Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780553078756ISBN:0553078755
Description: Acceptable. Item is a readable copy with some highlighting or ink throughout the book. The binding and pages may show signs of edges curled. The book may be a library copy. Thank You for shopping with Goodwill Industries of North Louisiana. Your purchase supports our mission " Improving people's lives through the power of work. " read more
Edition: 6th Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780553561661ISBN:0553561669
Description: Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight/ covers creased; moderate edge wear/ corners, spine hinge and spine creased/ readers slant/ several pages have underlining and margin notes/ several pages and page tips creased. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780553375404ISBN:0553375407
Description: Good-Used in None as Issued jacket. / 0553375407. Good. Corners are curled up. Pages are beginning to yellow. Some pages are dog-eared. Owner name inside front cover and marked on outside end of pages. Some highlighting. Binding is tight. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1995-07-01
ISBN-13:9780553375404ISBN:0553375407
Description: Good. Mild shelf and corner wear; Tanning and mild soiling to page edges; Mild rubbing and wear to covers and spine; ** Free USPS tracking and confirm on US orders ** read more
Description: Very Good. 0553375407 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light discoloration due to aging and other light wear. read more
Description: Very Good. 0553375407 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780553375404ISBN:0553375407
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Slight edgewear. No markings or spine creasing. Pages bright and tight. A few pages have been dog eared. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 272 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"....just know that the book develops slowly and comes to a much more essential development later in the book. But as a template for understanding the ultimate human mistake of modernism, this book is irreplaceable as a fictionalized trip in the reality of our current social/environmental/spiritual dilemma. Quinn takes us on an odd ride with a homo sapien and a lower (?) primate that ultimately teaches him and then us one of the most difficult lessons that we will have to face - that this wonderful, material, self-satisfactory, techno-industrial path we've embarked on....well....is the wrong path. Anyone who's checked their arrogancio del postmodernismo at the door will get the message. If you're all-too-comfortable in this world of social decay and environmental destruction, just head for Stephen King or Deepak Chopra.
Don't make this your only transformational read, but let it sing as a quiet and functional anthem."
"I haven't finished this book yet but I probably won't because it sucks. First of all, it's supposed to be a novel but it's entirely didactic. The author has simply substituted this gorilla to preach at us in the author's voice. The viewpoint character is simple minded and vacuous to the point of not existing. In fact, he's just there as the foil or receptacle for the gorilla's teachings. The central thesis of the gorilla's thoughts, which he presents as unassailable fact, is the supposition that human population will ALWAYS increase to use all available food supply, something that simply isn't true in any of the developed countries. If it weren't for immigration, of course, the U.S. and most of Western Europe would have falling populations. The author dismisses this massive flaw in his edifice of cards by saying someone somewhere will eat the food or else people would stop growing it. Okay, so he then doesn't notice that if people stop growing food because there's nobody to eat it, then the population is limiting itself and the human species is not doing its job of multiplying, engulfing, and devouring as he claims it always must.
It's the same old stuff the Club of Rome said in the 70s and so on and so on from Malthus to the present. It comes about because people don't realize that trends do change in response to changing situations. Women empowered with birth control to choose their family size have less children. Fishers who realize fish stocks are depleted do change their methods and either enact laws limiting catch sizes, or turn to farming, or become conservationists of wild species.
The human species has lived off mother earth's bounty for all its childhood and adolescence, but it IS growing up, and will eventually nurture all the world's resources in a realistic way leading to complete sustainability. There's nothing improbable about that.
Some of the things the author doesn't realize follow.
In space the resources are truly unlimited. We're not in a closed petri dish. We just have to reach out and develop what's there.
We make new resources all the time with advances in technology. Worthless sand becomes useful glass, then even more useful microchips. Black sludge becomes a fuel or a plastic container. The more we know the more we see worthless things around us turn into jewels under our hands.
Before human stewardship, life on earth was far from safe and cozy. Asteroid impacts destroyed nearly all living things on several different occasions (Cambrian, Permian, Cretaceous, etc.) and could do so again, even more completely, if humans aren't technologically advanced enough to prevent it. The history of life is riddled with catastrophes that weren't caused by humans.
There's so much more, I could write a novel. But you get the picture. Please save your efforts for some book that will entertain you or teach you something true. This one is useless for either."
"Well, this is a sociology/ecology lecture loosely disguised as a novel that makes you sit back and say "why didn't I think of that, it's so obvious to me now!" And it's done in a way that continually builds on the presented ideas so that you understand the concepts from the ground up. Loved it. Think everyone should read it."
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