Daniel Quinn - Ishmael

“Yes, that’s so.”

“In your telling of the story, you naturally left out any mention of the gods, because you didn’t want it to be tainted with mythology. Since its mythological character is now established, you no longer have to worry about that. Supposing there is a divine agency behind creation, what can you tell me about the gods’ intentions?”

“Well, basically, what they had in mind when they started out was man. They made the universe so that our galaxy could be in it. They made the galaxy so that our solar system could be in it. They made our solar system so that our planet could be in it. And they made our planet so that we could be in it. The whole thing was made so that man would have a hunk of dirt to stand on.”

“And this is generally how it’s understood in your culture—at least by those who assume that the universe is an expression of divine intentions.”

“Yes.”

“Obviously, since the entire universe was made so that man could be made, man must be a creature of enormous importance to the gods. But this part of the story gives no hint of their intentions toward him. They must have some special destiny in mind for him, but that’s not revealed here.”

“True.”

“Every story is based on a premise, is the working out of a premise. As a writer, I’m sure you know that.”

“Yes.”

“You’ll recognize this one: Two children of warring families fall in love .”

“Right. Romeo and Juliet .”

“The story being enacted in the world by the Takers also has a premise, which is embodied in the part of the story you told me today. See if you can figure out what it is.”

I closed my eyes and pretended I was working hard, when in fact I knew I didn’t stand a chance. “I’m afraid I don’t see it.”

“The story the Leavers have enacted in the world has an entirely different premise, and it would be impossible for you to discover it at this point. But you should be able to discover the premise of your own story. It’s a very simple notion and the most powerful in all of human history. Not necessarily the most beneficial but certainly the most powerful. Your entire history, with all its marvels and catastrophes, is a working out of this premise.”

“Truthfully, I can’t even imagine what you’re getting at.”

“Think…. Look, the world wasn’t made for jellyfish, was it?”

“No.”

“It wasn’t made for frogs or lizards or rabbits.”

“No.”

“Of course not. The world was made for man.”

“That’s right.”

“Everyone in your culture knows that, don’t they? Even atheists who swear there is no god know that the world was made for man.”

“Yes, I’d say so.”

“All right. That’s the premise of your story: The world was made for man .”

“I can’t quite grasp it. I mean, I can’t quite see why it’s a premise.”

“The people of your culture made it a premise— took it as a premise. They said: What if the world was made for us ?”

“Okay. Keep going.”

“Think of the consequences of taking that as your premise: If the world was made for you, then what ?”

“Okay, I see what you mean. I think. If the world was made for us, then it belongs to us and we can do what we damn well please with it.”

“Exactly. That’s what’s been happening here for the past ten thousand years: You’ve been doing what you damn well please with the world. And of course you mean to go right on doing what you damn well please with it, because the whole damn thing belongs to you .”

“Yes,” I said, and thought for a second. “Actually, that’s pretty amazing. I mean, you hear this fifty times a day. People talk about our environment, our seas, our solar system. I’ve even heard people talk about our wildlife .”

“And just yesterday you assured me with complete confidence that there was nothing in your culture remotely resembling mythology.”

“True. I did.” Ishmael continued to stare at me morosely. “I was wrong,” I told him. “What more do you want?”

“Astonishment,” he said.

I nodded. “I’m astonished, all right. I just don’t let it show.”

“I should have gotten you when you were seventeen.”

I shrugged, meaning that I wished he had.

“Yesterday I told you that your story provides you with an explanation of how things came to be this way .”

“Right.”

“What contribution does this first part of the story make to that explanation?”

“You mean… what contribution does it make to explaining how things came to be the way they are right now?”

“That’s right.”

“Offhand, I don’t see how it makes any contribution to it.”

“Think. Would things have come to be this way if the world had been made for jellyfish?”

“No, they wouldn’t.”

“Obviously not. If the world had been made for jellyfish, things would be entirely different.”

“That’s right. But it wasn’t made for jellyfish, it was made for man.”

“And this partly explains how things came to be this way .”

“Right. It’s sort of a sneaky way of blaming everything on the gods. If they’d made the world for jellyfish, then none of this would have happened.”

“Exactly,” Ishmael said. “You’re beginning to get the idea.”

“Do you have a feeling now for where you might find the other parts of this story—the middle and the end?”

I gave this some thought. “I’d watch Nova , I think.”

“Why?”

“I’d say that if Nova was doing the story of creation, the story I told today would be the outline. All I have to do now is figure out how they’d do the rest.”

“Then that’s your next assignment. Tomorrow I want to hear the middle of the story.”

“Okay,” I said. “I think I have the middle and the end of the story down pat.”

Ishmael nodded and I started the tape recorder.

“What I did was start with the premise: The world was made for man. Then I asked myself how I would write the story as a treatment for Nova . It came out like this:

“The world was made for man, but it took him a long, long time to figure that out. For nearly three million years he lived as though the world had been made for jellyfish. That is, he lived as though he were just like any other creature, as though he were a lion or a wombat.”

“What exactly does it mean to live like a lion or a wombat?”

“It means… to live at the mercy of the world. It means to live without having any control over your environment.”

“I see. Go on.”

“Okay. In this condition, man could not be truly man. He couldn’t develop a truly human way of life—a way of life that was distinctively human. So, during the early part of his life—actually the greater part of his life—man just foozled along getting nowhere and doing nothing.

“As it happened, there was a key problem to be solved, and it was this that took me a long time to work out: what the problem was. Man could get nowhere living like a lion or a wombat, because if you’re a lion or a wombat…. In order to accomplish anything, man had to settle down in one place where he could get to work, so to speak. I mean that it was impossible for him to get beyond a certain point living out in the open as a hunter–gatherer, always moving from place to place in search of food. To get beyond that point, he had to settle down, had to have a permanent base from which he could begin to master his environment.