Rating: 
Summary: a must-read
Review: by far, the most important words i have ever read; what's more, i haven't heard less fiery testimony from any i've convinced to read it.you must give quinn a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Intentionally misunderstood for its truth.
Review: Quinn poses one premise in this book: Man, despite believing that it is the very best that the universe has to offer, may not know so much. Quinn then draws a parable to give that premise a great deal of substance. Most readers are much too entrenched in material comforts and enslavements to appreciate this brave statement. And so they pass the book off as eccentric, cultish, and idealistic. This book changed, permanently, the way I view the world around us. So, much that after I read it I had to leave the country for a brief time, for horror at our ignorance. If you are happy inside your bubble, don't bother wasting your time reading this fascinating tale. However, if you want someone to put words to that feeling that you had that humans are not the epitomy of creation, that there is much more to be had than the cycle that we are currently in, that creation is only beginning, this book will ring true. If this review has made no sense to you, then don't worry yourself. If you do pick up the book, read the sequels, as they depict developing ideas about how our society could actually maintain itself in a healthy happiness. Quinn poses solutions, not questions.
Rating: 
Summary: Bizarre
Review: Man has always found ways to do the wrong thing. Going to mother this and mother that for direction is a large step into the fantasy world. What institution did Quinn escape from?
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended as a beginning
Review: Ishmael is neither a bible nor a profound work of intellectualism. It's not even new--Euripides embodied the same things in his play the Bacchae, three thousand years ago. Biologists trying their hand at philosophy have been posing the same questions for decades. Quinn merely explains a series of important events in human history from as nonhuman a perspective as possible. The philosophy is solid, the storyline an afterthought. This book is not a Bible. Quinn does not believe that civilization is inherently evil, nor that subsistent societies are inherently good. The argument is simply that civilization is ecologically untenable (a popular debate in some schools of economics) and subject to the same laws of ecology that its constituents fancy to have overcome. End of line. No more. The rest of the book is devoted to substantiating that humble claim, and Quinn does a pretty good job. The most stunning point of the book is the interpretation of the story of Cain and Abel. The argument goes that Cain was an agricultural society, Abel a nomadic culture. Cain kills Abel, of course, the rationale being that Cain was of course in control of more food and resources thanks to his agriculture. This, like so many other parts of the book, has an intellectual root that Daniel Quinn's skill with metaphor permits him not to credit: linguistics. Such a theory has been posed to explain the spread of the Indo-European language. It's progeny contains many words for agriculure, the languages of cultures overcome do not. It's a laudable insight to apply that theory to Genesis, but not a case of brilliant intellectual rigor. Read either the first or second book, "The Story of B." The third book, "My Ishmael," contains only a conclusion to the barely-existent plot. A good read for the intellectually curious, but not for the scholarly philosopher.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Quinn presents a unique view into the nature of our civilization, told from the persepctive of a Gorilla, teaching a man. Essentially, we have been all wrong since the Agricultural Revolution, in which mankind was divided: into Tribal societies on one side, and the ancestors of our civilization on the other ("leavers" and "takers" according to Quinn). Our way of life is destroying the Earth, and the Leavers are almost gone....thus we must return to the ways of the Leavers. The mistake many make when reading this book is thinking that Quinn desires for a literal return to tribalism: hunter/gatherer living, no technology, etc. Aparently, Quinn means for us to undertake the more general aspects of "Leaver" culture, their attitudes, and world-view, rather than the specifics of their economies and daily lives. Unfortunately, he is quite vague on how one can achieve these goals, or what form a modern "Leaver" society would take. While he does elaborate on these points in "My Ishmael" and "Beyond Civilization", the lack of concrete ideas is the major fault of his doctrine in "Ishmael". Additionally, this novel does not have much of a plot-the ideas, not the story, are at the center.
Rating:
Summary: Really interesting, but...
Review: Ishmael is a really fascinating, incredible book, and it's had a huge impact on the way about I think, etc, etc, but it doesn't really tell you what to DO with all these ideas you've just acquired. I mean, you can't stay in taker culture without being a part of it, but it's pretty pointless to just drop out of society- you can't impact anything by doing that. So what's the solution? How are we supposed to live to bring about change? Ishmael claims to be telling us that, but it doesn't really.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book, a must read for anyone
Review: The book is simply excellent. It flows very well and what Daniel Quinn has to say can open your eyes to what is happening around you. Once you read the book you can see how the takers mindset has provided a justification for what humans have done to the earth. We will not destroy the earth, we will destroy ourselves. Towards the end of the book he makes a point that evolution has a tendenacy towards complexity. He says that there is a progression from ultrasimple to more complex forms throughout time. This is totally wrong! Evolution has no overall tendancies. This is a human made bias. The most common (by many orders of magnitude) forms of life are and have always been bacteria. Large, complex, and intelligent organisms (vertebrates) don't even make up one-tenth of one percent of the species on earth. Man is not an inevitable product of evolution. I realize that I am being a little picky, but Daniel Quinn is misrepresenting evolution in this case. In all fairness, this is a small part of the book and does not detract from the main concepts of the book. This is certainly not a reason to not read the book. I still recommned the book the everyone. It will help to open your eyes to what is going on around you.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Ought To Shake Up The High Priests of Society!
Review: I find Ishmael to be THE most influential book of my adult life (I'm 44). Quinn deconstructs the rather shakey foundations of western civilization, exposing all the presumptions we've been using to gobble-up and destroy the planet that is our only home. Quinn struggled for nearly fifty years to write this; he deserves every award that has come his way. I hope the book succeeds in its goal of saving the world, saving humans, leading us all to a better life. Lofty? Indeed. But: why not?
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK NOW
Review: I initially read Ishmael the way one reads the morning paper, with little surprise and less energy. A month later I was camping by a lake, and I suddenly started weeping uncontrollably as the ramificaitons of Quinn's hopeful message swept through me. The same miracle has happened on subsequent readings of this and other Quinn novels. Ishmael contains the wisdom already within the self and its own capacity for reason, compassion, and action. This creative dialectic begins by challenging one's entire concept of culture and humanity, and then revealing that it is not a challenge afterall -- that it is a homecoming to hope, clarity, and courage. The message is one of immense relief. To save the world, we do not have to change humanity (HUMANITY IS NOT FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED). We need only change our own minds. Get started!
Rating:
Summary: Ishmael
Review: This was one of the most powerful books I have read and as a 16 year old has touched me in a great way. An excellent read for anyone interested or confused in their beliefs in evolution and man's origin. It was a great novel and made me rethink my previous stand point on GOD's existence. Definately a worth while read!
|
