The family regularly ate in the hotel dining room, where they were served by a waiter named Robbie Gould. He himself had grown up in a family that visited this resort hotel. Since he began to attend college, he has worked during his summer vacations as a waiter in this resort hotel. By the summer of 1963 he has been accepted into Yale Medical School.
When the movie’s story begins, the Housemans already are acquainted with Robbie Gould, although the reason is not explained. Perhaps Robbie’s father was a medical colleague of Doctor Houseman. Perhaps the two families had met at the resort hotel in a previous summer. Perhaps Robbie had served the Houseman family as a waiter during a previous summer.
During the first days of the Housemans’ stay at the resort hotel, Robbie began to court the older sister Lisa. The basic romance between Robbie and Lisa was not kept secret from the hotel resort’s owners or from the rest of the Houseman family. The hotel resort’s owner has encouraged the waiters – all of whom are Jewish and successful college students – to flirt with the Jewish families’ daughters of marriageable age.
In one of the very first days of the Housemans’ vacation, the Houseman mother Marjorie and her two daughters were participating together in a group activity of trying on wigs and cosmetics. Robbie approached Lisa, who was sitting near Marjorie and Baby, and joked to Lisa: “Ask not what your waiter can do for you, but what you can do for your waiter” – an allusion to President John Kennedy, who was in office during that summer of 1963. Robbie remarked also to Lisa that he was saving his tips to buy an Alfa Romero automobile, and Lisa immediately exclaimed: “That’s my favorite car.”
Robbie and Lisa were flirting publicly, and neither her mother Marjorie nor her sister Baby paid attention although the flirting was taking place in their presence. After Lisa and Robbie talked quietly some more, Lisa confided to Baby that she intended to go that night with Robbie to spend some time together secretly on the golf course. Lisa asked Baby to lie to their parents about her whereabouts if the parents asked. Baby agreed to tell a lie if asked.
Robbie’s public flirting and Lisa’s confidential request about their intended secret meeting that night were overheard by Penny Johnson, who was serving as an activity leader, helping the female guests try on wigs and cosmetics.
Penny Johnson’s main employment at the resort hotel was to dance. She and her dance partner Johnny Castle performed for the guests and taught the guests how to dance. Since Baby already had seen Penny dance and admired Penny’s beauty and dance skills, she approached Penny to compliment Penny during the moments when Penny was angrily watching Robbie flirt and plan with Lisa. Penny was so angry at Robbie that she responded to Baby’s compliments rudely.
That night, when Robbie and Lisa sneaked away to the golf course, Penny ran away into the woods and disappeared. Apparently Penny had become emotionally distraught when she saw Robbie and Lisa leave together, and so she ran away. In the movie’s original script, there was a rather long scene where Baby secretly organized several people to search for Penny in the woods, but this scene eventually was cut out of the movie’s final version.
The movie does show, however, that Baby noticed Robbie and Lisa walking together out of the woods. Lisa’s hair and clothing were disordered, and they were arguing because Robbie had become too aggressive in his seduction efforts and because Lisa had refused to submit completely.
Lisa: Robbie, I don’t hear an apology.Eventually Baby found Penny hiding and crying in the resort hotel’s kitchen. Baby then accompanied Penny to Penny’s cabin and learned that Penny had become pregnant by Robbie. The dialogue never reveals when the relationship between Robbie and Penny had begun. Robbie and Penny both have worked at the resort hotel in previous summers. Perhaps their relationship began in a previous summer, perhaps it began earlier this same summer. In any case, Penny had become sexually involved with Robbie because she really loved him and hoped to marry him.
Robbie: Go back to Mommy and Daddy and listen. Maybe you’ll hear one [an apology] in your dreams.
Penny told Robbie about her pregnancy, but he refused to acknowledge any responsibility and he accused her of sleeping with lots of other men, any one of whom might be the father. In fact, Penny has been faithful to Robbie during their relationship and knows for sure that she became was impregnated by him. Robbie broke off his relationship with Penny and refused to help her with her pregnancy or an abortion. Penny decided to have an abortion, but did not have the $250 (1963 dollars) to pay for it.
When Baby Houseman was told about this situation, she immediately exclaimed: “But if it’s Robbie, there’s no problem. I know he has the money.”
In the next scene, Baby confronted Robbie in the resort hotel’s dining room and asked him to give Penny the $250 for the abortion. Robbie refused, saying “some people count and some people don’t.” Robbie then handed Baby an obviously much-read paperback copy of The Fountainhead and recommended that she read it: “Read it. I think you’ll enjoy it, but return it; I have notes in there.”
Baby was immediately offended by the suggestion that she read this novel. She refused to take the book, angrily poured a pitcher of water on his pants (he was dressed in his waiter’s uniform and preparing the dining room’s tables for a meal) and rebuked him: “You make me sick. Stay away from me, and stay away from my sister, or I’ll have you fired.” Then she walked out angrily.
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The novel The Fountainhead was written by Ayn Rand. She was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1905 and grew up as the eldest of three daughters in a family that was ethnically Jewish but agnostic and non-observant. Her father was a chemist who had developed a pharmacy business. After the Communists seized power in 1917, they nationalized her father’s business. Ayn attended the University of Petrograd (her native city’s new name) and graduated with a degree in Social Pedagogy (with emphases in history, philology and law) at the age of 19 in 1924. She then attended the State Institute for Cinema Arts until early 1926, when she obtained a visa to visit some relatives in the United States. She never returned to Russia from that trip, and eventually she became a US citizen.
Rand moved to Hollywood and worked in a variety of jobs in the movie industry. During the 1930s she wrote a variety of works – screenplays, plays, novellas – that had some, but not great success. Her first huge writing success was the novel The Fountainhead, which she published in 1943. More than six million copies of this novel have been sold, and about 100,000 copies are still sold every year.
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The Fountainhead’s major characters is a man named Howard Roark, who strove to work as an architect. Since his architectural designs were unconventional and creative, however, he suffered difficulties in developing a successful career. He was expelled from the school where he studied architecture, and so he apprenticed himself to another unconventional, creative architect who suffered various business problems.
Roark could not succeed professionally in this situation, so he quit and went to work instead as a stone cutter in a granite quarry. The quarry’s owner had a daughter named Dominique Francon, who became infatuated while watching Roark work in the quarry. She tried to arrange situations where she could be in Roark’s presence. Eventually she arranged for him to replace a broken stone in a fireplace in her home. Three days later Roark sneaked into Francon’s bedroom, raped her and left. As the rape was happening, she felt that Roark was “a master taking shameful, contemptuous possession of a slave.” The rape dismayed her, but she did not report the rape to anyone.
Later Roark was awarded a contract to design a monument. His design featured a huge statue of Dominique Francon nude.
This design caused a public outrage, and so contractor sued to cancel the contract. The dispute eventually was settled in a trial, in which Francon testified in Roark’s favor. Roark nevertheless lost the lawsuit, and so the contract was canceled and Roark again found himself impoverished.
After the trial, Dominique Francon married a mediocre architect who had testified against Howard Roark in the trial. As the mediocre architect’s wife, Francon persuaded a series of potential clients to hire her husband instead of Roark for various architectural projects. As part of these efforts to attract potential clients, Francon had sex with a wealthy man, who was so pleased with Francon that he paid her and her mediocre-architect husband to divorce so that he could marry her.
While married to the wealthy man, Francon secretly helped Roark to develop Roark’s own architectural business where he could exercise his own creativity fully and autonomously. Francon then divorced the wealthy man and married Roark, who after he has become a famous and successful architect. At the end of the novel, Roark was building a unique skyscraper with the wealthy man’s money but free from the wealthy man’s ideas or interference.
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The Fountainhead is a novel that praises the efforts of an extraordinary creative genius to conduct his life focused completely on his own professional goals. If such a genius refuses to compromise professionally and personally, then eventually he might achieve extraordinary professional success and personal happiness.
Ayn Rand provides a female perspective on the lives of such creative geniuses through the novel’s main female character Dominique Francon. This character believed that she herself is unusually intelligent and capable and that practically all the men around her were mediocre and unworthy marriage partners. The one extraordinary male she ever found was Howard Roark, but he confounded her when he raped her. Still infatuated with Roark but unable to understand his attitude and impulsiveness, she resigned herself to marry two other men in turn who lacked Roark’s creative genius.
As Dominque Francon lived with her two husbands and continued to observe Howard Roark’s creative genius from afar, she continued to fall more deeply in love with him. When Roark designed a monument that featured a huge nude statue of her, she accepted this grand, creative gesture as an extraordinary compensation to her for the rape. She reasoned that an extraordinarily intelligent woman such as herself should grant a special understanding, appreciation and indulgence for the sexual desires of such an extraordinarily creative and superior man as Howard Roark.
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Ayn Rand wrote a second famous novel, Atlas Shrugged, which was published in 1957. Atlas Shrugged likewise praised the extraordinary contributions of extraordinary individuals to economic and social development.
Atlas Shrugged likewise elaborated Rand’s opinions about sexual morality, praising sex that expresses intellectual and spiritual compatibility. In the novel, the mediocre characters experience mediocre sex with other mediocre characters, and the extraordinary characters enjoy extraordinary sex with other extraordinary characters.
After writing Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand devoted herself to developing a philosophy that she called Objectivism. One of Objectivism’s major elements was its contempt for altruism. Rand argued that altruism is a misdirected and ineffective motivation for economic and social development. A much more effective motivation is the desire of geniuses to create innovative systems and technology for the sheer joy of creating and achieving. Altruistic people who try to help disadvantaged societies accomplish far less improvement than creative people who simply love to build and develop wherever they can.
With regard to sexual relations, Rand believed that men and women should be treated as intellectually and socially equal but also that their physiological differences caused significant psychological differences. Men act aggressively, and women respond. Rand taught that “the essence of femininity is hero-worship — the desire to look up to man." Rand said that no woman ever should serve as US President because any woman would be damaged psychologically in such a position.
Jenny Turner, a biographer of Rand, wrote:
The sex in Rand’s novels is extraordinarily violent and fetishistic. In The Fountainhead, the first coupling of the heroes, heralded by whips and rock drills and horseback riding and cracks in marble, is ‘an act of scorn ... not as love, but as defilement’ —- in other words, a rape... In Atlas Shrugged, erotic tension is cleverly increased by having one heroine bound into a plot with lots of spectacularly cruel and handsome men.----------
A movie was made of The Fountainhead in 1949. The role of Howard Roark was played by Gary Cooper, and the role of Dominique Francon was played by Patricia Neal – both of whom were famous stars. Millions of people who never read the book saw the movie during the 1950s, so the story and its ideas were well known. The rape scene was not depicted explicitly in the movie, but the novel’s rape scene was notorious among the general public, even among people who had not read the novel.
By the early 1960s Ayn Rand had reached the apex of her fame and influence. After the social welfare programs of the Depression, the military teamwork of World War Two and the Korean War, and the social conformity of the Eisenhower Presidency, Rand’s praise of extraordinary, creative, nonconformist individuals struck a fresh chord among much of the population.
Men who read The Fountainhead imagined themselves to be like the heroic individualist Howard Roark who had to work as a stone cutter in quarry but who eventually designed and built the world’s greatest skyscraper. Male readers were intrigued that the female author depicted the main female character, the beautiful Dominique Francon, as tolerating a rape by Howard Roark and as nevertheless continuing to admire Roark as a hero, as being complimented when Roark proposed to create a huge nude statue of herself, and as eventually leaving a wealthy husband to marry Roark.
The Fountainhead was popular among female readers too. During an era when women were supposed to try or at least pretend to try to preserve their virginity until marriage, pre-marital sexual relations between an engaged couple often included a private drama in which heavy petting between the forceful male and reluctant female culminated in a quasi-rape. Thus the woman’s virginity itself was not preserved, but her principled intention and effort to preserve her virginity were preserved. In that era of supposed pre-marital virginity, the rape fantasy provoked by The Fountainhead struck a subconscious chord that was shocking but enjoyable among female as well as male readers.
In that era, the overwhelming majority of women also saw their lives as revolving primarily or even entirely around marriage and family and as dependent on their husbands’ professional success. During a marriage, the husband was supposed to achieve and earn in the economic world, and the wife was supposed to nurture the husband and the children in the domestic world. Ayn Rand’s thinking about sexual relations was rooted firmly in the first six decades of the twentieth century.
Attitudes about sexual relations began to change in the early 1960s. Betty Friedan’s book The Feminist Mystique was published in 1963, and the expression “women’s liberation” began to appear in public discourse in 1964. In the following decades, women in modern societies developed significantly new attitudes about their own life achievements and about their attitudes toward men.
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Dirty Dancing, which takes place in 1963, depicts two sisters with significantly different attitudes about their own future achievements and marriages.
The older sister Lisa Houseman is interested primarily in fashion, romance and marriage. She is frivolous and lacks any interest in global problems. For her performance in the talent show she is deciding whether to sing “I Feel Pretty” or “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” She eventually will sing a silly Hawaiian song.
The younger sister Baby Houseman intends to begin attending Mount Holyoke College, an excellent women’s college in Massachusetts. She intends to major in the economics of underdeveloped countries and after graduation intends to serve in the Peace Corps. She intends to defer her marriage until at least her mid-twenties and probably intends also to continue to develop an intellectual career during her marriage.
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Baby was insulted when Robbie recommended that she read The Fountainhead. Even if she never had read any of Rand’s writings, she as an educated and socially aware young woman in 1963 knew enough about Ayn Rand and this novel that she expected it’s message to be, as Robbie himself remarked to her, “some people count and some people don’t.” Baby perceived that the novel’s philosophy and Robbie’s philosophy excused supposedly extraordinary individuals from common concerns and morality. An extraordinary male should be excused even if he raped a woman, and the woman should be satisfied to hope that she still might marry him in the far future. And altruism was a bad motivation!
Baby refused to take the book that Robbie tried to lend her. She poured a pitcher of water onto Robbie and rebuked him: “You make me sick. Stay away from me. Stay away from my sister, or I’ll have you fired.”
Baby’s threat to have Robbie fired was an empty threat. She herself had heard the resort hotel’s owner tell the waiters to flirt with the young female guests. Furthermore, she herself had heard the owner tell the male dance instructor Johnny Castle not to become involved with the young female guests. Baby was in no position to try to have Robbie fired. If she tried to cause trouble, the employee most likely to be fired was Johnny.
Despite Baby’s threat, Robbie continued his involvement with Lisa. Even after Lisa told Baby she intended to have sex with Robbie, Baby did not take any action to have Robbie fired.
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When Baby confronted Robbie to provide the money for the abortion, Robbie was dressed in his waiter uniform and preparing tables for the next meal in the resort hotel’s dining room. As she talked with him about Penny’s situation, Baby walked alongside Robbie from table to table and poured ice water into the glasses as Robbie set the tables.
During this conversation, Robbie pulled his much-read paperback copy of The Fountainhead out of his uniform pocket and tried to give it to Baby to read. Why was Robbie carrying this novel in his uniform as he set the tables for the next meal? He could not have expected Baby to confront him in this situation, so he could not have brought the novel with the intention of giving it to Baby.
Apparently, Robbie had brought the novel into the dining room with the intention of giving it not to Baby, but rather to Lisa, whom he expected to serve as a waiter at the imminent meal. He and Lisa had quarreled the previous night when he had become sexually aggressive at the golf course. Lisa had refused to submit to him, and he had refused to apologize. Robbie had not given up in his efforts to seduce Lisa, however, and he intended to lend Lisa The Fountainhead as his next step.
If Lisa would only read The Fountainhead, then Lisa would understand and appreciate Robbie better. The novel was written by a famous female author with a female perspective that Lisa should share. Lisa should understand that Robbie Gould was similar to the novel’s hero Howard Roark. Robbie Gould was working now only as a waiter, but Howard Roark had worked for a long time only as a stone cutter in a quarry. Eventually, however, Robbie Gould would become the world’s greatest medical genius, just as Howard Roark became the world’s greatest architectural genius. And Lisa should identify with novel’s beautiful and intelligent heroine, Dominique Francon:
- Lisa Houseman should adore the genius Robbie Gould just as Dominque Francon adored the genius Howard Roark.
- Lisa Houseman should submit to and then forgive Robbie Gould’s sexual aggression just as Dominique Francon had done submitted to and forgiven Howard Roark’s rape.
- Lisa Houseman should feel flattered that Robbie Gould would adore her nude body, just as Howard Roark had designed a huge monument to Dominique Francon’s nude body.
- Lisa Houseman should be willing to wait patiently until Robbie Gould was ready to marry her, just as Dominque Francon had waited – even through two marriages to other, mediocre men – until Howard Roark was ready to marry.
We do know, however, that by the end of the vacation stay Lisa had decided to have sex with Robbie. She intended to surprise Robbie. She made herself up as beautiful as she could, and she went to his cabin in the early evening. As it turned out, however, Lisa found Robbie having sex with Vivian Pressman, and so she left and did not have sex with him after all.
If, however, Lisa had found Robbie in the cabin alone, she certainly did not intend to declare abruptly that she had decided to have sex with him. I think she intended the consummation to happen in a different manner. She would engage him in some kissing and petting, and then as Robbie became more aggressive, she would make a show of resisting but eventually would submit to him. She would enable Robbie to experience his rape fantasy, and so he would fall in love with her and propose marriage. She would get pregnant, and Robbie would married her immediately, and then on their tenth anniversary they would come back to this resort hotel, which would let them stay for a vacation for free.
That’s how Lisa misunderstood The Fountainhead. She understood only that the hero raped the heroine but then they got married and lived happily ever after. Lisa did not understand that the hero did not marry until he achieved extraordinary professional success, because marriage impeded his professional efforts in the meantime. Lisa did not understand that the heroine was supposed to satisfy herself with a couple of marriages to other, mediocre men in the meantime. The hero had time to satisfy his own sexual desires only with an occasional rape in the meantime.
Perhaps Robbie Gould previously had used this same seduction technique – The Fountainhead – on Penny Johnson. If she was overpowered by Robbie when they had sex, then maybe that is why she was not able to prevent her pregnancy.
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A day or so before Lisa told Baby that she intended to have sex with Robbie, there was another confrontation between Robbie and Baby.
The situation is that Baby and Johnny had become sexually involved, but Baby still had not told her father that she even considered Johnny to be her boyfriend. Johnny felt insulted that Baby apparently was ashamed to admit that she was involved with such an uneducated, low-class man as Johnny. Baby and Johnny had quarreled about her reluctance to tell her father about Johnny, and so Baby had gone to the employees’ cabins to find Johnny to discuss their quarrel some more.
Baby found Johnny in Penny’s cabin, in a serious discussion. Johnny then left Penny in the cabin and walked out onto the cabin’s porch to talk with Baby. Before they began talking, Johnny and Baby embraced briefly on the porch.
At that moment, Robbie walked past the cabin porch and noticed Johnny and Baby embracing, and joked insultingly: “Looks like I picked the wrong sister. That’s okay, Baby, I went slumming too.”
The joke’s idea was that Robbie perceived that Baby was more on his intellectual and cultural level than Lisa was. Baby would have been a better sexual partner for Robbie. Lisa still was refusing to have sex with Robbie, but Baby apparently had begun already to have sex with Johnny.
Robbie had picked the wrong sister to seduce when the Housemans had arrived for their family vacation. Baby was the sister who read books and could understand The Fountainhead and understand the Objectivism philosophy. Baby was the sister who was willing to have sex without a marriage commitment. Instead of picking Baby for a brief sexual affair, Robbie had made a mistake and went slumming with the intellectually and culturally inferior sister Lisa.
Robbie told Baby that Baby had made a similar mistake. Baby actually was like Dominique Francon, but she had gone slumming with the intellectually and culturally inferior Johnny instead of submitting herself sexually to and spending her vacation time with Robbie the Roark-like genius.
As this confrontation turned out, though, Johnny jumped off the course and beat Robbie up. And then Johnny told Robbie, “Get out of here. You’re not worth it.”
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The role of Robbie Gould was played by an actor named Max Cantor. He was born in 1959, and so he was about 27 years old when Dirty Dancing was filmed. He grew up in a theatrical family (his father produced more than 100 plays) and graduated from Harvard University. He played the piano superbly, and he played classical music for Dirty Dancing’s cast during breaks in the filming.
Dirty Dancing was released in 1987 and four years later, in 1991, Cantor died of a heroin overdose.
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Added on April 27, 2017:
Many reader comments below are critical of my above article. I respond to those criticisms in this article.
In principle, a good happen, support the views of the author
ReplyDeleteI thought that Robbie meant Penny when he said he went slumming too since he considered that the dancers were 'lower class'.
ReplyDeleteAgree
DeleteI agree with anonymous about Penny being the one he went slumming with...
ReplyDeleteOtherwise a very informative and factual account of the movie and philosophies of everyone
ReplyDeleteWhy no mention here of what Robbie says to Dr. Houseman about Penny in his last scene?...that certainly gets into his "slumming" philosophy.
ReplyDeleteJust watched the scene tonight,the "girls like that'll pin it on any guy..." line,if I remember it correctly,is what prompts Dr. Houseman to snatch back the envelope (and later apologize to Johnny).
ReplyDeleteI don't think he ever really apologized to Johnny. He said something to the effect...when I'm wrong I admit it. Then told Baby how good she looked dancing.
DeleteYou should really learn to edit your posts.
ReplyDeleteThe Housemans do not already know Robbie Gould when the movie begins. Max introduces all of them to Robbie at their first meal in the dining room.
ReplyDeleteThe Housemans do not already know Robbie Gould when the movie begins. Max introduces all of them to Robbie at their first meal in the dining room.
ReplyDeleteHe's got the book with him to read on breaks.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read the whole thing because I just wanted to know why The Fountainhead was so important to Robbie. Thanks for explaining but there are some inaccuracies in just the few parts I read. 1. The Housemans are introduced to Robbie at the first meal...they didn't know him before. 2. When Robbie made the comment about picking the wrong sister, he only meant that Baby puts out and Lisa doesn't. 3. By "slumming," he wasn't referring to Lisa, he was referring to Penny, just as Baby was "slumming" with Johnny.
ReplyDeleteHe meant Penny when he said he went slumming, and NO, they did not know Robbie before. Also, there is no reason to assume Robbie is Jewish, and in any case, I don't see how it matters. You have too many details wrong, which proves that you are unobservant, and not thinking of the movie, but rather trying to push the philosophy of Ayn Rand far more in to it then you should.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a blog post on this!! Here's what I think:
ReplyDeleteHi! I can hardly contain my excitement. On Monday, I discovered that Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead appears in Dirty Dancing! Baby appeals to Robbie for money to fund Penny's abortion. Robbie is the father, yet he refuses to help, rather offering his copy of The Fountainhead to Baby, stating, with regard to pregnant Penny, "Some people count; some people don't."
AMAZING. Amazing that such a dirty twist can be made on such a wonderful book. I suppose the title of DIRTY Dancing is quite fitting, eh? Ha Ha Ha.
The writers of this film had the intention to paint Ayn Rand and The Fountainhead into poor lighting by associating its philosophy with the philosophy of "Robbie the Creep." So let me please announce corrections: It is NOT the book's mission to preach a philosophy of "Some people count; some people don't." It is rather the book's mission to preach a philosophy of, "All people count. But nobody is entitled." And that is where ROBBIE is wrong because he misses the point of the book: THAT OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. He is personally responsible for creation of the baby, and he therefore needs to fork over money to have it aborted, if he is unwilling to participate in the life of the child and or achieve some sort of agreement with the woman carrying the child.
I read a pretty good blog post on the subject which of course takes the other explanation, stating that Baby refuses the book that Robbie offered because she's a woman in the 1960s who is aware of Ayn Rand's philosophy and finds the book to be repulsive. See: Robbie Gould's Philosophy. Furthermore, the article states that Robbie was carrying the book during his work shift because he intended to to give the book to Lisa, Baby's sister, who refused his forceful advances on the night prior. In The Fountainhead, main character Howard Roark forces himself on Dominique Francon, and the writer of this blog post indicates that he's trying to butter-up Lisa by getting her to read the sexually forceful scenes.
I think that is a bag of beans.
Furthermore, he was carrying the book, I think, not to gift to Lisa, but rather like I do Atlas Shrugged. Atlas Shrugged is like a bible to me. When I'm actively reading it, I carry it, and I write notes in the margins. And it's tattered and ratty looking from much usage, similar to Robbie's The Fountainhead.
There is no defying of the fact that Hollywood is trying to make a mockery of Ayn Rand in this great movie. But it doesn't bother me, rather inspires me because I see just how damn successful Ms. Rand was in her messaging. SHE APPEARED IN MOTHER F*CKING DIRTY DANCING!! How exquisite!! This makes me so damn happy because Dirty Dancing is one of my faaaaaaaaavourite films on Planet Earth.
Here's a cute little story. Released in 1987, I remember that my mother and her sisters ventured to the cinema to watch it live. I wanted so badly to go, but then, aged five, I could certainly not experience a PG-13 film! SO I waited for the VHS release in 1988. And at nighttime, when my parents slept, I snuck into the television room to watch this amazing video, fast forwarding through the sex scenes, of course, as I was an angel. But what is the BOMB diggity news of this, now, 30 years later, I realise that I was exposed TO THE GREAT LATE AYN RAND at the age of SIX. Holy moly Batman!!!!!!!!! It would take me 22 years to find her again through Atlas Shrugged, but something tells me that she and I were meant to be connected. Call it a cosmic force! Call it that I am her real intended intellectual successor. Call it fate! But this discovery in Dirty Dancing seals the deal.
Happy Thursday with rational hearts and joyful sprinkles of love.
Namaste.
Many of the above comments are critical of my article. I respond in a new article.
ReplyDeletehttp://dirty-dancing-analysis.blogspot.com/2017/04/reader-comments-about-robbie-goulds.html
Mike, The new article is beautifully written!!!!! I will highlight it at my blog, in the coming days. :) - Nicole Marie Story
ReplyDeleteThe Housemans had never been to Kellerman's until 1963... Baby says it in the beginning narration. They were introduced to Robbie through Max (the owner of Kellerman's (
ReplyDeleteMy credentials: Ph.D. in philosophy, personal friend of Ayn Rand (see Wikipedia).
ReplyDeleteYour post gets The Fountainhead completely wrong, wrong about the characters' motivation and their ideas.
First, THERE WAS NO RAPE. Dominique wanted Roark--she even invented pretexts to get him inside her bedroom, as Roark was aware.
Roark was in love with her. >>"We never need to say anything to each other when we're together. This is—for the time when we won't be together. I love you, Dominique. As selfishly as the fact that I exist."<<
That nude statue of Dominique by Steven Mallory? Dominique posed for it! And in one scene she poses for it while Roark is watching her.
Your article simply invents things:
"the hero did not marry until he achieved extraordinary professional success, because marriage impeded his professional efforts in the meantime. Lisa did not understand that the heroine was supposed to satisfy herself with a couple of marriages to other, mediocre men in the meantime. The hero had time to satisfy his own sexual desires only with an occasional rape in the meantime."
1.It was she who wouldn't marry him, not the other way around. 2. Dominique married the worst people she could find because she wanted to kill her desire for greatness--convinced that great men die of slow torture, 3. Roark was very hurt by her 2 marriages.
>>"I love you, Roark."
She had said it for the first time.
She saw the reflection of her next words on his face before she had pronounced them.
"I was married yesterday. To Peter Keating."
It would have been easy, if she had seen a man distorting his mouth to bite off sound, closing his fists and twisting them in defense against himself. But it was not easy, because she did not see him doing this, yet knew that this was being done, without the relief of a physical gesture.
"Roark..." she whispered, gently, frightened.
He said: "I'm all right." Then he said: "Please wait a moment... All right. Go on.<<
And that part about Roark satisfying his sexual desires by an occasional rape? The novel suggests that he never even touched another woman.
Dominique's basic motivation? Fear for Roark's fate.
>>"Roark, before I met you, I had always been afraid of seeing someone like you, because I knew that I'd also have to see what I saw on the witness stand and I'd have to do what I did in that courtroom. I hated doing it, because it was an insult to you to defend you—and it was an insult to myself that you had to be defended.... Roark, I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the halfway, the almost, the just-about, the in-between. They may have their justifications. I don't know. I don't care to inquire. I know that it is the one thing not given me to understand. When I think of what you are, I can't accept any reality except a world of your kind. Or at least a world in which you have a fighting chance and a fight on your own terms. That does not exist. And I can't live a life torn between that which exists—and you.<<
Roark waits years for her to learn better, and she finally does.
The philosophy of The Fountainhead is stated very clearly in the novel. E.g., Roark's courtroom speech:
>>"The issue has been perverted.... As poles of good and evil, [man] was offered two conceptions: egotism and altruism. Egotism was held to mean the sacrifice of others to self. Altruism—the sacrifice of self to others. This ... left him nothing but a choice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake of others or pain inflicted upon others for the sake of self. When it was added that man must find joy in self-immolation, the trap was closed. Man was forced to accept masochism as his ideal—under the threat that sadism was his only alternative. This was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind....The choice is not self-sacrifice or domination. The choice is independence or dependence."<<
Thanks for your comment. I wrote that article more than a decade ago.
DeleteI am readdressing that novel in my current series about Lisa's political rebellion.
This is truly incredible literary analysis of... Dirty Dancing! I'm floored. Bravo.
ReplyDeleteI just finished The Fountainhead today after 20 years of being on my "to do" list so I could better understand the reference. I'm glad I read it. And my appreciation for the artistry of Dirty Dancing grows.
ReplyDeleteThe criticism of Robbie's character is straightforward. I did find the suggestion that in that era all men fancied themselves to be Howard Roark interesting. I wasn't alive then so I don't know that cultural context. But to me, Robbie doesn't fancy himself Howard Roark but rather Peter Keating. Peter Keating's struggles came from his incomplete self awareness; he strove for success as measured by others but was only vaguely aware of his actions and motivations, much of it being driven by his mother. However, I think Robbie has learned from this and embraces being Peter Keating unashamedly for the power, money, and women it will bring. And despite still being in college, he's already achieved much, such as his Alfa Romeo, being encouraged to date rich well connected daughters, and very nearly a fat check from a stranger, Baby's dad. It is an interesting idea that Robbie was carrying the book to convince Lisa, but I feel strongly that this isn't the case. One, Lisa would've never read it. Two, it would not be the most effective way to get her in bed. And three, Robbie doesn't care that much about it anyway; I think he would put Lisa squarely into the "some people don't [matter]" category. He respects Baby for her intellect, but to Robbie, Lisa is just a cheap thrill and a possible networking connection with her dad, not worth the effort if it doesn't come easy. And this is shown that as Lisa struggles with her decision whether to sleep with him, he's already with someone else, not concerned about Lisa's decision one way or the other.
But I do not think The Fountainhead's criticism is only directed at Robbie. Much of The Fountainhead focuses on criticizing altruistic acts by the rich, and as uncomfortable as it may be, this criticism finds Baby in its aim. Well intentioned as she is, Baby has led a life of comfort and privilege, preparing to study economics of under developed countries to help those facing hardships she has never faced. This is consistent with the movie's gentle criticism of Baby at the beginning; even her name is meant to suggest her naivete. Had her summer at Kellerman's never happened, she may have followed that path, feeling self righteous for her work "helping" those less fortunate but not actually contributing much to the world, then settling down and marrying someone of her social class. Baby herself spells this out as the intended plan during her "but you let me down too" soliloquy to her dad. However, it is her relationship to Johnny that forces her to be a little more like Howard Roark, fighting for a cause no matter what it costs, and it is hard for her. In the end, she leaves those around her better people because of her willingness to fight for what she believed in, perhaps making more a difference than she would've in the Peace Corp., paralleling The Fountainhead theme.
I would even suggest Jake, Baby's dad, is subtly targeted by The Fountainhead reference. He either gets fooled or enjoys playing the game with the smooth guy Robbie (Peter Keating). And his willingness to give money to Robbie after dating Lisa has shades of Guy Francon encouraging Peter Keating to marry Dominique because he doesn't know what to do with her. I am not equating Lisa with Dominique; two characters could not be more different. However, Lisa's dad is unable to relate to Lisa like he does with Baby. Bribing a rich successful guy like Robbie to take care of her so he doesn't have to learn to understand her is similar to Guy Francon and his hoped for solution with his daughter and Peter Keating.
I am glad I read the book; I didn't think it was possible to appreciate Dirty Dancing even more, but it has happened. Thank you for creating this blog to share opinions and insights to further understand the greatness of Dirty Dancing!
Thank you for your interesting comment, which I I copied entirely into a blog article. https://dirty-dancing-analysis.blogspot.com/2022/08/more-reader-comments-about-robbie.html
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