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Child of the 7th Age · 08-26-2002, 08:56 AM

Evisse --

I also was curious about what Bird was referring to, and she had mentioned that book Ishmael several times, so last week I trotted over to the library. From things that she had said before, I knew that this was the one by Daniel Quinn and it had posed the idea of mankind taking a very wrong step somewhere in their past.

The library unfortunately didn't have the "Ishmael" title, but it did have another volume, "My Ishmael", which the author had written with a similar theme of a world gone wrong. ("The Story of B" is another book in the series, but I don't have that either.)

If I give you a synopsis of the plot, you'll scratch your head and say I've got crazy. Basically, it's this. A wise gorilla who can mind-speak takes on students one-by-one so he can help them realize why Mankind is "the people of the curse." And also help them realize what must be done to get things back on a better track. The gorilla is essentially optomistic; he believes it is possible for these students to change things.

In both books the narrators are the gorilla's students. In the first one, which Bird read, it's a mature adult Alan Lomax. In my book, which incidently is contemporaneous to the first one, the narrator is a twelve-year old girl Julie Gerchak (an intriguing main character).

I don't know the questions raised in the first book, but I do know what the gorilla taught Julie. And Bird is right. The kind of questions raised suggest we could have had a different world and a more humane one. It makes you think that some of those beautiful things embodied in Middle-earth might be in our culture today, if we had just taken a different path.

In Julie's case, the gorilla leads her to see that mankind made a big mistake when it shifted away from the simple hunter-gatherer life which required a minimal output of labor and the values that this represented. Instead, from a very ancient age, the society shifted over to "lock up" food and required that you labor countless hours as a hired worker to get your share of it. The gorilla and Julie also discuss practical ways that these same values can be restored even in the world that we have.

The author says it far more profoundly and beautifully than this, and it does make you think about the possibility of alternate realities. And, in his own way, this is also what Tolkien does. Part of us hopes that our own world, with its many flaws and disappointments, will somehow become more like that of Middle-earth (although minus Morgoth and Sauron).

Thus, we are not talking escapism here, but a restoration of an ancient path we should have gone on and somehow missed the fork.

Hope Bird comes and gives her 2 cents on this, as she is much more knowledgable about this author that I am.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[ August 26, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

08-26-2002, 08:56 AM	#17
Child of the 7th Age Spirit of the Lonely Star Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 5,133	Evisse -- I also was curious about what Bird was referring to, and she had mentioned that book Ishmael several times, so last week I trotted over to the library. From things that she had said before, I knew that this was the one by Daniel Quinn and it had posed the idea of mankind taking a very wrong step somewhere in their past. The library unfortunately didn't have the "Ishmael" title, but it did have another volume, "My Ishmael", which the author had written with a similar theme of a world gone wrong. ("The Story of B" is another book in the series, but I don't have that either.) If I give you a synopsis of the plot, you'll scratch your head and say I've got crazy. Basically, it's this. A wise gorilla who can mind-speak takes on students one-by-one so he can help them realize why Mankind is "the people of the curse." And also help them realize what must be done to get things back on a better track. The gorilla is essentially optomistic; he believes it is possible for these students to change things. In both books the narrators are the gorilla's students. In the first one, which Bird read, it's a mature adult Alan Lomax. In my book, which incidently is contemporaneous to the first one, the narrator is a twelve-year old girl Julie Gerchak (an intriguing main character). I don't know the questions raised in the first book, but I do know what the gorilla taught Julie. And Bird is right. The kind of questions raised suggest we could have had a different world and a more humane one. It makes you think that some of those beautiful things embodied in Middle-earth might be in our culture today, if we had just taken a different path. In Julie's case, the gorilla leads her to see that mankind made a big mistake when it shifted away from the simple hunter-gatherer life which required a minimal output of labor and the values that this represented. Instead, from a very ancient age, the society shifted over to "lock up" food and required that you labor countless hours as a hired worker to get your share of it. The gorilla and Julie also discuss practical ways that these same values can be restored even in the world that we have. The author says it far more profoundly and beautifully than this, and it does make you think about the possibility of alternate realities. And, in his own way, this is also what Tolkien does. Part of us hopes that our own world, with its many flaws and disappointments, will somehow become more like that of Middle-earth (although minus Morgoth and Sauron). Thus, we are not talking escapism here, but a restoration of an ancient path we should have gone on and somehow missed the fork. Hope Bird comes and gives her 2 cents on this, as she is much more knowledgable about this author that I am. sharon, the 7th age hobbit [ August 26, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ] __________________ Multitasking women are never too busy to vote.