Ishmael
IshmaelA review of...
Ishmael
In the past few centuries there have been a handful of books written that offer up ideas about humanity that are so completely new to a reader but are so completely convincing that they can force a reader to take a step back and assess all that they know to be true about their life and their purpose. Daniel Quinn has succeeded in creating such a book in Ishmael, a collection of new ideas about man, his evolution, and the �destiny� that keeps him captive.
When I began reading Ishmael I was amazed by the ideas offered by Quinn. Like in Rambo and the Dalai Lama by Gordon Fellman I was looking at the world not as it must be but as it could be. I was very suprised and excited, that as a member of �generation X� that tries so hard to create their own destiny, that I had never perceived or questioned �Mother Culture�.
In the first one hundred pages if Ishamel I found a number of convincing ideas that I believe I will take away with me. The greatest of these being that the technology that we believe will prolong our existence is the same driving force that propells us to extinction. I believe that Quinn illustrated this idea superbly with his narrative of the aeronauts. Man
knew that he could fly but he didn�t know all the rules. And instead of leaving it be until
he did he was so sure of himself that he made his attempts blindly and came to a much
quicker end than if he hadn�t tried at all.
Toward the middle of the book my ability to accept Quinn�s ideas began to waiver. I believe this began when Quinn starting explaining the whys of man�s perceived destiny through religion or man�s need to overcome his religion. Now, I do believe that religion influences everyone, even those that don�t have it. And I�ll admit that Quinn offered many great points in history to back his theories, but I believe they were just theories. It was at
this point in the students learning that I began to think that Quinn...
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