Ishmael was an amazing book that changed my opinions and perceptions of history, as well as religion. Given that I was a history major, that is actually saying something, too!
It is a strange and unorthodox book, and might not be the easiest read for some people, because hardly anything actually “happens” in the book. It is not an action dominated book by any stretch of the imagination, according to someone I once lent the book to. He did not understand why nothing happened, and I guess he was right, although this fact was hidden from me by the simple fact that the weight and explosiveness of the ideas being bou8nced around in the conversations were like revelations, epiphanies! They are amazing, and if they do not change your perception of the world, and of our collective (and your individual) place in it, then they should at least seriously challenge your long held beliefs. At least, that is, if you allow it to.
What that friend was saying was that the ideas did not move him. He found the book “boring” and could not get through it. He claimed that it was merely conversation, and that he could not understand how a book could simply revolve around conversation between two parties, without much happening.
I was flabbergasted. It was stunning that he was not moved at all by the actual content of the conversation. That, after all, is what the book is really about. The characters and what little action occur are there more or less as background. What is important in this book are the ideas and interpretation of religion and history that take center stage, and which everything else revolves around.
So, what are those ideas, exactly? That, I do not feel at liberty to say, because I believe anyone and everyone who can should read this book. It is an eloquent, yet provocative challenge to everything that our society, and indeed our modern world, believes in and has long subscribed to. It will be food for thought – at least if you allow it to be.
What it is not is a book destined to be an action-oriented movie (although you never know these days, do you?). What ir is is a remarkable read that provides an incredible and unique perspective on who we are as a whole, and where this world is going. Needless to say, I already believe that there is a certain responsibility you take in trying to read this book with a serious approach, and then trying to keep these things in mind after having read it.
That might sound overly idealistic, but I think there is more than a grain of truth to that. If we take the effort out to expose ourselves to things, to ideas, that appeal to us, and that challenge us, the least we can do is respond to them intelligently, fairly. And thus, I warn anyone not to approach this book with a light heart. In fact, it would not have occurred to me that anyone necessarily would, until I lent it to that one guy I was mentioning earlier. He seemed intelligent, reasonable, and relatively open to new, that is different, ideas.
Yet, I think he was expecting it to come in different packaging. Maybe he wanted an adventure, an exciting action movie kind of thing. By the way, if that is your preference, Daniel Quinn has done some of those, as well – and with the message of Ishmael. However, if you are interested in his message, that is, what he actually has to say about our world, and life and role in it, then this is probably the best introduction, simply because this is the actual introduction, and it took him a very long time to get it just right, just the way that he wanted it.
He later admits that he got bogged down by the labels within the book, and that it was detracting from the actual message in the book itself. People tend to like labels, and they seemed to attach a lot of their own meaning to the terms “Leavers” and Takers” in particular, and the book became something that Quinn never intended. So he kept writing other books, most of which I have read, and the message gets clearer and clearer each time. Yet, it is hard not to be impressed by his abilities in communicating the message in such an entertaining, yet eloquent, manner. It all began with his most famous work, Ishmael.
Yet, the book has a directness to it, and was suitably provocative enough to win a prize from no less an authority than Ted Turner, who had wanted to read a book that truly moved him like no other, way back in the early nineties. After reading this book, he felt it had the proper merits to be so awarded. I think it does, too.
So, read it if you dare to, because it will pack a punch and, if you allow it to, it will challenge what you long believed to be true, including all of the things you had assumed were good and necessarily were indicative of “progress”. Perhaps the biggest challenge he gives is to these preconceived, and often not well thought out, notions of what constitutes “progress” and human achievement.
You might still believe all that you have always believed, but it will at least challenge you and keep you on your toes, and we can do worse than to question our own beliefs and long held ways of thinking every now and then, right?
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