Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

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Summary: Read this book! Right now!
Review: The book begins when the narrater find an ad in the Personals reading: "TEACHER SEEKS PUPIL. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person." The narrater responds to the add, thinking to discredit a charlatan, and finds instead an unlikely (or perhaps not-so-unlikely) teacher who proceeds to teach him HOW THINGS CAME TO BE THIS WAY. While the book follows the conversations of two fictional characters, these conversations could be transposed onto any two people on the planet and be no less truthful. Toxic pollution, global warming, species extinction--Daniel Quinn, through the teacher Ishmael, explains why our culture (and our culture only, not all of humanity) has played a role in creating the present environmental crisis. The explanation hides so well in plain sight (it's all around us, but it's hard to recognize) that when it's finally revealed, we at once say, "Well, of course!" and then leap to our feet while striking our brows and crying, "My God! This is incredible!" The group of people who read this book should be composed not only of environmental engineers or naturalists or ecologists, but also of truck drivers, potters, bricklayers, computer programmers, English teachers...For the message of Ishmael must be heard by all if there is to hope for the life that presently exists on this Earth.

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Summary: Juvenile Ego-Stroking
Review: While I agree with much of the philosophy presented in Ishmael, the book is damned by its presentation. The author seems more concerned with stroking his ego and making his philosophy seem unique and mind-blowing than writing a good book. Instead of intelligent discourse, we've got a condescending monkey who repeats things ad-nauseum, has a penchant for hyperbole, and spends the rest of his time trying to make the author seem like a genius. Well guess what, Quinn? Any reasonably intelligent high schooler has thought of these things. Trust me, you are not the first. Keep the philosophy, just don't present yourself as brilliant for having it.

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Summary: Mind Altering
Review: One of few books which has managed to completely alter my state of mind between the time I began the book and the time I finally put it down.

The ways in which Quinn challenges our perceptions of the world, our lives, our purpose on earth, the way in which we operate and the systems that constrain us is remarkable.

In the tradition of Zen and lifelong meditation Ishmael presents a set of existential questions that may never be fully answered and certainly have no right/wrong approach. The value lies in the questions themselves and our ability to allow them to have personal application. Whether or not we can apply Quinn's logic and understanding conveyed through Ishmael to our own lives and sense of purpose even our core values is the ultimate test.

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Summary: Ishmael was a well written book
Review: The book "Ishmael" is a fictional story about a man who befriends a Gorilla and starts learning his life's lessons. The man reads an article in the newspaper that says "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." The article draws him in and when he goes to answer it, he finds a gorilla in a cage. It's in an older almost rundown apartment complex and he starts going there every day and talking philosophy with the animal. This ends up changing his whole view on the world and the people in it. He realizes what is happening to the world and what the outcome will be if no one does anything about it. He also finds that there isn't a lot that he can do about any of it. In the end, the Gorilla ends up dying in a carnival wagon and the man finds himself looking for his own pupil.

"Ishmael" is a very well written book. Quinn ties everyday human acts to philosophical thought about the future of the world. He shows the effects of what we do now changing the world for better or worse. He also shows how we could change the outcome of our actions as a human race. He explains the hunter and gatherer effect as takers and leavers, and how the two live off of each other. And that if given a long enough period of time, everyone would end up being a taker, and the result of this would be the extinction of the human race. Not by murder perse, but they would kill all of the natural resources the earth supplies us with, and there would be nothing left for anyone to live off of.


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Summary: Environmental Science class
Review: i read ishmael a month ago and thourghly enjoyed it. Now the principles in the book were not all that earthshattering, everyone knows that what we do is against nature, people just look the other way or are not bothered by it. Although there is some validity to the literary criticisms of this book, the telepathic gorilla and the dogmatic approach certaintly are less than ideal. But if you think about our it culture forces idea that humans are supreme down our throut. Quinn is offering another perspective, and a damned good one at that. as stated by others there are several groups of people who review this book, the life changed, the open to ideas but not this one kind of person, and the liberal propaganda people. the first group i have no problems with, the second group needs to smell the coffee, hm it doesn't agree with the bible, well the bible is in human writing, even if it is god inspired it was human written and therefore subject the ethnographic influences. the liberal haters are the worst group, don't tell me that just because it is in favor of nature it is universally bad. it is small minded to lambaste quinn purely on your perception of his political stance.
read this book and think, the world would be better off if everybody was more aware of what pigs we humans can be

Rating:
Summary: Ishmael
Review: I liked this book. It had a very distinct flavor. The gorilla was very interesting. I didn't always agree with all of the ideas in the book, but it was still interesting to read. The blend between fantasy and fact was fascinating. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in reading about the environment and who are open to different ways of looking at the impact that humans have on the environment.

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Summary: my favorite
Review: i loved it. i read this book a year ago and it really changed the way that i look at the world. If everyone were to read this book than the world would be much wiser, i know that i am.

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: daniel quinn will change your perception of everything you have come to know. this book and his others will open your eyes to the REAL world. it's time to open the public's eyes to what is really going on behind the curtain of mother culture. wake up and start saving the world.

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Summary: Read This Book Carefully
Review: This book is not terribly difficult to understand. It is highly engrossing, which says a lot considering that it has little plot and consists mainly of a series of dialogues between the narrator and Ishmael, a telepathic gorilla. This is not as silly as it seems, and the main reason for Quinn's choice of a gorilla as narrator is for the outsider's perspective such a being offers.

Quinn is concerned with modern environmental degredation, but rather than examining superficial manifestations he looks at the roots of the problem in our culture and comes up with some very interesting conclusions.

Without going into too much detail, Quinn feels the dilemma is basically a result of the agricultural revolution. With a stunning, and convnincing, interpretation of Genesis, he argues to the reader that civilized man's basic problem is his relationship to himself and to the rest of the world. Quinn frames it in religious terms, basically saying that man, since the dawn of time, has been content to live in the hands of the gods, surviving as a hunter-gatherer or semiagriculturalist. But at some point, known to us as the agricultural revolution, man decided this was not acceptable, and decided to take his destiny into his own hands. It really is much more nuanced than this, but the ultimate result of this decision is a world overrun with man, where nearly every square mile of the planet has been coopted for human use or habitation.

I agree with Quinn's premise, but I'm not sure it's really so cut and dried a case of a bad meme. He notes that agriculture began in multiple locations, not just the Fertile Crescent, but he fails, in my view, to account for the large, aggressive, agricultural civilizations of Mesoamerica, East Asia, and the Andes. China, Mesoamerica, and Andean civilizations all have natural geographical borders to contain them, but that doesn't mean they would've have pursued aggressive expansion given the opportunity. Might the problem not also be framed as the overcompetition of a species not aware that it was exceeding safe limits?

In any case, Quinn's argument that a more rational, humble civilization is possible and indeed necessary is not controversial. He makes the interesting analogy that, just as aircraft who do not take into account the laws of aerodynamics cannot maintain flight, so to civilizations who do not take into account the negative effects of overcompetition cannot survive. (He does not argue that civilization should be abandoned, as some other reviewers have erroneously asserted. Indeed, he specifically rebuts this towards the end.) Rather, Quinn believes we need to accept that 1) other species have a right to exist, 2) diversity is a good thing, and 3) we are not inherently better than other species and do not have the right to cover the earth like a plague. If we can incorporate these ideals into our civilization, we may retain it, but he believes that failing to do so will result in our demise.

In any case, the arguments are much more developed in the book itself, and if any of this intrigues you, I encourage you to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly What We Need!
Review: I simply love this book. It's not a hard read, nor is it meant to be. It's meant to make the average person stop and think about the consequences of their actions and whether or not things are the way they should be. And, the average person does not stop and think about the things this book speaks of. If they did, things would already be a bit different. This book does exactly what it's supposed to do and it does it well. Some of the other reviews state that it's to simplified and does not challenge the intelligent reader....not true. The truths need to be stated as they are so that they can be understood and hopefully inspire the masses.

Thank you Mr. Quinn