"The young man hoped he would not have to die..."

What do you think of when you see this photograph?

For me, I think of a wonderful passage from Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, or, strictly speaking, the beginning of a wonderful passage:

The leaves streamed down, trembling in the sun. They were not green; only a few, scattered through the torrent, stood out in single drops of a green so bright and pure that it hurt the eyes; the rest were not a color, but a light, the substance of fire on metal, living sparks without edges. And it looked as if the forest were a spread of light boiling slowly to produce this color, this green rising in small bubbles, the condensed essence of spring. The trees met, bending over the road, and the spots of sun on the ground moved with the shifting of the branches, like a conscious caress. The young man hoped he would not have to die.

Not if the earth could look like this, he thought. Not if he could hear the hope and promise like a voice, with leaves, tree trunks and rocks instead of words. But he knew that the earth looked like this only because he had seen no sign of men for hours; he was alone, riding his bicycle down a forgotten trail through the hills of Pennsylvania where he had never been before, where he could feel the fresh wonder of an untouched world...

You can read the whole passage here. And after reading it, see if this architectural project reminds you of anything.

(And yes, the photo is of China, not Pennsylvania -- don't be so literal. And yes, there are buildings in it, but dimly lit, as if through a curtain promisingly...)

LINKS: Ayn Rand's Monadnock - Monadnock.Net
The Fountainhead page - Objectivism Reference Centre
The Fountainhead - Amazon.Com
San Marcos Water Gardens - Frank Lloyd Wright - Not PC (Peter Cresswell)

RELATED: Architecture, Art, Books, Objectivism, Philosophy

Pic Credit: Gary Friedman. Thanks Gary.