Rating: Summary: wow Review: this book revolutionized my thought process completely. if you read "kirkus" review, don't listen to it, becuase in the book it very clearly explains (the main character is an absolute dunce, so everything is explained over suficiently)that the anti-christ will not be at all like what we imagine the anti-christ to be (casting spells, world domination etc.), becuase if he was then people wouldn't listen to him (most people are more intelligent than religious leaders of yore who taught this anti-christ thought them to be)and he(she) wouldn't be an affective anti-christ. don't read it if you are looking for action or thick, involved plot. the book is more teachings than story, but the story is exciting too. anyway READ IT, we need to have these ideas become a pop-culture phenomenon.
Rating: Summary: An excellent and thought-provoking insight to our lives Review: Even more compelling and fixating than Ishmael, I highly reccomend The Story of B to anyone concerned with the current and future state of our world. The Story of B fully dissects our assumed role in the world and its destructive consequences, providing a hopeful vision for a better way of life.
Rating: Summary: Do you want to save the world? Read The Story of B Review: The Story of B, along with Ishmael and My Ishmael are wake up calls for us to reach both inward and outward. The book is well paced,
not too long and drives the point in well. It leaves the reader with a sence of urgency but also a clear direction. If you sometimes read
to learn, these three books put the ball in your
court.
Rating: Summary: Ishmael was better, but fascinating nonetheless Review: By removing the talking gorilla, Quinn has taken away the "fable" quality that made the truths presented in Ishmael easier to accept. It is excellent reading, though (and excellent listening, for the audio version), and I recommend it to anyone who loved Ishmael.
Rating: Summary: Find Daniel Quinn's The Story of B to be simplistic. Review: Like the Kirkus review above, I found the ideas and plot and character to be deficient in Quinn's book. What disturbs me is the evident popularity of this dialectical and tautalogical attempt to blame overpopulation and environmental distruction upon humanitie's reliance upon "totalitarian" agriculture while praising high technology. In the book, a Catholic priest is sent on a mission to check and protect the Church from the supposed threat from a new found prophet, a so-called anti-Christ, who spouts off how we need to become hunter/gatherers again and allow nature to take it's course with the remaining billions who rely upon modern agriculture. Strangely, and chillingly, Quinn is a fan of technology, while attacking agriculture, as if they weren't of the same root in the progressive expansion of human endeavor. Check out his web site, it's very guru-tinged. Many techno-elitists and whooley headed environmentalists have clasped unto Quinn's ideas without considering the consequences.
Rating: Summary: Profoundly disappointing Review: In Ishmael, Quinn works some safe and sound philosophy/theology into an interesting package that is a tidy introduction to systems-thinking, deep ecology and some other big ideas. In The Story of B, he wraps all the weak points that we were willing to overlook in Ishmael in a sagging story that regularly requires heroic resuscitation. This book could have built on the first and become a marvelous exploration of transcendence and universal Spirit. Instead, he chose to present us with what feels like the loosely collected leftovers of the first draft of Ishmael.
Rating: Summary: READ THIS BOOK. Review: What are you willing to risk for the sake of continued evolution? The answer is less important than your willingness to ponder the question. If you're not, this book is not for you. Or maybe it's more for you than anyone else... Daniel Quinn has sharpened the points first encountered in Ishmael, and has rendered a must-read.
Rating: Summary: Revelations for the common man Review: Quinn starts where he left off in 'Ishmael'. This books Expands on his original ideas and is equally as fascinating. Another work that changes lives. The world would be a better place if people would just keep Quinn's ideas in mind in their daily decisions.
Rating: Summary: A revelation--not! Review: Daniel Quinn, through the singularly dim priest that is the narrator of this "novel", repeatedly reminds the reader that the ideas set forth by B (the new age prophet of this story) are innovative and fresh. He protests too much. While structured as a novel, the story serves as a vehicle to put forth a "new" world view, not as a credible work of fiction. Then again, it might work better as fiction. The character B states facts that are often questionable but form the foundation of the book's philosophy. Through B, Quinn weaves together a tapestry of science, pseudo-science, and discredited ideas (particularly Malthusian concepts about agriculture and population) to form a thought-provoking, yet ultimately hollow, world view. As a work of fiction, the book is worthless. The priest that narrates the story is so dull that Quinn has to explain why the character, supposedly an educated theologian, is so slow to understand even the basic points B makes. The plot is simply a series of events to allow Quinn to set out his world view. The book is thought provoking, but for those looking for spiritual insight, there is little to be found here.
Rating: Summary: Thought Provoking Review: This book is pedantic but necessarily so. The characters have little humanity to them (rage, selfishness, greed, lust for power etc.). But they do present some ideas that disturb the comfortable suburban complacency of modern America. What is the connection between the way I live and the Earth's ecology? What are the consequences of not questioning our assumptions?
Quinn does not offer a vision but the start for us to make our own vision of a future consistent with the ecology of the Earth. Quinn gives us a starting point to question and dream, but no answers, thank the gods! There are enough pretenders to godlike status without adding another.
The message of this book to me: Think for yourself and act
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