Ishmael [Paperback]

Despite a mildly frustrating Q&A format, this is a deep and (beneficially) mind-altering work that can re-shape how you think about almost everything. So, why so few reviews for this masterful work over here, when there are over 1000 on Amazon.com?

Quinn synthesises numerous schools of thought - primarily anthropology, history, biology, and theology - in such a way as to paint a truly all-encompassing portrait of how we got here. The basic premise is as accurate as it is appalling: a classic catch-22:

A. Father Culture teaches us to produce more food that we can use.
B. We reproduce in direct correlation with the amount of available food.
C. The more we reproduce, the more food we need.

Yes, it is an over-simplification but it's still truth. This work uncovers our cultural myth that it's OK to keep consuming, destroying the environment, producing more food and multiplying our population at insanely unhealthy levels.

In several later books Quinn takes this further. "My Ishmael" is basically a repeat of "Ishmael" and slightly disappointing because of that but "Story of B" explains that our current focus on agriculture is basically at "war" with nature and only really became that way with patriarchy. Many open-minded archeologists are telling - off the record - of more and more clues that patriarchy suddenly, about 6,000 years ago, came in from nowhere, overwhelmed, and radically changed our direction from, the peaceful lifestyle enjoyed for hundreds of thousands of years previously. Ancient times were by no means brutal and backwards, as we've been brainwashed to believe.

For instance, dating of the "pre-historic" Jomon culture has been regularly pushed back over the last decade and is currently identified as having begun at least 100,000 years ago and having lasted for well over 50,000 years, maybe double that, in an astonishingly stable manner. They enjoyed a comfortably abundant, healthy, and aesthetic lifestyle involving stunning pottery, trading, travel (very possibly global) and communal co-operation - within groups (no "chiefs"), with neighbouring societies (no defensive fortifications), and with nature (such as a regular "harvesting" of fruit and nut orchards but not intensive farming).

We CAN choose a different way from the current "dominate and destroy" culture, a transformation to a world of harmony, diversity and flexibility, in partnership with all living things, not least our earth.("The Heart of Social Change", a pamphlet by Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD - founder of the Center for Nonviolent Communication, an international nonprofit organization that teaches peacemaking skills across four continents - summarizes in just a few amazing pages how all religions teach us good and bad to enforce punishment and reward and the many ways, from birth, that we are taught to enjoy violence.)

Some complain that Quinn is stating the obvious. For me, it was an exciting new angle on our culture, another veil lifted.

later note: for more on the curse of agriculture, try "Against the Grain". Also, three of the books of an amazing Japanese farmer and philosopher have been translated into English and are worth reading: "The One Straw Revolution", "The Natural Way of Farming" and "Sowing Seeds in the Desert" by Masanobu Fukuoka. He explains why scientific farming practices can never succeed; how our belief that we know better than nature inevitably separates us more and more from from everything, including ourselves and each other; and how to farm at-one with nature (no machinery/ploughing/digging, no prepared fertilizer, no pesticides, very little weeding). Comparatively little-known here, Fukuoka (RIP) is famous in India, where his techniques are being used to revive desert areas.

Buy this at the same time as "The Story of B" and "My Ishmael" becuase they form a kind of unofficial trilogy - "Ishmael" laying the ground foundations of Quinn's theory, "The Story of B" expanding and adding to those ideas and "My Ishmael" completing the set by showing how the decline of our culture can be averted.

It would be too hard to outline Quinn's theory about why our society (and only our society) works so badly, but if you have ever thought that there must be something better than living a life working hard to gain things which are free, such as food, then this book is for you. If you have ever felt hollow or unfufilled by your life and the way you live it, then this book has one important message for you - it is not your fault. I hope my enthusiasm for this book will encourage you to read it, because I can honestly say it has changed my life. Everywhere I look I see elements of Taker culture and I want to scream at the top of my lungs and show everybody what is wrong. I want to open their eyes. I'm sure you don't understand what I'm talking about unless you've read the book, but if you buy it then you will.

The revelations I had whilst I was reading this book, "The Story of B" and "My Ishmael" were so amazing I felt sick, elated, depressed but mostly a sense of enormous relief. It is not every single human in our culture that is wrong, there is nothing wrong with us. It is our society...our society that imposes laws that it knows will be broken and then is suprised when they are, our society that thinks humans are God's over other animals, out society that has abandoned the way Tribal societies lived and survived with for hundreds and hundreds of years, our society...Please, I urge you to buy this book, there is nothing more I can say. Buy this book.

Critics, commentators, writers [and theologians?] assert that fiction reflects life. If so, you will look long and hard to find a grander image of life than Daniel Quinn offers in Ishmael. He isn't interested in building synthetic characters or weaving intricate plots. He has a message to convey to every human on this planet. If fiction reaches more people than plain instructive writing, then that's the path he's chosen. And he's chosen well, providing a vivid scenario of human thinking on how we view life. How we view life depends on our role - Ishmael divides humanity into two populations, the Leavers and the Takers.

Would you answer the newspaper advert seeking a pupil who desires to save the world? Note the singular - not "pupils" or "students." Just one. Are you the one? As you read this stunning fantasy it's impossible not to place yourself in the teller's mind as he confronts a massive lowland gorilla. Ishmael is the teacher seeking a student because he has a question: "With man gone, will there be hope for the gorilla?" Keep this question in mind. As you follow Ishmael's "course" you will gain fresh insight into what he considers the fundamental question: "how did things come to be this way?" Ishmael is no pedantic scholar or medieval disputant. He coaxes, teases, almost seduces response, but your answers must be carefully thought through before offering them. He's asking that you search the roots of your own cultural heritage to form your reply. Before long the perceptive reader will pause before simply accepting the author’s responses. Quinn’s aim, after all, is elicit reaction from you – his fictional “student” is only a mechanism to that end.

In his dialogue with his pupil [you!], Ishmael repeats the question of "how things came to be this way." As you ponder his question, think about the figures dominating our heritage. Ishmael names Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad and others as "Prophets" - the key figures in Taker history. What have they taught us about the world we inhabit? Who are the Leavers' prophets and what are their teachings? Ishmael's response will surprise many.

Quinn's building dialogue throughout this book is skillfully presented. His innovative style is straightforward, unpretentious and nearly flawless. It would be easy to criticise his prose as "too simple," but the urgency of his message and the novel form of its presentation is purposely designed to attract the widest possible audience. The story may not be complex or convoluted, but Quinn has given us a gem. Remember, diamonds are composed of but one element - anything added is impurity.

Ishmael's "course" pre-requisite is "an earnest desire to save the world." No-one can question the enormity of that task, least of all Ishmael himself. He doesn't expect an environmental messiah to answer the question of whether there's "hope for the gorilla"? There's a need for more "pupils" to answer that question. So if your local newspaper doesn't have an advert stating "Teacher seeks pupil," please inquire at the email address listed at the top of this review. The first one hundred responses will be answered. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]