Five Books about Apes

Miss McLaren

Today’s post is one of our occasional ‘fist of five’ series, looking at five books on a related theme.

Today, to mark this summer’s conclusion (or not) of this author’s favourite movie franchise, it’s books about apes.  Curious George does not feature ... *

Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle 
Obviously, you have to start with the original, written by former SOE agent Pierre Boulle, whose two years in an Indochinese prison were the inspiration for his previous novel, The Bridge over the River Kwai. 

Planet of the Apes starts with a nod to Edgar Allan Poe’s story ‘MS. found in a bottle’, as a honeymooning couple, cruising through space, discover a memoir (in a bottle of course) about life on another planet, a parallel universe where apes are mankind’s superiors. While the famous cinematic ‘twist’ ending reflected a late 60s disenchantment with the arms race (‘You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell’) – horribly topical in these Trumpian times – the original strikes a more subtle philosophical note, reflecting on the transience of all so-called ‘civilisations’.

A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka
Before and after Darwin’s observations on our common ancestry, humans have used apes and monkeys as ways of reflecting ironically, and often satirically, on human behaviour: are they noble savages or primitive beasts? Are we like them? or are they like us?

In Kafka’s short story, ‘Red Peter’, an ape captured by hunters in West Africa has only survived by abandoning the freedom of his original nature for the ‘yoke’ of humanity. The subject of his lecture to the ‘esteemed gentlemen of the Academy’ is supposed to be his life as an ape – but this is something he can no longer remember, so completely has he assimilated. His praise of human progress and achievements is clearly tinged with Kafka’s amusement at the absurdities and inappropriateness of humanity’s self-regard, and raises profound questions about society and identity.

Nim Chimpsky: the Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess 
While Kafka’s Red Peter is imaginary, and can tell us what happened to him, Nim Chimpsky – his name a nod to philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky – really existed, and (despite attempts to prove otherwise) couldn't.

Nim became the subject of an experiment to see whether a chimpanzee, adopted by a human family and reared like a human child, would develop the ability to communicate through sign language. Like several other apes, participants in similar experiments, Nim briefly became a global celebrity, when it appeared that he’d bridged the gap between human and animal: but the aftermath of the experiment, and what it revealed about the research team’s dubious ethics and shallow disregard for their impact on its hapless subject, doesn’t shine a particularly flattering light on human behaviour.

James 'Man on Wire’ Marshall’s documentary, Project Nim, is an excellent account of the story, where the behaviours of the alpha male scientist and his coterie of devoted acolytes are as much the focus of the film-maker’s analysis as the nominal subject of their experiment.

Me Cheeta: an autobiography by Cheeta (with the aid of James Lever)
Cheeta the chimp was Tarzan's goofy comic side-kick in the 1930s movies starring Olympian swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller.

Lever’s novel purports to be the ‘real’ Cheeta’s memoir, and is an entertaining spoof of showbiz scandal and Hollywood debauchery (the index is a highlight). Its narrator is sometimes ridiculous – with his pretensions to high dramatic art, his delusions of grandeur, and his boasts about his exploits at wild Hollywood parties - but he’s also touchingly naïve, especially in his love-struck adoration of Weissmuller (and pathological jealousy of his rival, actress Maureen O’Sullivan, who played Jane).

But there’s also a more serious undertow, through the parallel story of Stroheim, an alpha chimp, once Cheeta's tormentor, who progresses not to stardom but to the horrors of a medical testing lab. Lever deftly uses the gulf between Cheeta’s self-image and the reality to highlight the lack of humanity in a lot of human behaviour (especially in the film and tobacco industries).

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler 
Spoiler alerts: try to read this novel without knowing too much about it.

Rosemary’s a student at an American university – sullen, sardonic and brooding on the break-up of her family. She’s lost her beloved sister, Fern, and her brother’s gone underground as an eco-terrorist: the novel gradually reveals how and why their family collapsed so spectacularly. Compelling and original, and highly recommended.

*Curious George doesn't have a tail, so technically that should make him an ape - but he's generally referred to as a 'little monkey' ... so which is he?  Follow the debate here ...