The story of B
Ishmael and its sequel, My Ishmael, comes a powerful novel with one of the most profound spiritual testaments of our time “A compelling ‘humantale’ that will unglue, stun, shock, and rearrange everything you’ve learned and assume about Western civilization and our future.”—Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce Father Jared Osborne has received an extraordinary assignment from his superiors: Investigate an itinerant preacher stirring up deep trouble in central Europe. His followers call him B, but his enemies say he’s something else: the Antichrist. However, the man Osborne tracks across a landscape of bars, cabarets, and seedy meeting halls is no blasphemous monster—though an earlier era would undoubtedly have rushed him to the burning stake. For B claims to be enunciating a gospel written not on any stone or parchment but in our very genes, opening up a spiritual direction for humanity that would have been unimaginable to any of the prophets or saviors of traditional religion. Pressed by his superiors for a judgement, Osborne is driven to penetrate B’s inner circle, where he soon finds himself an anguished collaborator in the dismantling of his own religious foundations. More than a masterful novel of adventure and suspense, The Story of B is a rich source of compelling ideas from an author who challenges us to rethink our most cherished beliefs. Explore Daniel Quinn’s spiritual Ishmael trilogy: ISHMAEL • MY ISHMAEL • THE STORY OF B
Stats for nerds
7recommend
11mentions
8people
2014–2026years
91% recommend9% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Have you ever read The Story of B? Would you be able to read it without trying to argue against it simply because it contradicts your raison d’etre?
- I think as time goes on, I am learning that humans are dissatisfied because they no longer know how to live the life of a human, where (wild) pigs are fully capable of living the life of a pig. The big eye-opener for me was "The Story of B", by Daniel Quinn. Say what you want about the completeness or quality of its anthropology, it has touched on an ineffable fact that we are constantly trying to use more of what is bad for us to try to make it good.
- Based on this comment I think you might enjoy the book series by Daniel Quinn that begins with the book Ishmael.
Here are some links to the books on amazon and audio books on youtube:
Ishmael: https://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Adventure-Mind-Spirit/dp/B000...
The story of b: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553379011/ref=dbs_a_def_r...
My Ishmael: https://www.amazon.com/My-Ishmael-Book-3-ebook/dp/B002PXFYHY...
Ishmael audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0kuQuMYE0sYWcfK2e4_5...
The story of b audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GrRlBJ40Zo
- Some of my favorite obscure books are
-What Not by Rose MACAULAY (all caps just because I pasted it). It's a dystopian future book written during WW1. I've read that it's a inspiration for clockwork orange, 1984, and brave new world but much less well known. To be honest I find that it's the most relatable of all those dystopian books.
-The Story of B By Daniel Quinn (also My Ishmael and Ishmael but less well known then those). They represent a fundamentally different way of viewing the world we inhabit.
-The Foxes Of Harrow By Frank Yerby (Idk how well known it is though). This one is like those classic English lit books but focused on an enterprising Irish charlatan who goes down to New Orleans to build a life in the years leading up to the civil war.
- I think you would like The Story of B By Daniel Quinn and his other books. They are light and fun, that one especially. Additionally allthough maybe a little more involved Tom Robbins' books are in this vain as well.
- On my list to read in 2020:
Books/Authors I've read that I would recommend:The Visual Display of Quantitative Information The Rust Programming Language Progressive Web Apps Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability Farming the Woods Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms Affinity Designer Workbook The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Walden A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration Ernest Hemingway On Writing The Two Hands of God (Alan Watts) The Anarchist's Design Book and/or With the Grain: A Craftsman's Guide to Wood Dune Some other fiction reading I'll decide on after I finish DuneTao of Physics, Web of Life, Systems View of Life, etc. (Fritjof Capra) ^Capra's work has heavily influenced my worldview and ability to think in systems Designing Data Intensive Applications (just finishing this week) Permaculture One & Two, Gaia's Garden, Edible Forest Gardens I&II Black Swan, Antifragile, etc. (Nassim Taleb) Cloud Hidden: Whereabouts Unknown (Alan Watts, written late in life) Ishmael, Story of B, etc. (Daniel Quinn) You are Not a Gadget, Who Owns the Future, etc. (Jaron Lanier) Goethe's Italian Journey Vonnegut, Hemingway, Steinbeck The Wheel of Time
