optimistic about the future of the world. Should I not be noticing your own? Should I not be noticing these strong parallels, the cronyism, the corruption, the collectivism, the second-handerism, the- All happening, but you can notice- Our public intellectuals- If you know the world of architecture, you would notice all of that about the fontanet. You'd say the fontanet is happening right now. And it is. I mean, there's no question that they are innovative, brilliant architects out there who are being repressed and being canceled, as you noted. And that is true in the arts more broadly and it's true in Google. So I think the fontanet's happening all around us. It's just a matter that it's happening in one particular realm where it's out of the shrug just so much more. All right, Don, and then we'll, you'll be the last word on this here, Don, and then we'll close out. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. Ron Atlas has always been my favorite as literature. I don't think it's that she's trying to make a mouthpieces for her philosophy. It's that her theme is the role of the mind and human life. And to get the role of the human mind, you're seeing like a whole bunch of variants and aspects of like the mind's role in life. And it's fundamental. So it's throughout, you know, human life. But I will say this about the fontanet that I think is one of the things I love about it and it makes it so impressive. Think about, there's this YouTube series called like Pitch Meeting. I forget exactly what it's called, but it's basically like a guy coming in and like pitching movies to Hollywood, like real movies, but they sound insane once you're trying to make the pitch. Think about the pitch for the fountainhead. Okay, I'm gonna write about a guy who's trying to become an architect. And that's the book. It's just a guy trying to like get a job. How is that? That's not even a story. Like a person, you know, it's, I mean, it's really just a guy living his life. And yet it has this kind of heroic stature because it's part of the message is the noblest, most heroic thing is not some kind of like, you know, caped crusader running through the streets. It is a person truly dedicated to the pursuit of their happiness and living by the kind of virtues that make that possible and that kind of dedication and uncompromising integrity towards them. And to me, that's just an amazing achievement that you can take something that on the face of it is not as hardly even a story and make it a gripping page turner and one of the most inspiring books ever written. And really, I mean, it's, Yaron mentioned it's more intimate. Part of what it is is you really understand the people around you way more after you read The Fountainhead. And like you can look around and see, like I really get what makes my sister tick and what makes my mother tick and like why my teachers treated me this way. It is, it's the kind of book that growing up everybody should read because it gives you that kind of illuminating look at like the kind of life I'm gonna live. Like I'm not gonna invent a new motor and, you know, take down the world through some, well, I don't wanna say anything more, but, you know, take on all of society but I am gonna try to build a career in a life that I love and The Fountainhead speaks directly to that. Yeah, thank you guys for joining me. I wanna say goodbye to you guys and I wanna say how much I appreciate your work. You're both brilliant. You're both heroes to me. You've inspired me. Thank you for being on iWizard. I really appreciate you joining me and I hope that when I review Atlas Shrugged, you guys will consider coming on again. Thank you so much guys and be well. Thank you for listening or watching The Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. 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