Ishmael Essay -- essays research papers

A review of...IshmaelIn the past few centuries there have been a handful of books written that offer up approximations about humanity that are so completely new to a reader but are so completely convincing that they can ferocity a reader to ready 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 puzzle 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. Manknew that he could fly but he didnt know all the rules. And instead of leaving it be untilhe did he was so sure of himself that he made his attempts blindly and came to a muchquicker end than if h...