Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel Quinn
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  862 reviews
Sales Rank: 607
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0553375407
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553375404
ASIN: 0553375407
Publication Date: July 1, 1995
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Product Description
The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a manin search for truth. He answers an ad in a localnewspaper from a teacher looking for seriouspupils, only to find himself alone in an abandonedoffice with a full-grown gorilla who is nibblingdelicately on a slender branch. "You are theteacher?" he asks incredulously. "I amthe teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael isa creature of immense wisdom and he has a storyto tell, one that no other human being has everheard. It is a story that extends backward andforward over the lifespan of the earth from the birthof time to a future there is still time save.Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make thelesson easy; he demands the final illumination tocome from within ourselves. Is it man's destinyto rule the world? Or is it a higher destinypossible for him-- one more wonderful than he has everimagined?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 857 more reviews...
 "To the Point" July 18, 2008
I'm not going to tell you whats going on in the novel, as many other reviews from the book start.
Ishmael is a great book. I don't read, at all. But I have read this book with ease and found it hard to put it down. And it inspires me to read more books, and I will.
This book, teaches us somethings of life, but not everything, its does not give an exact explanation, of how to save the world. It does explain in ones own philosophy of 'how thing came to be the way the are' and it's marvelous.
Whether you like the book it or not, or even if you have not read it, chew on this.
I think Quinn knows that we can't just up and crawl into the wild. Basically, its to late to do anything like that, well, because there is to many of 'us'. Period. There is no room to put all the garbage that we have created. Those of you who fail to see, without using something other then a human to be the teacher, wouldn't have worked in the slightest bit, and gorillas are cool, you could have used anything other then a human, and who cares about figuring out WHY.
But instead of going back to a primitive life(crawling back into the wild), we need to advance for the better. We, all of us, black, white, indian, oriental... ALL of us have one thing in common, were all human, we all came from the same place. The religions of the world basically cancel each other out. Think about it, There is only ONE way we all got here correct. Ok good, then tell me how is it possible that there are so many different religions and theorys. Look at the big picture, only one can be right, if one is right at all. We are all blinded from ourselves, from our ancestors, from Human beings. What I am getting at is we have NOTHING to look back upon, because frankly no one is right. Until our culture, not America not China or Russia, or Europe, but Humans can understand where our origins came from, we follow a blind path.
I'm not against the 'characters' or philosophy's of the books that religions have written down, I just simply won't accept it. Because how do I know that it's right and the others or wrong. The same thing can be said from another point of view.
When you read Ishmael, instead of plunging your head into it and dissecting everything about it and its statements, sit back and look at the big picture, what has been discussed is our root problem. If something has gone bad at any point, what do you do? You go back to where things were working and find out where things went wrong then fix it. Were not able to go back and fix things because to be frank, its to late to do anything like that, well, because there is to many of 'us'. Period. There is no room to put all the garbage that we have created.
All we have, is to move forward. What we can do is put a wall up. From the time man starting destroying the world we can put a wall up, and in this day and age we can put a wall up. And everything after the wall now would be action's that we've learned from our mistakes. And everything in the middle of those walls, would be the mistake. Harsh, but true anyway you look at it. Get real. I by no means have the resources or brains to do such a thing, nor does anyone else on this earth. But we can all do it together, for we have conquered the earth and we have control over it, just due to our sheer size in numbers.
As far as reviewing Ishmael this is my review, this is a little something that I have chalked up in my head after reading it. Who cares about the grammar or the literature of Ishmael, the points that are not valid, if they aren't at all. If you feel you care about those things, then you are just falling in the hands of 'Mother Culture' or whatever you want to call it, and that is the problem, LIFE IS SIMPLE. We have just made it extremely hard on ourselves. These generations living now might not have, but, all were doing is passing on the tradition of what we know, because all we know is what we have been taught, I don't care who you are; that's a fact.
So if you have not read Ishmael, I recommend it. If you can agree with what I have laid on the table here then you know what to do, read it. If you don't agree, maybe you will after you read it. If if you don't agree then you're entitled to that opinion. I'm nobody, I'm just another 'Alan Lomax', that cares. These are some my thoughts and feelings, and they were before I read Ishmael, there just more clear to me now after I have read Ishmael.
Great book! June 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After I read this book, I bought it for all my friends for Christmas. Definately a book you want to pass along. Powerful message.
Ishmael: An Adventure Of The Mind And Spirit June 28, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn *****
Ishmael is a stunning narrative on the way things came to be. A story of awareness and philosophy; the way things are and the way things could be. A wonderfully heart-warming, and heart-wrenching tale of acceptance and tolerance.
Ishmael is a Gorilla, who can communicate with humans. Those who want to communicate with him anyway. Sounds a but Peter Pan I know but it really isn't. After Ismael places an add in the paper looking for "A willing student who wants to save the world" he meets his sixth subject. As Ishmael tells his theory of how things came to be the way things are in the world he divides the world into to groups, the takers and the leavers. Telling who each is would ruin the book. The ending is both uplifting and tyrannical making it among the strongest endings in literature.
The story is easy to follow along with despite it's complicated subject matter. Ishmael is never dull and always an interesting read, and one I will soon make mandatory reading for my class.
 Flawed in so many ways June 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Being told to read Ishmael, I was very excited in understanding the "life changing" aspects of it. However, as I read further, I realized that this was simply an insult to my intelligence. Before I get into the fundamental flaws, I shall note that the writing of this book is horrendous. The imagery is beyond dreadful and the main character is one of the least entertaining characters there is. Quinn many times references books that he is read simply to drop name. Furthermore, there are so many flaws with Daniel Quinn's book that it is almost a joke:
1. The most common problem is the "Noble Savage" myth. The idea that tribal life is better off than regular civilization is a wrong. The emergence of most of the technological and philosophical understandings of the world are a direct result of the increase in population. The time allowed when not hunting allowed for the innovation needed to develop many of the tools that Daniel Quinn(who is a hypocrite) to spread his message.
2. The timeline for the Neolithic Revolution is put at 10,000 years ago when the more correct definition is 12,000-13000 years ago. Although, I will admit this is a small flaw.
3. Quinn claims there is a a Law of Limited Competition stated as this:"You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food." However, he fails to recognize chimpanzees that many times deny competition to their own as well as others. He also fails to realize the symbiotic/agricultural of ants.
4. Quinn biggest flaw is his idea that starvation of one species is better than others. He claims that humans should die off in order to allow for the other species that humans rely on to flourish. The idea that the deaths of humans is somehow better than the deaths of other animals is fundamentally wrong with his premise that all species are the same and needed for diversification.
5. Quinn seems to forget the evolutionary aspects of competition in nature. He believes that the extinction of other animals by humans is wrong and that "Mother Culture" prevents this by not denying other animals foods. However, "Mother Culture" is responsible for a GREAT number of more extinctions than humans.
6. Quinn believes that no animals stores more than it needs. He brings the example of bees. However, he is wrong. Bees frequently store more than they need for the same reason that humans do in that they will have an increase in population supply.
7. Quinn claims often that the problem with third world countries food production is that first world countries supply the majority of food to third world countries. However, first world countries are the biggest importer of foods.
Life Changing June 16, 2008
Quite possible one of the best books you will evere read. You'll never look at anything the same way again.
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