Source (An example of a female public intellectual in the eyes of Ayn Rand)

Author: (American) Ayn Rand
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: One of the fundamental reasons why The Fountainhead possesses such enduring charm lies in its recognition of youthful ambition and its celebration of human glory, demonstrating the boundless possibilities of humanity. In every generation, only a few fully understand and realistically perceive human talent, while the rest betray it. However, it doesn’t matter. It is these few who push humanity forward and give life meaning. What I have always strived for is to pay homage to these select few. The rest are irrelevant to me: they betray not me or The Fountainhead, but their own souls. — Ayn Rand, excerpt from the preface to the 25th anniversary edition of The Fountainhead.
The protagonist of the novel, Howard Roark, is an honest and resilient architect who seeks to enlighten society. Yet, he is expelled from university just before graduation, and his design style is deemed heretical by society, leading him to work as a laborer in a quarry. The woman he deeply loves also opposes him at every turn and marries his rival. Later, he agrees to design affordable housing for the government for free, but his design is arbitrarily altered by the government authorities. In desperation, he blows up the partially built building back to rubble with dynamite. In court, he also fights alone, defending himself as a genius for his original creation (long before the 9/11 perpetrators were even born): "Creation is a private matter, a natural right, and the defense of creation is equally the right of every equally natural individual." At that time, concepts like copyright and intellectual property had not yet been recognized by society. As a result, Roark is deemed "insane" and thus acquitted.