Reading:
Started on February 11, 2005. Finished February 13, 2005.
Specs:
Boule, Pierre, Planet of the Apes,
published by The Vanguard Press, New York, in 1963. Translated from
the French by Xan Fielding. This author also wrote Bridge
over the River Kwai. This is
from the Johnson County Central Resource Library.
Overview:
This is an interesting story in which three men fly to a planet
revolving around the red star Betelgeuse, which is about 300 light
years from Earth. They travel in a craft that accelerates at 1.5
gravities for about a years and a half, then goes "for a few hours"
at that speed, then decelerates for a year and a half. According to
the author this allows him to go almost anywhere in the universe
(although my calculations tend to indicate this is not the case).
Once there the group is surprised to see people who cannot speak,
most notably a woman they name Nova. The planet is controlled by
apes - Chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. In
a hunt the protagonist is separated from the scientist that made the
machine, and his other companion is killed outright by the gorillas.
They are take as captives to a research institute, where
eventually the protagonist (who's French name I cannot remember)
learns the apes language, and Zira, a female Chimp learns French
(recall this was written in French). He learns to read, and reads
about the history of the apes. He is pair with Nova, as they pair up
all the captives.
Eventually he is exhibited by a Dr. Zaius (a rather stupid keeper
of the "official science") at a huge conference. There, before
he does the tricks the Dr. wants he addresses the assembly at length.
Therefore he is allow some freedom, unfortunately, Nova is not.
Cornilias, Zira's fiancé,
is doing research which shows that man was once dominant, and could
speak. He is made head of the research institute, and Zaius is fired
(unlike the movie).
Nova is pregnant before the
protagonist is allowed to live freely. Unfortunately, his son can
speak, and they learn of a plot to kill or disable all the members of
the protagonist's family, so they (Zira and Cornilius) conceive a
plot to put the family back in space where they can rendezvous with
the mother ship (since they only brought a shuttle to the surface),
which they do.
They then return to Earth. The
protagonist's son, Sirius, can talk, and Nova learns to talk from
him. When they arrive back on Earth, the Earth has been taken over
by apes.
Note the takeover (which the
author indicates is normal evolutionary change) is not because of
war, but laziness. That is, people become more and more
intellectually lazy so that soon they no longer read because of the
intellectual investment, then they quit playing games, then they quit
even viewing movies. Meanwhile, the Apes are used as servants, and
eventually just trade places with their masters.
(Personal opinion: The
intellectual laziness fits the pattern, as human IQ has probably been
dropping for 20,000 years. I think this may be changing, though,
currently.)
This book ignores the reality of
evolution. For example, people ware clothes, and either as a result
or because of that (probably the former) people don't have fur.
People get married as a direct result of of the fact that men cannot
tell when women ovulate. This isn't true of apes, so there would not
be marriage or fiancés. If it weren't for the clothes, people
wouldn't live all over the planet, since the climate would prevent
it.
I should point out that there is a
short story surrounding this story. That is, Jinn and Phillis, who
sail around their star system in a sale spacecraft. They find a
manuscript in a bottle, and the story is what is on the manuscript.
At the end it is revealed that they are, in fact, chimpanzees.
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