"Ishmael" Chapters 5-8

Ishmael continues to lead the narrator on a journey of self and cultural discoveries in this next section of the book "Ishmael." While the gorilla may be perceived as all-knowing and therefore almost condescending in the manner that his ideas--and only his ideas--are the correct ones. However, because of his role as a teacher, rather than a preacher, I feel that he is simply explaining his point of view and it happens to be quite convincing to his student, our narrator. Because of this, us as readers are a bit more persuaded into also believing this viewpoint, as we are witnessing someone else do the same. As a reader, without any reason to believe the narrator is untrustworthy or unreliable, you tend to side with your protagonist. By implementing this technique, Quinn is, in my opinion, quite smart. Not only does he share his ideas, but he subconsciously convinces people to trust his words. An equally smart or opinionated reader may catch onto this while reading and feel a little forced into this means of thinking, but why would an author write something if he did not want others to love, live, or believe in it?

Personally, I have enjoyed this book so far. I especially connected with the passages about flight and the laws of flight. Through another one of Quinn's creative techniques of utilizing many metaphors to help readers visualize what he is saying and really feel it, I was able to truly connect. In that moment, this story was not about a teacher and his student, the narrator. Instead, I was the student and the narrator did not exist. I also really connected to this part thanks to a crazy little incident I had last summer. While doing some volunteer work, I was on a ladder that was about ten or twelve feet tall. I was near the top and just about to come down when the ladder tipped over and I fell off it. While that distance is not a super long fall, those moments before I hit the ground felt very long. And I did feel that flying sensation that Quinn described. I imagine our society kind of like me on my ladder. I felt great, was working just fine, until a few moments before it all happened that I realized everything was not fine but it was too late to stop it. Furthermore, after falling, I was told that I had been using the ladder improperly. A few days later when I had recovered, I began using it again, this time in a much more safe way, and I did not fall again! Our society believes it is totally fine continuing on the path it is taking, but soon it shall realize that everything is a disaster but it will be too late to fix it. We will then fall and fail, and after some time, probably try again. I don't know whether or not society can survive the fall, and if so, will it even learn from it's mistakes? I would not be shocked if we just tried to get right back up on our improperly placed ladder and do it all over again.