Cra 148 #6-75

Cali, Colombia
searango@colegiobolivar.org
April 25, 2017
Dear Daniel Quinn,

Let me introduce myself; I am Sergio Arango. I study at Colegio Bolivar in Cali, Valle del
Cauca, Colombia. I was not born in Cali, Valle. I was born in Manizales, a smaller city situated
north from Cali. Manizales is the capital of Caldas, another state in Colombia. I am a person that
can only overcome laziness when my interest is high. I am truly dedicated to the things I like
and find the most important. I used to not like to read but over the years I have become a faster
reader and enjoy it more since I do not struggle. I like reading science articles and philosophy. I
am not a fan of novels but I enjoy some, from time to time.

I liked your novel a lot. I read Ishmael with a group of some of my classmates. I liked the
way you made the narrator gradually more attached to Ishmael throughout the timeline. I liked
how you showed Ishmaels getting more comfortable with his student and grumpier as he
became older and unfortunate. Certainly, what I liked the most were Ishmaels lessons, I
imagined myself in the room as another student getting the most out of the classes. I agreed
with every of Ishmaels teachings and enjoyed him as a teacher as much as the narrator did. I
disliked a little detail though, the narrator was a bit slow especially towards the final lessons. I
mean that sometimes Ishmael asked him a question and the narrator spent a little too much
time thinking about it or trying to remember something that had already been taught or
discussed. This is a very tiny detail and even though I was a little annoyed, I think it is a good
strategy to let readers that are in the same situation of bad memory or slow thinking like the
narrator, feel more connected to the character. I am sorry for sounding condescending, but I do
think that was your strategy and if it was that it was a good one.

Your book made me realize how much of a slave I am. We all probably are, at least us in
this culture of Takers. We are all obedient to Mother Culture even when we do not want to be.
Most masses do not realize that what they want is not what they want but what society wants
them to want. There is no free will and we can not even sense it. Even when we take this reality
in, we are incapable of exiting our comfortable lives. As it is discussed in the book, even a
homeless person being extremely poor will never doubt rejecting the lifestyle of the Leavers. We
are all extremely nonchalant and just hope that the next generation will solve the problem and
save humanity. Even if I decided, right now, to stop damaging Earth, all I could do was go live in
the jungle and be remembered as the teenager who went crazy over an idea. I think I now do
not take many things for granted and I think I have backed down and am now able to see a little
bit more of the big picture. I sometimes think that my friends or other people do not see that
picture. I think Ishmael made a very good job explaining our society.

In some part of the book, I wondered if when you wrote it did you feel like Ishmael or like
the narrator. I noticed that you have another book called My Ishmael. I think and I hope your
other book My Ishmael has something to do with that. I do not remember if I have read any
other of your books, but I would like to. I enjoyed your book a lot and ended up with the same
feeling as the narrator, I wanted more from Ishmael. Thank you for your time and I hope you can
get your books to people that will save the world.
Sincerely, Sergio