Edifice Text

What architect Tim Merrill found heroic about the movie version of “The Fountainhead” is the tip of the iceberg (“Hollywood’s New Edifice Complex,” Off-Centerpiece, Feb. 13).

Author Ayn Rand’s Howard Roark is more than a creative genius who builds for his own enjoyment. He challenges the roots of Judeo-Christianity and defines the ethics of self-interest. True, he gets to romance a stunning Patricia Neal along the way, and their affair is unforgettable. But in an age in which self-sacrifice and serving others are being touted as virtues by everyone from the President to Rush Limbaugh, a character who boldly articulates the “virtue of selfishness” is more meaningful than a cool architect in great clothes.

Rand’s brilliant tribute to the rational individualist remains a philosophically radical portrayal of “man as he ought to be.” Howard Roark inspires the best in each of us.

Now, when will Hollywood shock the world and film Rand’s other classic novel, “Atlas Shrugged”?

SCOTT HOLLERAN

Glendale