Cheese Monkeys is No Fountainhead
by Adrian Hanft, (1 comments)
I was thinking today as I posted a comment on the Design Observer blog that I wished Cheese Monkey's was more like "The Fountainhead," by Ayn Rand. So I was surprised when I came across this review on cityofsound. It said "In Winter Sorbeck, graphic design now has its Howard Roark character - for better, for worse... Actually Sorbeck is a fallen Roark, eventually too principled to be in step with the modern world, his fervent idealism expressed in hilariously cruel, impatient bullying, but always through care for the craft of design." This comment really caught me by surprise, because I thought the integrity of a character like Roark and the intense conflict of The Fountainhead really showed how shallow Cheese Monkeys really is. By now you are probably tired of me talking about Cheese Monkeys, so I will keep it short.
One more thing: In the Design Observer article, Rick Poyner and our own B suggest that Cheese Monkeys could be made into a movie. Here is a link to Rick's review of the book.
Comments (1)
Adrian said:
I know it’s dumb to comment on my own post, but I wanted to dissect the cityofsound quote that compared Howard Roark to Winter Sorbeck.
“Actually Sorbeck is a fallen Roark” What in the world? Roark’s entire character is “Fallen!” That is the struggle of the book. Despite of and because of his uncompromising integrity, he is oppressed by the world. To say Sorbeck is a fallen Roark makes no sense. Does that mean that Sorbeck is fallen because he lacked the integrity of Roark? That I could buy.
“eventually too principled to be in step with the modern world” That describes Roark alright, but I fail to see the principles that Sorbeck displayed. I guess he did have principles, but they weren’t based on integrity or optimism.
“his fervent idealism” Is crapping in a box and calling it graphic design, fervent idealism? Maybe in some twisted way.
“hilariously cruel, impatient bullying, but always through care for the craft of design.” He cared so much for the craft of design that he destroyed his students. That doesn’t sound like something Roark would do.
At least this has inspired me to reread The Fountainhead. I only had a vague idea of what art and design was when I first read it. Maybe I’m wrong, but to compare Cheese Monkey’s to Fountainhead seems like a travesty.
Posted on June 12, 2004