'My Ishmael': The Book That Inspired the Alleged Discovery Channel Gunman?

(Sept. 2) -- "My Ishmael," a 1997 novel by American author and environmentalist Daniel Quinn, gets top billing in the manifesto of Discovery TV gunman James Jae Lee, which is being widely circulated online after Lee held the company's Washington headquarters hostage on Wednesday.

"The Discovery Channel and it's [sic] affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212," Lee writes in the document,"where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas."

What is "My Ishmael" about?

It's the sequel to Quinn's earlier work, titled simply "Ishmael," and one in a three-part trilogy. The book expounds upon many of the tenets that comprise Lee's manifesto: environmental destruction, the perils of overpopulation and the power of human inventiveness.

The books are centered on a telepathic ape (Ishmael) who offers counsel to pupils on the hazards that threaten to destroy the ecosystem and kill off mankind. According to Ishmael, the world is divided into two human sensibilities: Leavers, who don't wreak planetary havoc, and Takers, who are fixated on expansion, power and creating empires.

"Ishmael" was an underground hit, described by the book's publisher as "a testament for a burgeoning spiritual movement." Quinn's sequel also met with a favorable reception.

"A thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species on the planet ... laid out for us with an originality and a clarity that few would deny," reads a positive take on the work from the New York Review of Books.

Who is Daniel Quinn?

He's the author of 13 books, including a graphic novel and an autobiography. Quinn has also had a long career in educational publishing, along with his wife, Rennie, and is a renowned intellectual, having lectured widely and participated in panels and hearings like the 1992 World Uranium Hearing, according to Quinn's own website.

More important, however, are Quinn's ideological tenets. Quinn is an icon to some communities of anarchists and environmentalists. In reading Quinn's speeches and interviews, it's immediately clear that his own ideas are echoed in "My Ishmael" -- and in the manifesto of Lee himself.

"So it continues to be seen that it is completely inevitable that our population must continue to grow to 8 billion, 10 billion, 12 billion. If this happens, I'm afraid I see no hope for our species," Quinn told ecoGeek in 2007. "This disastrous trend ... is reversible; but only if people in general come to understand that it MUST be reversed, for the sake of our own survival."

Quinn Calls Lee's Actions "Unacceptable"

His book may have inspired Wednesday's hostage drama, but Quinn was quick to lash out at Lee's violent approach.

"He is giving a bad name to the very ideas he's trying to put forward. So instead of putting them forward he's putting them back--making them unacceptable," reads a message posted to Quinn's website.

Quinn, 74, told MSNBC that he'd seen his books inspire astounding feats of creativity and transformation. But he never imagined they'd inspire violence and death.

"This James Lee has been inspired, but in a destructive way. He's doing what he can do - which is a crazy stunt," Quinn said. "I wish I could understand what he's trying to do, and what he's trying to say. It's hard to connect it with my book."