Reading+Reflections

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Reading Reflection#1:

At first while reading The Fountainhead, I couldn't stand Peter Keating. He came off to me as such a Mommas boy. His mother pushed him into the architecture field because of the opportunities he could have in the future. Keating came off in a way that made me believe that he didn't even like creating architecture. He was top of his class at Stanton Institute of Technology, and was very popular, but he followed the historical models of architecture and didnt show any "out of the box" thinking. Another thing that bothered me about Keating was that he could'nt make up his mind on decisions he had to make, like studying more architecture in France or working for the most popular architect in the world, Guy Francon. By the time i got through the first five chapters in the novel, I thought differently about Keating. Even though he hated being an architect, he had a great ability in the feild. He stuck with the job so that he could help his mom out in the future since she did so much for him in the past by pushing him to be the person he was in the present. Although Keating persuaded people higher in the work pyramid than him to leave and do jobs else where in such a sneaky and not respectable way, he was doing what he had to do to reach the top and unfortunately, in the work force it's every man for himself.

Reading Reflection #2: In this section of reading, Howard Roak seemed to go through alot of obsticles in his life as an architect. After leaving Cameron, Roark was out of a job until one day when Keating came to ask him for advice. Roark was offered a job by Keating, but only took it for the money and didnt want to change how he drew his buildings. The one thing I really do like about Roark is his stubborness when it comes to his job, he pretty much tells everyone "it's my way or the highway". He stays true to himself and changes for no one. He also wanted to stay true to himself and his mentor Cameron, when his new boss Francon asked him to create drawings based on a building that Cameron made in the past, but in a classic greek style instead of modern. Roark doesnt draw in that style and never will, and since that would also disrespect the work of Cameron, he went against Francon's orders and asked to make it in a modernistic style and got fired. Although he keeps getting put down for doing what he believes in, Roark does end up with another job working for Snyte. Although this is another company that does classical styles of architecture, Snyte has six different architects work on every project to get different takes and ideas on the buildings. I think its a great way to run a company by getting many different minds on projects since not all minds think alike. Roark didnt get his ideas used until he a man named Heller asked for a plain style building. Roark was fired for trying to take over the project, but Heller wanted to use Roarks ideas. Roark had a rough road since he was kicked out of Stanton Institute of Technology, and for once everything was looking the best it has ever looked. Although I don't always like how Roark doesn't care what anyone thinks except for himself, I do appreciate his patience and determination to succeed as a modern style architect.

Reading Reflection #3: There was alot at relationships going on in this part of the book. Keating was engaged to Catie and during a party he met Domonique, Francon's daughter. He wanted to get with his daughter to get farther up in the business, and did like Domonique, and asked Domonique to marry him. I dont get why he would ever give up Catie for Domonique. Catie seemed like such a sweetheart and was always there for him and truely adored Keating. Instead of staying with his fiance who loved him no matter what, he went for the girl who didnt even like him. She even promised him that if she wanted to punish herself, she would take on his proposal for marraige. On the other hand, Domonique seemed to like Roark, which they seemed to have almost a love hate relationship, always testing eachother to see how much they would endure for eachother. Domonique in her critiques said negative things about Roarks work while recommending Keatings. Another thing that was bothering me about this book is the fact that Rorks life in this novel is so predictable. He will be unemployed, have no money, and looking like nothing will ever go his way, and then on the next page, he has a bunch of clients and major projects making money and is loving what he is doing and is happy he is becoming successful doing it. This pattern gets old quick since it happens so often and I just wish than Ayn Rand would have made the pattern of events in Roarks life not repeat as much.

Reading Reflection #4: Earlier in the book, there was the relationship between Keating and Catie where Keating asked Catie to marry him and then ran away to try and get with Domonique. Keating in the point of the book now, went back to Catie and again asked her to marry him and she again agreed! I don't know who is worse in this book. Catie is allowing a guy to walk all over her over and over again, playing with her emotions and keep having marraige proposals broken and letting Keating try again. Keating on the other hand asked this perfect girl to marry him, breaks it off, then goes for his boses daughter and asks her to marry him. Then when shes not interested he now goes back to his ex fiance, makes plans to marry her, and once again sneaks off with the boses daughter who marries him just to punish herself. This woman doesn't even like Keating and yet he will forever waste his time on her instead of being happily married to Catie. What Keating will never understand is that Domonique will always want that mysterious man named Roark who doesnt try to make her happy and almost plays hard to get, but also loves her.

Flatland: Edwin A. Abbott ﻿Reading Reflection: The book Flatland in the first few chapters made me angry because they put down certain groups so badly. For one example, the way women are seen in this 2D "flatland", is that they are the lowest of the low on the totum pole. Women have the least amount of sides, they are lines. They are also seen as only good for breeding. Another reason i was mad at how the women are trated is that they arent even good enough to use the same doors as males to go into a house. they have a smaller door to use. Another group that isnt treated well is the isoceles triangles because their sides arent equal so they are like the lowest class in flatland and when they breed, their children stay in the same class, as an isoceles. In any other case they would gain a side and move u in social status. There are only two ways these imperfect shapes can move up, by getting far as a soldier and then becoming an equilateral triangle, or by having a miracle child who has equal sides. In that case they would lose their child. This book makes anyone who is imperfect feel ashamed of themselves, because they cant even keep their children, or have any real rights. If you somehow end up with some weird looking, imperfect shape like a rectangle, thy are either executed or taken away and cannot breed because they could basically ruin society by giving their bad genes to their children. This makes me wonder if this was the way Edwin Abbott felt about women, lower class, and mentally or physically imperfect people, or if it was just how in his own time period they treated people.

﻿Christine by Stephen King ﻿In this book, many things stuck out as kind of odd to me. The first thing that stuck out when i was reading was that Dennis, a big football jock, would be best friends with a nerdy, valedictorian, acne faced kid like Arnie. Normally, those two groups of people wouldn't even say hello to each other, and yet in this book Dennis is Arnie's only friend. Another thing i didn't really understand was how Arnie could fall in love with the ugliest, most broken down car ever. The car has oil leaks, is rusted, has rips in the apolstery and is a gas guzzler. He pays $250 for it from LeBay who is a grumpy old man. He thinks the peice of junk is worth something and basically cons the kid. Dennis has an uneasy feeling about the car and the old man and keeps trying to talk Arnie out of buying the car, but he is stubborn and wants it still. Dennis gets in the car for the first time and "hears" the car talk to him and when he looks, the car looks brand new like it would have been in 1958. That is when Dennis really started hating the car. It hurt me to believe how bad people treated this poor kid Arnie. He was basically forced to grow up being everything his parents wanted him to be, and the one time he wanted to do something for himself, getting this car, his parents freaked out. And when his car broke down on his way to Darnells, the family that the car was parked outside of, were giving him a hard time as well. The two kids called his car crap, the woman said that she didn't want the junk of a car parked in front of her house, the husband almost fought Arnie and Dennis because he had no respect for kids who were just trying to change a flat tire. And even when they got to Darnells garage to store the car because Arnie couldn't bring it home in the shape that it was in, Darnell gave him a hard time and was trying to throw Arnie out for the smallest things even though the two kids were trying to be polite. It surprises me how much disrespect the adults seem to have for respectful kids like Dennis and Arnie.

I,ROBOT by Isaac Asimov Reading Reflection: In the beginning of this book it was weird to find out how robots started out. The first robots that were basically used by the public were housemaids. These robots couldn't talk and took care of the children, kind of like a nanny would. An eight year old named Gloria had a robot named Robbie as her "housemaid", he played games with her like hide and go seek, took care of her, and also loved to listen to Gloria when she told him stories. Gloria's mom didn't like the Robbie because she always thought that it would turn on her daughter and hurt her someday, so she made her husband take Robbie back to the manufacturer. I don't understand why Gloria's mom would ever think that since Robbie never gave off that vibe that he was going to turn on them. Robbie was a clunky thing, strong and such, but he was programmed for the specific duty of taking care of the little girl so that he was gentle with her. So when they got rid of Robbie, they shouldn't have been surprised that Gloria wouldn't take it easily, Robbie was her best friend. What annoyed me was when Gloria's mom obviously saw that her daughter was going through depression, losing weight and moping around, she still didn't think that getting Robbie back was a good idea. When they went to the company where they create the robots, Gloria found Robbie working in the factory helping to create more robots. When Robbie saw Gloria, the girl almost was killed by a tractor, but Robbie saw what was happening and saved her. It took that much to happen to make Gloria's mom figure out that Robbie was a good part of the family.

The Soul of a New Machine Reading Reflection: In the beginning of the book we learn that there was many computer companies. There was basically IBM and then tons of small not well known companies. One of the companies is Data General. The way they describe the different working habits of the two companies is interesting. IBM is strict on dress code shirt and tie, works in boring clean environments with less freedom and more overlooking. On the other hand, the smaller company Data General is run more like a thinking group. They have a casual dress code, they work in a messy room that have papers and food cartons everywhere, very relaxed environment compared to IBM. To compare Data General to a company today, it would be like working for Facebook, you get to play games all day and come up with brilliant ideas with less stress. If I was going to choose a company to pick between the two, either really relaxed no type of order environment versus a strict white walled boring environment, I would probably pick Data General. Although they are not as known as a big company like IBM, their environment is not as stressful which is great for me because I don't do well under pressure. I would also pick Data General because although I need order, I would't get anything don't under the way that IBM seems to be run under because I would hate my job.

CAT'S CRADLE by Kurt Vonnegut Reading Reflection: 1. A man who went by the name Jonah was working on making a book about D-Day, it was going to be called "The Day The World Ended". The main person he wants information on first is Dr. Felix Hoenikker, who worked on the atom bomb. The late Dr. Hoenikker had three children Frank, Angela, and Newt. The relationship between Felix and his children was very odd. He never played with his children, yet he loved to work from home. The one time he tried to play with Newt, which was on the day the atom bomb was dropped, he sang to Newt, and Newt ran away screaming saying his father was scary and ugly. Felix a brilliant person and yet he acted like a child. The children's mother, Emily died when Newt was born, so Angela the oldest child was the mother figure in their lives. She always said she had three children, Frank, Newt, and Dr. Felix. Felix acted more like a child then the children, he got distracted often, couldn't get himself ready for work, he said one day that he liked turtles and bought an aquarium for his office with turtles, but then they couldn't get him to any work, so Angela told his boss to get rid of the turtles t get him back on track. When Felix is bored of something he acts like a child and just leaves it where he pleases, one day he left his car running in the intersection of a main road because he didn't want it anymore.

2. Jonah went to work with Dr. Breed to learn more about how Dr. Hoenikker worked. Dr. Hoenikker once had a conversation with a military man about finding a way to get rid of mud for the Marines because it is such a hassle to get trucks and soldiers through the mud. The man also asked for it to be easy to carry since the soldiers already had a lot to carry. Instead of telling the man that what he was asking for was impossible, Hoenikker went along with the idea saying that it can be possible. He said that a crystal called Ice-nine could be found in the future and freeze any liquid (mud) that it touched into a solid. Not knowing that it is real and that Felix's children have the ice-nine in their possession, Dr. Breed said it is impossible to create. When Jonah stepped into Dr. Felix Hoenikker's office, the first thing he saw was how messy it was and how random and weird Felix was. He had cheap toys all over the room that were tangled or broken. He also had two turtles as pets in a tank on his desk. It was said that Felix created some of his experiments out of these toys and some of his experiments didn't even cost a dollar to create. I think it is fascinating that Felix was able to create his experiments out of ten cent toys.