Ape and Essence
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| + | "[[Progress]] -- the theory that you can get [[something for nothing]]; the theory that you can gain in one field without paying for your gain in another; the theory that you alone understand the meaning of history; the theory that you know what's going to happen fifty years from now; the theory that, in the teeth of all experience, you can foresee all the consequences of your present actions; the theory that [[Utopia]] lies just ahead and that, since ideal ends justify the most abominable means, it is your privilege and duty to rob, swindle, torture, enslave and murder all those who, in your opinion (which is, by definition, infallible), obstruct the onward march to the earthly paradise. Remember that phrase of [[Karl Marx]]'s: '[[Force is the midwife of Progress]].' He might have added -- but of course [[Belial]] didn't want to let the cat out of the bag at that early stage of the proceedings -- that Progress is the midwife of Force. Doubly the midwife, for the fact of technological progress provides people with the instruments of ever more indiscriminate destruction, while the myth of political and moral progress serves as the excuse for using those means to the very limit. I tell you, my dear sir, an undevout historian is mad. The longer you study modern history, the more evidence you find of [[Belial]]'s Guiding Hand."--[[Aldous Huxley]] defining progress in his novel ''[[Ape and Essence]]'' | ||
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| - | '''''Planet of the Apes''''' is a novel by [[Pierre Boulle]], originally published in 1963 in [[French language|French]] as '''''La Planète des singes'''''. As ''[[:fr:singe|singe]]'' means both "[[ape]]" and "[[monkey]]," [[Xan Fielding]] called his translation '''''Monkey Planet'''''. It is an example of social commentary through the use of [[dystopia]]. | + | '''''Ape and Essence''''' (1948) is a novel by [[Aldous Huxley]], published by [[Chatto & Windus]] in the UK and [[Harper & Brothers]] in the US. It is set in a [[dystopia]], as is ''[[Brave New World]]'', Huxley's more famous work. It is largely a satire of the rise of large-scale warfare and [[warmongering]] in the 20th century, and presents a pessimistic view of the politics of [[mutually assured destruction]]. The book makes extensive use of surreal imagery, depicting humans as apes who, as a whole, will inevitably kill themselves. |
| - | ==Plot== | + | |
| - | In a [[frame story]], a frivolous couple sailing alone in space, Jinn and Phyllis, rescue and translate a manuscript from a floating bottle. The manuscript was written by journalist Ulysse Mérou, who in the year 2500 was invited by wealthy Professor Antelle to accompany him and his disciple, physician Arthur Levain, to [[Betelgeuse]]. | + | ==Structure== |
| + | The novel is divided into two sections, "Tallis"—the name of the novel's character most like Huxley himself—and "the Script"—the screenplay titled ''Ape and Essence'' which Tallis had submitted to the studio (it was rejected on 26 November, 1947, a fortnight before his death, but not returned to him). | ||
| + | ===Frame=== | ||
| - | Because they travel close to the speed of light, [[time dilation]] causes centuries to pass on Earth during their two years in transit. They reach orbit around a temperate, lushly forested planet which they name ''Soror'' ([[Latin]] for ''sister''). They launch a shuttle to land on the surface. They can breathe the air, drink the water and eat the fruit. Attracted by a lovely golden naked woman whom they call Nova, they swim below a scenic waterfall. She is frightened by their pet chimpanzee, Hector, and strangles it. Her tribe, who comport themselves as dumb animals, wreck the newcomers' clothing and shuttle. | + | "Tallis" introduces two movie industry intellectuals—the narrator and screenwriter [[Robert Briggs (character)|Bob Briggs]]—who, on the day of [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Gandhi]]'s murder (30 January, 1948), rescue ''Ape and Essence'' from the trash. Intrigued, they make the drive two days later to [[Los Angeles County]]'s high desert to find its author, William Tallis. En route they discuss a range of ideas cultural and topical, from Gandhi to [[Goya]]. |
| - | Gorillas, fully dressed as hunters, attack the tribe with firearms. Many are killed, including Arthur. Ulysse is captured with the survivors. Ape clothing matches that of 20th century Earth humans, except that the apes wear gloves instead of shoes on their [[prehensile feet]]. The apes smoke tobacco, photograph their hunting trophies, drink through straws and appear utterly civilized. Their stagnant society is divided into three strata: aggressive gorilla soldiers, pedantic and politically conservative orangutan administrators and liberal chimpanzee intellectuals. Humans are mindless animals. | + | They arrive at a remote and isolated old ranch, a solitary homestead in a surreal setting. They interact with the home's inhabitants, learning that Tallis died suddenly just six weeks before. As these characters serve mainly to establish the narrative frame, or context, they are not seen again, except insofar as Tallis has written himself into the script's final scene, foreknowing his death (but misimagining his grave to lie at the desert farm he rents, rather than in a proper cemetery {{convert|30|mi|km|sigfig=1}} away in [[Lancaster, California|Lancaster]]). |
| - | In an urban biological research facility, Ulysse recognizes [[Ivan Pavlov|Pavlov's]] dog conditioning being used on captured humans. He is mated with Nova. Curious chimpanzee researcher [[Zira (Planet of the Apes)|Zira]] takes an interest in his geometric drawings and his ability to speak a few simian words. With help from her fiancé, [[Cornelius (Planet of the Apes)|Cornélius]], Ulysse makes a speech in front of several thousand apes. He is granted freedom and is given tailored clothing. Antelle reverts to primitive humanity in the zoo, similar to the other captured humans, and is moved to the laboratory for safety, where he is mated to a young female. | + | ===Story=== |
| + | ''Ape and Essence'' is presented in its entirety, without remark by interruption, footnote or afterword. It begins with a [[Vignette (literature)|vignette]] describing the destruction of the world by [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear]] and [[chemical warfare]] at the hands of intelligent baboons. The two warring sides each have an [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]] on a leash which they force to press the button, releasing clouds of disease-causing gases toward each other. | ||
| - | Cornélius, an archaeologist, excavates an ancient human city. An unconscious human lab subject whose brain has been stimulated by electrodes recites from [[Genetic memory (psychology)|racial memory]] the events that led to the fall of human civilization: humans tamed apes and eventually used them as servants. Things began to change. Apes started looking humans straight in the eye. The first ape, a chimpanzee, talked. As more apes learned to talk, a cerebral laziness took hold of the humans. Apes gradually took over human homes, driving the humans into camps outside of the cities. In the final memory, apes attacked the last human camp, carrying only whips. | + | The story then advances to a time 100 years after the catastrophic events of [[World War III]], which characters in the book refer to as "the Thing", when nuclear and chemical weapons eventually destroyed most of human civilisation. In the script's timeframe, radiation has subsided to safer levels and in 2107, an exploratory team of New Zealand rediscovery scientists (New Zealand was spared from direct nuclear attack because it was "of no strategic importance") travel to California. |
| - | Nova bears Ulysse a son, Sirius, who precociously walks and talks at three months. Fearing for their lives, they take the place of the human test subjects in a space flight experiment. Because all humans look alike to apes, they are able to escape without notice and they rendezvous with the orbiting ship. | + | Meanwhile, a strange society has emerged from the radiation and three of its men capture one of the scientists (Dr. Poole). Dr. Poole is introduced to an illiterate society which survives by "mining" graves for clothes, burning library books as fuel, and killing off newborns deformed by radiation (that is, newborns with over three pairs of nipples and more than seven toes or fingers) to preserve genetic purity. The society has also taken to worshipping Satan, whom they refer to as "[[Belial]]", and limiting reproduction to an annual two-week [[orgy]] which begins on "Belial's Day Eve" after the deformed babies are "purified by blood". |
| - | Ulysse programs robots to fly the ship back to Earth. As they fly over Paris, [[Orly Airport]] and the [[Eiffel Tower]] look the same. When they land, however, they are greeted by a field officer in a Jeep who is a gorilla. | + | The story climaxes during the purification ceremonies of Belial's Day Eve with an intellectual confrontation between Dr. Poole and the arch-vicar, the head of the Church of Belial. During the conversation the arch-vicar reveals that there is a minority of "hots" who do not express an interest in the post-World War III style of reproduction, but they are severely punished to keep them in line. In exchange for his life, Dr. Poole agrees to do what he can as a [[botanist]] to help increase their crops yields, but about a year later he escapes with Loola in search of the community of "hots" that is rumoured to exist north of the desert. |
| - | Jinn and Phyllis, being civilized chimpanzees, refuse to believe Ulysse's story is possible and discard the manuscript. | + | The script—and the novel—end with Dr. Poole and Loola in the desert north of Los Angeles, breaking their trek by a tombstone which bears the author's name of Tallis, the dates 1882–1948, and three lines from the antepenultimate verse of [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]'s [[Adonaïs|elegy on the death of John Keats]]. Lest Loola find it sad, Dr. Poole, happily possessed of a ''duodecimo Shelley'', reads her the poem's penultimate verse: |
| - | ==Adaptations== | + | <blockquote>That Light whose smile kindles the Universe<br/> |
| - | The novel inspired a [[Planet of the Apes|media franchise]] comprising nine films, two television series (one animated) and several comic books. | + | That Beauty in which all things work and move<br/> |
| + | That Benediction, which the eclipsing Curse<br/> | ||
| + | Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love,<br/> | ||
| + | Which through the web of being blindly wove<br/> | ||
| + | By man and beast and earth and air and sea,<br/> | ||
| + | Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of<br/> | ||
| + | The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me<br/> | ||
| + | Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality.<br/></blockquote> | ||
| - | The first film was ''[[Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes]]'' (1968), a [[science fiction]] feature film directed by [[Franklin J. Schaffner]] from a screenplay by [[Michael Wilson (writer)|Michael Wilson]] & [[Rod Serling]] and starring [[Charlton Heston]]. | + | ===Vignettes=== |
| - | + | The story in the script is punctuated by a series of vignettes centring on a society which is much like 20th century human society, but with baboons substituted for men. The opening scene shows two Einsteins, tied to leashes held by baboons on either side of a pair of baboon armies, facing each other and preparing for battle. They are then directed to operate machines which release "improved" disease-causing clouds at the opposition. | |
| - | A [[Planet of the Apes (2001 film)|second adaptation]] of the book was released in 2001 directed by [[Tim Burton]] as a loose remake of the 1968 film of the same name. A series [[Reboot (fiction)|reboot]] with a new production team called ''[[Rise of the Planet of the Apes]]'' was released in 2011 to critical and commercial success. It was the first in a new [[Planet of the Apes|series of films]]. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | * ''[[Ape and Essence]]'' | + | |
| - | * ''[[Genus Homo (novel)|Genus Homo]]'' | + | |
| - | * ''[[Les Animaux dénaturés]]'' | + | |
| - | * [[No Connection]] | + | |
| + | Several of the vignettes portray a female baboon singing sensually to an all-baboon audience "Give me, give me, give me detumescence..." Other vignettes involve apes performing various human activities, ape armies assembling, and other more surreal imagery. | ||
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"Progress -- the theory that you can get something for nothing; the theory that you can gain in one field without paying for your gain in another; the theory that you alone understand the meaning of history; the theory that you know what's going to happen fifty years from now; the theory that, in the teeth of all experience, you can foresee all the consequences of your present actions; the theory that Utopia lies just ahead and that, since ideal ends justify the most abominable means, it is your privilege and duty to rob, swindle, torture, enslave and murder all those who, in your opinion (which is, by definition, infallible), obstruct the onward march to the earthly paradise. Remember that phrase of Karl Marx's: 'Force is the midwife of Progress.' He might have added -- but of course Belial didn't want to let the cat out of the bag at that early stage of the proceedings -- that Progress is the midwife of Force. Doubly the midwife, for the fact of technological progress provides people with the instruments of ever more indiscriminate destruction, while the myth of political and moral progress serves as the excuse for using those means to the very limit. I tell you, my dear sir, an undevout historian is mad. The longer you study modern history, the more evidence you find of Belial's Guiding Hand."--Aldous Huxley defining progress in his novel Ape and Essence |
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Ape and Essence (1948) is a novel by Aldous Huxley, published by Chatto & Windus in the UK and Harper & Brothers in the US. It is set in a dystopia, as is Brave New World, Huxley's more famous work. It is largely a satire of the rise of large-scale warfare and warmongering in the 20th century, and presents a pessimistic view of the politics of mutually assured destruction. The book makes extensive use of surreal imagery, depicting humans as apes who, as a whole, will inevitably kill themselves.
Contents |
Structure
The novel is divided into two sections, "Tallis"—the name of the novel's character most like Huxley himself—and "the Script"—the screenplay titled Ape and Essence which Tallis had submitted to the studio (it was rejected on 26 November, 1947, a fortnight before his death, but not returned to him).
Frame
"Tallis" introduces two movie industry intellectuals—the narrator and screenwriter Bob Briggs—who, on the day of Gandhi's murder (30 January, 1948), rescue Ape and Essence from the trash. Intrigued, they make the drive two days later to Los Angeles County's high desert to find its author, William Tallis. En route they discuss a range of ideas cultural and topical, from Gandhi to Goya.
They arrive at a remote and isolated old ranch, a solitary homestead in a surreal setting. They interact with the home's inhabitants, learning that Tallis died suddenly just six weeks before. As these characters serve mainly to establish the narrative frame, or context, they are not seen again, except insofar as Tallis has written himself into the script's final scene, foreknowing his death (but misimagining his grave to lie at the desert farm he rents, rather than in a proper cemetery Template:Convert away in Lancaster).
Story
Ape and Essence is presented in its entirety, without remark by interruption, footnote or afterword. It begins with a vignette describing the destruction of the world by nuclear and chemical warfare at the hands of intelligent baboons. The two warring sides each have an Einstein on a leash which they force to press the button, releasing clouds of disease-causing gases toward each other.
The story then advances to a time 100 years after the catastrophic events of World War III, which characters in the book refer to as "the Thing", when nuclear and chemical weapons eventually destroyed most of human civilisation. In the script's timeframe, radiation has subsided to safer levels and in 2107, an exploratory team of New Zealand rediscovery scientists (New Zealand was spared from direct nuclear attack because it was "of no strategic importance") travel to California.
Meanwhile, a strange society has emerged from the radiation and three of its men capture one of the scientists (Dr. Poole). Dr. Poole is introduced to an illiterate society which survives by "mining" graves for clothes, burning library books as fuel, and killing off newborns deformed by radiation (that is, newborns with over three pairs of nipples and more than seven toes or fingers) to preserve genetic purity. The society has also taken to worshipping Satan, whom they refer to as "Belial", and limiting reproduction to an annual two-week orgy which begins on "Belial's Day Eve" after the deformed babies are "purified by blood".
The story climaxes during the purification ceremonies of Belial's Day Eve with an intellectual confrontation between Dr. Poole and the arch-vicar, the head of the Church of Belial. During the conversation the arch-vicar reveals that there is a minority of "hots" who do not express an interest in the post-World War III style of reproduction, but they are severely punished to keep them in line. In exchange for his life, Dr. Poole agrees to do what he can as a botanist to help increase their crops yields, but about a year later he escapes with Loola in search of the community of "hots" that is rumoured to exist north of the desert.
The script—and the novel—end with Dr. Poole and Loola in the desert north of Los Angeles, breaking their trek by a tombstone which bears the author's name of Tallis, the dates 1882–1948, and three lines from the antepenultimate verse of Percy Bysshe Shelley's elegy on the death of John Keats. Lest Loola find it sad, Dr. Poole, happily possessed of a duodecimo Shelley, reads her the poem's penultimate verse:
That Light whose smile kindles the Universe
That Beauty in which all things work and move
That Benediction, which the eclipsing Curse
Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love,
Which through the web of being blindly wove
By man and beast and earth and air and sea,
Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of
The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me
Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality.
Vignettes
The story in the script is punctuated by a series of vignettes centring on a society which is much like 20th century human society, but with baboons substituted for men. The opening scene shows two Einsteins, tied to leashes held by baboons on either side of a pair of baboon armies, facing each other and preparing for battle. They are then directed to operate machines which release "improved" disease-causing clouds at the opposition.
Several of the vignettes portray a female baboon singing sensually to an all-baboon audience "Give me, give me, give me detumescence..." Other vignettes involve apes performing various human activities, ape armies assembling, and other more surreal imagery.
