Ishmael

I recently read a rather interesting book: Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. It is unusual among other recently read books in that I did not seek it out; my brother bought it because it is required reading for his environmental science class and, well, I'm not one to leave a book unread.

       Ishmael is really more of a philosophical treatise than a novel; it takes the form of a series of discussions between a human pupil and his gorilla mentor, Ishmael. The unnamed narrator responds to a newspaper ad seeking a pupil with "an earnest desire to save the world." To his surprise, the teacher is a telepathic gorilla, and the world is in grave danger from the current human model of civilization. He soon learns how the civilized world has based itself on the myth "the world was made for man" and by so doing endangered its own existence. They have several discussions about agriculture, sustainability, population, and how the world might be saved.

       There are several things I like about this book. For one thing, I appreciate that even though it is idea-driven, it still has characters and a plot (a simple one). That makes it more enjoyable to read, at least, than a 250-page essay. Additionally, it is very well written, and Quinn presents his arguments convincingly. I also do like that these arguments are in the Socratic format of question and answer. If I ever write a philosophy book (unlikely) it will be in that format. I love it because it's just so hard to argue with.
       However, that really only works if the teacher asks questions whose answers are inevitable; that is to say, if he is right. Quinn does have many points that are valid and that the world needs to know and act on: humans must take only what they need, and respect other life on earth, for example. But he also says a great deal that I disagree with. The main point of the book is that the hunter-gatherer societies have it right and the system of more-than-subsistence agriculture we use now is bound to destroy mankind. Now, if your only goal for mankind is continuation of the species, well... yeah, that probably would work the best. But a specific question Ishmael asks his student comes to mind. He asked the student to picture what the world would be like without humans. The narrator replied that it would be a frightening, chaotic jungle (the question was asked to illustrate the point that our culture views the earth as something to be tamed and organized by man). When I considered the same question, I thought, "It's beautiful... but there's no one to appreciate it, no one to discover its secrets and wonders."
       As you may have guessed by the fact that it puts the blame for the destruction of the world on the idea "the world was made for man," Ishmael is a decidedly non-religious book (it isn't quite so militant that I would call it anti-religious). A particularly eyebrow-raising part is when Ishmael explains that the accounts of the Fall and Cain and Abel are actually about the agricultural revolution. However, it is also decidedly non-scientific/technological (again, not quite over the line into anti-). I happen to be quite fond of science, technology and religion, and disinclined to look at them as symptoms of a dying world. Take away religion and science, and what is left of humanity? Only the mind of an animal: appropriate, I suppose, for a book whose main assertion seems to be that man is an animal and ought not to put himself above his fellows.

       Now, just because I happen to disagree with a lot of its arguments doesn't mean that Ishmael isn't a good book or that you shouldn't read it. Would I spend all this time telling you about something I thought was worthless? Really, it was thought-provoking enough to keep me up several hours. It might force you to consider or discover your own opinions. And it does have a lot to say that needs to be said, and heard. Finally, even if you hate the mere mention of environmentalism and think any account of the Earth in trouble is a myth, it does some good to read something you disagree with every once in a while. It could give you, at the very least, some perspective.