Ishmael Ch. 1 & 2

I had never heard anything about Ishmael going into this class, and after all the dense information in Eaarth, I was looking forward to a change in book style. I was surprised and interested in what the two first chapters brought up overall, but I’m not sure how to feel about the book so far.

I understand that Ishmael is a philosophical fiction and I can appreciate it in that aspect, but I’m unsure how to feel about it overall just yet. In the very beginning we get a glimpse of some ad, and we see the narrator is frustrated but also fascinated with it, but we have no background on why this is. “Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.” This unleashes several emotions in the narrator. But why? Has he tried saving the world before? What does “saving the world” even mean? For the context of this class, I would assume it means saving the environment, but we don’t really get a real answer in the first chapter.

Something I do appreciate from these first two chapters is the idea of Leavers and Takers in the world and how there is always a cycle of the two creating history. While I don’t think we can always divide the world into those two groups, it’s interesting for the purpose of the story in that both sets of people play a part in making history and effecting our world. I feel like the word Leaver has a negative connotation, but who’s to say it couldn’t be good in comparison to Takers?

Anyway, I’m still trying to see how I feel about the book overall, but it’s a pretty easy read and I’m looking forward to what else the narrator and Ishmael discuss.