a book I would recommend to a friend, and why. It would be much appreciated if you would read my essay and critique it to your hearts content. I'd love to get into this program if I could.




(someday, a real and happy entry will come)




This book will change your life. I know, I know, a hefty amount of people claim that very thing about a hefty amount of books. Self-help books and their advocates are the main culprits of this crime, but Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, could not reasonably be called a "self-help" book. Instead, it should be categorized as a "self-destroy" book. It will not encourage you to eat better, or to run more often, or to get your life together by being more organized. It will not inform you that, to live a complete and whole lifestyle, you must get a job, become part of the nuclear family, and live in a three or four bedroom two story house. Ishmael will not tell you to do any of this to change your life. Instead, this book will make you question your reasons for ever even considering doing those things.

The book is the namesake of, not the main character, but his teacher, who happens to be a gorilla who speaks the English language quite fluently. This gorilla has not had an easy life, but his life has not been the difficult one of an ape surviving in the wild. Ishmael is taken from his mother when he is very young, and "raised" by humans, a seemingly more distinguished family of primates. Ishmael is obviously not treated as a human; he is, after all, not one. The treatment he is subjected to affords him a unique point of view. As a creature with a mind just like that of a human, but a body lacking the ability to participate in society, he is free to see the faults within this society that shuns him. With this new found skill he pinpoints the problem with human culture: our desire to play God. We are not satisfied with merely living on the earth He created, we must live to our own full capacity. Death must be destroyed and if there is to be death at all, it is not God who decides which creature must die, but human beings. In doing this we have destroyed not death, but life. We have killed shamelessly and we have tortured the one planet capable of sustaining us to almost the point of no return. We listen as "Mother Culture" whispers in our ears to consume without a thought for the consequences, and ignore the consequences that we invoke. And we will continue to do so until enough of us realize what we are doing.

Ishmael the Gorilla, though, does not exist in our reality, so teaching this lesson is up to those few who have realized our faults. It is a daunting task, and possibly that is why we find it so easy to ignore the faults. To see them is to need to tell others about them, and others really just don't want to listen. So as others close their ears and we close our mouths, we close our eyes as well. We look at the alternate reality, where our faults do not exist, and where we can go on eating better, running more often, and being organized. We believe in a world where, to live a complete lifestyle, we need only to get a job, create a nuclear family, and live in a three or four bedroom two story house. It takes a rather strong force to jar us back to the true reality, where we must do so much more to live comfortably. Ishmael is such a force.

This book will change your life, but it will not answer your questions. Instead, this book will make you ask them.

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