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As Lisa Houseman read the novel The Fountainhead that her boyfriend Robbie Gould had lent to her, she shifted her focus from the character Howard Roark to the character Dominique Francon. When Lisa began to read the novel, she was fascinated mostly by Howard, an architect who strove to develop Modern architecture.
As she read the novel's Part I, however, she became fascinated more by Dominique, a wealthy young woman whose father owned an architecture business. Dominique wrote an interior-decorating column for a New York City newspaper. Dominique was glamorous and intelligent, but she apparently suffered from a psychological disorder that prevented normal relationships with other people. She argued with her father, with her newspaper editor and with prospective boyfriends. She told one prospective boyfriend that she never had felt any sexual desire. She seemed to have no female friends.
Dominique told her newspaper editor that she had stolen an ancient statue of a nude male from a Greek museum and then had thrown it down a shaft to smash it to smithereens. She explained to her editor that she had loved the statue but had stolen and destroyed it in order to prevent anyone else from ever seeing it again.
The context of this conversation was that the editor was mad at her about a series of articles that he had assigned her to write for their newspaper. He had wanted the series to expose some Manhattan landlords for abusing and exploiting their apartment tenenats. Instead of exposing the landlords, however, Dominique's articles had exposed the tenants themselves as messy, immoral and irresponsible. The editor was so angry that he decided to not publish any of the articles that Dominique had written. In their subsequent conversation about his decision, she told him about stealing and smashing the museum's ancient statue of a nude male. Essentially, Dominique gave her editor one more reason to fire her from her newspaper job. (He did not fire her.)
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Reading such a long, complicated, philosphical, psychological novel was a new experience for Lisa. Outside of her school assignments, she read only articles and short stories that were published in popular magazines, like The Saturday Evening Post. Lisa was plowing through The Fountainhead now only because it had been recommended and lent to her by Robbie Gould, her new boyfriend. Lisa valued the book as a romantic token. She made a show of carrying the book around and reading it, and she was proud to tell people that the book had been given to her by her boyfriend, who was an intellectual medical student.
As Lisa read the novel -- and the many annotations that Robbie had handwritten in the page margins -- she thought about how she would discuss the novel with Robbie. She wanted to impress him that she would and could share his intellecual interests. She wanted to discuss the novel intelligently, profoundly, with him.
Lisa recognized that Robbie intended Lisa to identify him with Howard Roark and to identify herself with Dominique Francon. Lisa was happy to imagine that she herself, like Dominique, was intelligent and glamorous -- and was a witty, sophisticated connoisseur of art.
However, Lisa could not identify herself with Dominque's personality disorder. Lisa got along normally with her family and her many friends. Lisa intended to follow in her mother's footsteps. Lisa would marry a handsome, intelligent, successful man -- preferably a doctor -- and would support her husband, create a beautiful home and raise their children. Later, after the children had grown up, Lisa would begin her own professional career, preferably in the arts. Lisa was content with her own relationships, with her own social status and with her own intended future. Lisa felt normal sexual desire and looked forward to a playful, pleasureful, life-long sexual relationship with her future husband.
As Lisa read the novel, she pondered Dominique's personality disorder. This was the novel's aspect that Lisa intended to discuss with Robbie. She intended to assure Robbie that she herself would not be a troublesome wife -- as Dominique surely would be. In particular, Lisa would be enthusiastically sexual with Robbie. More generally, Lisa as a wife would support and promote Robbie. Lisa would do as her own mother had done in supporting her husband. Lisa knew how to be a doctor's wife. Lisa knew how to socialize and play golf with other doctors' wives and how to host parties in an impressively beautiful home and how to display her sincere admiration for her wonderful doctor husband. In that regard, Robbie should not worry that Lisa might turn out to be like unreliable, self-destructive, pernicious Dominique.
In that regard, Lisa resembled more the novel's character Katie Halsey, a young woman who was subordinate, supporting and self-sacrificing in relation to the man she loved (Peter Keating). Lisa saw in Robbie's annotations, though, that Katie should be viewed as a contemptible character. Lisa foresaw that she herself would have to discuss with Robbie intelligently this contrast between Dominique and Katie -- and would have to distinguish herself from both from Dominique and from Katie. Lisa wanted Robbie to perceive herself as a happy medium between Dominique and Katie. Lisa was well-adjusted.
As Lisa thought about Dominique, she decided that Dominique was much too cynical. Dominique had grown up as the pampered daughter of a wealthy businessman. In her environment, Dominique perceived that successful people -- her father was just one example -- were morally pretentious. Such businessmen pretended to act for the common good, but actually were deceiving the public for their own personal benefit. For example, Dominique perceived that her assigned newspaper series, which was supposed to expose abusive landlords, actually was supposed to depress the real-estate values in those neighborhoods so that her newspaper's owners could buy that neighborhood's apartment buildings more cheaply. Dominique recognized that secret purpose because she had grown up among deceitful, self-serving manipulators of public opinion.
Since Dominique recognized and wanted to sabotage this deceitful purpose, she wrote her articles with a slant that blamed the tenants problems largely on the tenants themselves. Her newspaper's editor recognized Dominique's sabotage of her assignment and refused to publish her articles. Dominique perceived this entire situation with utmost cynicism.
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A major reason why Lisa was reading the novel so thoughtfully was to ponder her own incipient sexual relationship with Robbie Gould. Lisa did want to be sexual with Robbie, but in accordance with the going-steady rules that were supposed to govern such situations. Robbie was much too aggressive and critical. When he was supposed to be satisfied with reaching "second base" (petting above the waist), he already was demanding "third base" (petting below the waist). Robbie did understand those going-steady rules -- as all teenagers in 1963 understood them -- but he violated them anyway.
On the day after their golf-course incident, Lisa and Robbie discussed the incident. Robbie apologized, explaining that Lisa's physical beauty caused him to lose his self-control. Their subsequent conversation led to Robbie's recommending and lending to Lisa the novel that she now was reading.
In this situation, as Lisa finished reading the novel's Part I (on page 201), she wondered what Robbie intended her to understand about her own relationship with Robbie.
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In this situation, as Lisa finished reading the novel's Part I (on page 201), she wondered what Robbie intended her to understand about her own relationship with Robbie.
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Continued in Part 15
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