I would like to understand the origin of our cultural vision. Is it somehow an outgrowth of the development of agriculture? What prompted the adoption of agriculture? Obviously starving people don’t plant crops any more than drowning people build life rafts, but what was the scenario?Categories: I Have a Question On a Specific Subject|Tags: Agriculture|Read More
I would like to know the origins of the wisdom that permeates the book Ishmael. Who was your teacher? Or was it somehow channeled?Categories: I Have a Question About Daniel Quinn|Tags: Education|Read More
In the book Ishmael, when talking about population growth, Ishmael points out that one woman and a hundred men is going to mean just one baby a year, but one man and a hundred women is going to mean a hundred babies a year. By pointing this out, he seems to be blaming women for population growth.Categories: I Have a Question About the Books/the Characters|Tags: Ishmael, Population Control|Read More
Wouldn’t all the world’s problems disappear if the food was no longer under lock and key, made free for all?Categories: I Have a Question On a Specific Subject|Tags: Agriculture, Famine|Read More
Mr. Quinn, I have two questions for you about amazing facts that I often see or hear repeated. That Eskimos have 20 words for snow and that we only use 10 percent of our brains. What wrong’s with Eskimos that they need so many words for one thing and why do we have an organ that is 90 percent of no use?Categories: I Have a Question On a Specific Subject|Tags: Anthropology|Read More
Even if it isn’t “the one right way for people to live,” wouldn’t you agree that democracy is as close to the perfect way of living as we’re going to get?Categories: Here's My Opinion; What's Yours?, I Have a Question On a Specific Subject|Tags: Political Correctness, Revolution, Tribal (tribe)|Read More
One of the surprising things about your “novels of ideas” is that they work so well just as novels. I’ve heard people describe them as page turners.Categories: I Have a Question About the Books/the Characters|Tags: Quinn's Motivations, Writing and Publishing|Read More
The premise of your graphic novel The Man Who Grew Young is that the forward flow of time in the universe has come to the end of its string and is “rewinding” itself like a yo-yo. Was it difficult to write a book in which all the action is running backwards?Categories: I Have a Question About the Books/the Characters|Tags: Quinn's Motivations, Writing and Publishing|Read More
Parables and dialogue play a big role in your novels (more so than any modern writer I know of). Can you explain why?Categories: I Have a Question About the Books/the Characters, I Need Some Clarification|Tags: Education, Quinn's Motivations, Writing and Publishing|Read More
In question #667, Mr. Quinn notes, “I’ve been very impressed with the ever-increasing awareness of our situation that reveals itself in books, graduate-school theses, publications of all kinds, and in every medium.”. . . Would it be possible to create a listing of these works on the Ishmael Community website? It is rather difficult to locate scholarly works that verify Quinn’s ideas, given the many varied fields that he addresses.Categories: I Have a Question On a Specific Subject|Tags: Education|Read More
