Ishmael is a philosophical novel created by Daniel Quinn, which dives into the ideas of how culture influenced modern civilization through evolution, and it is done through the use of the narrator talking to a telepathic gorilla, whose name is Ishmael. Most of the book is structured through conversation, similar to Socratic literature. I found the way Socratic literature is structured has drawn my attention to the book more, and so far, Ishmael has set quite a good precedent for this type of literature. It is a good concept, which I would like to see more in books. Ishmael has many themes, the main themes of the book are ethics, sustainability, and mythology.
“Again…. Our policy is: Every square foot of this planet belongs to us, so if we put it all under cultivation, then all our competitors are just plain out of luck and will have to become extinct. Our policy is to deny our competitors access to all the food in the world, and that’s something no other species does.”
“Bees will deny you access to what’s inside their hive in the apple tree, but they won’t deny you access to the apples” (p. 134)
This quotation highlights how humans are inherently different from other species, and rather than taking what they need, they take all of it. After this is highlighted in the first part of this quotation, we then get a metaphor about bees. This metaphor in it’s literal meaning, means: Other species will not allow you to take what they require to survive, but they will allow you to take what they do not. By providing an example of humans, compared to an example of other species, this quotation brings to light the contrast in behavior between humans and other species; which reinforces one of the main themes in the book, being: “The world was made for humans”.