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Summary: History, religion, society... An amazing explanation!
Review: We have everything today! Monster, gas guzzling SUVs, air conditioning, cell phones, the Internet! McDonald's on every corner! But, if life is so good, then why is everyone depressed and anxious? Substance abuse, mind-numbing, inane TV, even suicide...having everything apparently still doesn't make us truly happy. The destruction of our environment, overpopulation, etc., and our helplessness against all this; it's just the price we must pay for convenience and comfort. And it's worth it. Isn't it? That dose of Prozac just to get through another empty day? Oh, well, it beats living in the woods! And wouldn't that be the only alternative, and an awful one, too, to how we're all living today? Here's an idea: maybe there isn't anything really wrong with you at all. Maybe your concerns and worries are valid! Maybe the real problem is the way we've all been raised to live and THINK. And it's the ONLY way to live and think. Isn't it? You'll do yourself a disservice if you dismiss Ishmael by assuming that it is nothing more than what is thought of as New Age nonsense. It is actually quite logical (in my humble opinion). Also, it is NOT anti-human or anti-God. But it's ideas just might free you enough to be comfortable thinking for yourself. It might free you to believe it's possible to save your sanity, and maybe even, before it's too late, our beautiful planet, too.
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Summary: Don't get carried away folks
Review: Its a good book, and it is certainly thought provoking. Unfortunately, like much of our society's products of "scholarship", it is based on some very scant research and relys so heavily on supposition that it is problematic. It is worth reading and is entertaining, but just don't take all of these folks that have had their "life changed" very seriously. It is a powerful book, but like all intense things, its fuel burns fast and hot and a year after you read it, you will mainly remember the talking ape.
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Summary: As thought-provoking as Diet for a New America
Review: I nearly discarded the book because I disliked the writing style, but the ideas presented in the book make any critique on style irrelevant. It is as thought-provoking as Diet for New America, or Adbusters magazine. If you're the type of person who likes to go about your business comfortably and free of guilt, this is NOT the book for you. But for those who like to challenge and question and examine and yes, even obsess, this book will do it. I have found myself examining nearly every aspect of this thing we call "modern" life.
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Summary: If you feel there's something not right with this world
Review: Everyone is quite positive about this book because it really carries a very important message. If nothing more, it will make you think. The basic idea behind Ishmael is that OUR civilization , and its fundamental concepts, is a STORY. It is mostly a story of unneeded pain and misery. The author, through questioning the story of our civilization, makes us realize that, in order to survive, we need another story. If you feel that you're getting everything you want out of life and that things couldn't be better in the world, you probably do not need to read this book. Otherwise, get a couple boxes to share with your friends.
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Summary: See Through New Eyes
Review: Ishmael is an amazing text. It tells us in so many words that the culture we live in is in desperate need of our help to make it work, and that WE CAN make it work. To read the book is to see the world in a different way. To read Ishmael is to see the importance of the single individual speaking out, and the difference one person can make. Because one person can become two, and more, and eventually YOU can shift the direction our culture is going. YOU CAN change the world, and make a difference. You CAN.
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Summary: Wondeful! An adventure of the mind and personal belief.
Review: I live in a towm where Christianity is the only right religion. I have been looking for something to break the tie, and Ishmael finally did it. Not only has my vision been brightened to the world, but my already great intrest in preserving the enviroment has been renewed. I urge anyone who seeks a more open mind to read this book. I think in a rapidly declining world, we need more people like Daniel Quinn to present us with a more helpful view. This book could easily replace the bible sitting on my dusty shelf!
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Summary: Ladies and Gentlemen We Have Just Lost Cabin Pressure
Review: The narrator of the story talks about searching his whole life for a teacher. Someone to explain to him the things he already knows, but is afraid recognize. I believe that Daniel Quinn has stepped up and decided to be a teacher to many. In "Ishmael" Quinn puts words to the ideas that bounce around in the back of your skull, or maybe materialize for a split second but are gone before they are consciously noticed. Our world is fastly approaching a point at which something must be done. We believe that the planet is ours and we can do with it what we please. We will stop only at its complete destruction. But where did we get this idea. Read the book. Mother culture has owned the last 10 thousand years, but my money is on Mother nature.
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Summary: Quinn makes you question your assumptions.
Review: I think this is a very important book. How many people go about from day to day without questioning the basic reality of thier lives? I have always had the feeling, since I was in elementary school, that things just aren't quite right, as the narrator in Ishmael confesses. Ishmael is a series of conversations between a man and an ape called Ishmael. It is very reminiscent of Plato's Republic, although with different subject matter. Ishmael wants the narrator to figure out Why Things Are the Way They Are. Very impressive topic. The book's chapters divide the discussion and events up temporally. The ape starts off by demonstrating that cultures are enactments of stories, that these stories tell us how we got here and why, and that we almost never think about these stories or realize they exist. He then divides humanity into two basic cultures, the Takers and the Leavers. The Takers include almost everyone in the world today: any agriculturally-based culture that considers the earth its property to do anything with. Leavers are nomadic hunter-gatherers or pastoralists, who do not consider the earth their own property. He discusses why the Takers hate the Leavers and have destroyed them whenever they come in contact. Most importantly, he discusses the inherent contradiction in our culture. Something along the lines of: the Earth is ours to control, because we are supreme beings; however, because we are flawed, we can never control it correctly, so things like war, poverty, etc happen. I think this is totally true--the emphasis on environmental protection in the 90's was on environmental management. The environment doesn't need management; it has been fine for 5 billion years without us. Quinn points out that there is nothing wrong with humans; we are perfectly suited to living on the plante Earth. The problem is that we try to DOMINATE the planet, and drive out any life form that is in competition with us. He takes great pains to explain the Christian creation story. Quinn discusses the Takers culture, then he discusses the Leaver culture On the whole, This book doesn't present any new evidence; What it does is make you think about all you have ever learned about human existence, culture, science, economics. Everything. I found myself trying to decide if I agreed with him or not and why. The book is a challenge to those willing to think. Obviously the book isn't about negociating a way between 2,3, or 4 points of view; it's about Quinn presenting his view. It's about urging you to consider the basic foundations of society. I don't think he necessarily promotes the deconstruction of civilization, he would like a new kind of civilization based on ecology and ecological principles. My one criticism of this book is that he doesn't provide a bibliography. I would like to read the work of some of the anthropologists, historians, etc that he alludes to. I think the prose is as clear as it can be given the breadth of the subject he is trying to discuss.
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Summary: are you willing to listen to a different story?
Review: I have read all of Daniel Quinn's books, with the exception of his newest, After Dachau. Maybe I am just slow to catch on but that is what it took for me to "get" what Daniel is saying. With Ishmael, his first book, I began to understand that it was going to take a certain commitment to understand Daniel's message before I gave up and called it 'dumb'. So I read and re-read passages, underlined, dog-eared pages, went back and re-read again. Then I read My Ishmael, then Providence (essential for getting to know something about the man, Daniel Quinn), then The Story of B (my personal favorite) and finally Beyond Civilization. I will never see the world the same as before reading these incredible books. I have no desire to 'go back'. I give them to folks because that is what it is all about...saving the world from humans by getting humans to listen to a different story. Some of those folks tell me the books are depressing. I am always surprised by that. I have come to realize tho that they have lost faith in humanity's ability to enact anything different than what we are already consumed by or worse yet, they see nothing wrong with the story we are living. They don't see the hope in his books, the possibilities, the humor. If you are willing to listen to a different story, I encourage you, very strongly, to read his books, all of them! With each one his message expands. One person I gave Ishamel to asked me if it was a book he'd heard about..about a gorilla that could talk. I told him that is like saying Moby Dick is a story about a whale! If you care about the future of man, the future of the earth, if sometimes you are troubled by those unpleasant feelings of not being proud of being a human, and defintely if you are one of those folks who think that humanity is the ultimate product of evolution....read these books!
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Summary: Ishmael Lives
Review: Ishmael has touched me in a very special way, answering my lifelong questions. The book is classified as fiction. In my mind, the only part of the book that is fiction is the Gorilla and yet in my heart he too is real. Although Mother Culture did her job on me, I've known for a long time that something was not right in this Taker story. In my heart I have been a Leaver for a long time but was lost in this Taker world, until Ishmael found me. Thankyou Daniel Quinn for Ishmael. With Hope, Joseph Sciarrotta
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