Ishmael (novel)
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Ishmael is a novel by Daniel Quinn. It presents an alternative view of human history and proposes a different program for human lifestyle change. Ishmael was awarded the $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award. The book is the first of a trilogy including The Story of B, and My Ishmael.
Plot summary
The story begins with a newspaper ad: "Teacher seeks pupil, must have an earnest desire to save the world". A nameless character (who is identified in a later book as Alan Lomax) responds to the ad out of nostalgia. He seeks the teacher and finds himself in a room with a gorilla.To the man's surprise he finds that the gorilla can communicate telepathically. At first baffled by this the man quickly learns the story of how the gorilla came to be this way and he accepts the gorilla, Ishmael, as his teacher. The novel continues from this point as a socratic dialogue between the man and Ishmael as they hash out what Ishmael refers to as "how things came to be this way" for mankind and the environment.
Ishmael begins by telling the man that his life, which began in the wild, was spent mostly in a zoo and a menagerie, and since had been spent in the gazebo of the man that extricated him from physical captivity. He tells his student that it was at the menagerie that he learned about human language and culture and began to think about things that he never would have pondered in the wild. Subsequently, Ishmael tells the man that his subject for this learning experience will be captivity, primarily the captivity of man under a civilizational system that forces him to exploit and destroy the world to live.
The narrator has a vague notion that he is living in some sort of captivity and being lied to in some way but he can not explain his feelings.
Ishmael uses the example of Nazi Germany as he attempts to show his student that the people of his culture are in much of the same situation. Either held captive with the mythology of being superior, or " an animal swept up in the stampede" of the captivity of those around them.
Before proceeding Ishmael lays some ground definitions for his student so they can be on the same page as they continue to discuss. He defines:
- "Takers" as people often referred to as "civilized." Particularly, the culture born in an Agricultural Revolution that began about 10,000 years ago in the Near East; the culture of Ishmael's pupil
- "Leavers" as people of all other cultures; sometimes referred to as "primitive."
- A "story" as an interrelation between the gods, man, and the Earth, with a beginning, middle, and end.
- To "enact" is to strive to make a story come true.
- A "culture" as a people who are enacting a story
Ishmael points out to his student that when the Takers decided there is something fundamentally wrong with humans, they took as evidence only their own culture's history- "They were looking at a half of one-percent of the evidence taken from a single culture-- Not a reasonable sample on which to base such a sweeping conclusion."
Ishmael says:
"There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact, in which they are the lords of the world, they will act as the lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now."
Ishmael goes on to help his student discover that, contrary to what the Takers think, there are immutable laws that life is subject to and it is possible to discern them by studying the biological community. Together, Ishmael and his student identify a set of survival strategies which appear to be evolutionarily stable for all species (later dubbed the Law of Limited Competition): In short, "you may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war." All species inevitably follow this law, or as a consequence go extinct. The Takers believe themselves to be exempt from this Law and flout it at every point.
Ishmael goes on to help his pupil discover just how the Takers rendered themselves above the laws governing all of life. As an example, he brings up the story of The Fall of Man and tells a tale which explains why the fruit was forbidden to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: Eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil provides the gods with the knowledge they need to rule the world- the knowledge of who shall live and who shall die. The fruit nourishes only gods, however, the gods saw that if Adam ("man") were to eat from this tree, he might think that he gained the gods' wisdom and in his arrogance, destroy the world and himself. "And so they said to him, you may eat of every tree in the garden, save the Tree of the Knowldge of Good and Evil, for on the day you eat of that tree, you will certainly die."
Ishmael makes the point that this story of the Fall of Man, which the Takers have adopted as their own, was in fact developed by Leavers to explain the origin of the Takers. If it were of Taker origin, the story would be of liberating ascent, and instead of being forbidden to Adam, the fruit of the Tree would have been thrust upon him.
Ishmael and his student go on to discuss how, for the ancient Semetic herders among whom the tale originated, the story of Cain killing Abel symbolizes the Leavers being killed off and their lands taken so that it could be put under cultivation. These ancient herders realized that the Takers were acting as if they were gods themselves, with all the wisdom of what is good and evil and how to rule the world. And as a result the gods banished these people from the Garden and they were brought from a life of bounty in the hands of the gods to one of being the accursed tillers of the soil.
To begin discerning the Leavers' story, Ishmael purposes to his student a hypothesis: the Takers' Agricultural Revolution was a revolution against the Leavers' story.
The Leavers take what they need from the world and leave the rest alone. Living in this manner ("in the hands of the gods"), Leavers thrive in times of abundance and dwindle in times of scarcity. The Takers however, practicing their unique form of agriculture (dubbed by Quinn, Totalitarian Agriculture) produce enormous food surpluses, which allows them to thwart the gods when they decide it's the Takers' time to go hungry. "When you have more food than you need, then the gods have no power over you." Thus, Ishmael points out that the Takers revolution was not just a technological change, but also serves a mythological function.
"So we have a new pair of names for you: The Takers are 'those who know good and evil' and the Leavers are 'those who live in the hands of the gods'."
Ishmael goes on to point out that by living in the hands of the gods, man is subject to the conditions under which evolution takes place. Australopithecus became Homo by living in the hands of the gods-- Man became man by living in the hands of the gods-- "by living the way the bushmen of Africa live; by living the way the Krenakarore of Brazil live... Not the way the Chicagoans live, not the way Londoners live." "In the hands of the gods is where evolution happens." According to the Takers' story, creation came to an end with man. "In order to make their story come true, the Takers have to put an end to creation itself-- and they're doing a damn good job of it!"
Ishmael brings together his synopsis on human culture by examining the story enacted by Leaver cultures, which provides a model of how to live-- an alternative story for the Takers to enact.
"The premise of the Takers' story is 'The world belongs to man.' ...The premise of the Leavers' story is 'Man belongs to the world.'" "For three million years, man belonged to the world and because he belonged to the world, he grew and developed and became brighter and more dexterous until one day, he was so bright and so dexterous that we had to call him Homo sapiens sapiens-- which means he was us."
"The Leavers' story is 'the gods made man for the world, the same way they made salmon and sparrows for the world. This seems to have worked well so far so we can take it easy and leave the running of the world to the gods'."
Ishmael emphasizes that "not in any sense is the Taker's story 'chapter two' of the story which was being in enacted here during the first three million years of human life. The Leavers' story has its own 'chapter two'." In evolution, observes Ishmael's student, there seems to be a tendency toward complexity, and towards self-awareness and intelligence. Perhaps the gods intend the world to be filled with intelligent, self-aware creatures and man's destiny following the Leavers' story is "to be the first- without being the last"; to learn and then to be a role-model and teacher for all those capable of becoming what he's become.
Ishmael finishes with a summary of what his student can do if he earnestly desires to save the world:
- "The story of Genesis must be undone. First, Cain must stop murdering Abel. This is essential if you're to survive. The Leavers are the endangered species most critical to the world- not because they're humans but because they alone can show the destroyers of the world that there is more than one right way to live. And then, of course, you must spit out the fruit of the forbidden tree. You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die on this planet."
- "Teach a hundred what I've taught you, and inspire each of them to teach a hundred."
Major themes
Ishmael's interpretation of Genesis 2.4
Ishmael points out that the story was written by the Semites, and later adapted to work within Hebrew and Christian belief structures. Ishmael proposes that Abel and his extinction metaphorically represents the nomadic Semites and their losing conflict with agriculturalists. As they were driven further into the Arabian peninsula, the Semites became isolated from other herding cultures and, according to Ishmael, illustrated their plight through oral history, which was later adopted into the Hebrew book of Genesis.Ishmael denies that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden of humans simply to test human's self-control. Instead, Ishmael proposes that the Tree represents the choice to bear the burden of responsibility of deciding which species may live and which should die. This is a necessary decision agricultural peoples must make when deciding which organisms to cultivate, which to displace, and which to kill in protection of the first.
Ishmael explains that the Fall of Adam represents the Semetic belief that once mankind usurps this responsibility--historically decided through natural ecology (i.e. food chains) -- that mankind will perish. He cites as fulfillment of this prophecy contemporary environmental crises such as endangered or extinct species, global warming, and modern mental illnesses.
Literary significance & criticism
Quinn's assertion that human population expands in proportion to food supply regardless of cultural or technological checks is common to some environmental claims, but it remains contentious. Recent population trends indicate a dropoff in fertility rates in most regions in the globe; many demographers claim that increased women's autonomy and access to reproductive technology is responsible for the decrease, and that such trends actually bring fertility below the "replacement rate" in many industrialized nations. Some argue that people in industrial societies have less of an incentive to "over-reproduce," as children are a net economic drain, unlike in agrarian societies. In this view, it is possible that population levels will become self-limiting if high rates of reproduction become irrational and avoidable. Quinn asserts that overall, our global population continues to rise in proportion to the food supply even if fertility rates fall locally, and suggests that the export of increasing agricultural commodities from industrialized countries to the 'developing' world may have a part to play in overriding those local trends. Additionally, Quinn has repeatedly stated that the lifestyle that contributes to the decline in population in industrialized countries puts an unsustainable pressure on the planet's biosphere as it requires the extinction of roughly 200 species a day to maintain. If those countries whose populations are currently still growing were to adopt the fully "Western" society that enables lower birth rates, it would present a catastrophic (and wholly unsupportable) addition to the human pressure on the environment.Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The film Instinct starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Anthony Hopkins is inspired by Ishmael.Pearl Jam's song "Do the Evolution" from their album Yield is loosely based on Ishmael.
External links
- http://www.ishmael.org/Origins/Ishmael/ - The author's homepage about the book.
- http://www.readishmael.com - Site to introduce new readers to Ishmael
- http://www.friendsofishmael.com - The Friends of Ishmael Society
- http://www.townofautumn.com/ishmael.htm - Home of one of the oldest and most successful Ishmael Discussion groups on the Internet.
- http://www.ishcon.org - Ishmael forum
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IshmaelAustin - Ishmael group in Austin (3 years together)
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coloradoleavers/ - Ishmael Group in Colorado for social change
See also
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