LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society » November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17

November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17

Themes to Guide Us

  • Satire
  • Anthropocene
  • Postcolonial Theory
  • Privileging Knowledge
  • Devolution
  • The Problem of Utopia

Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know of any online copies of Planet of the Apes (1964), so you need to get the physical book (or the ebook). Your Final Exam will have questions on this novel, and there will be questions to test whether you read the book or just watched the film(s).

Planète des Singes

Pierre Boulle, author of Planet of the Apes and Bridge over the River Kwai, started out as an engineer and French secret agent, who was captured in 1943 by French legions who supported Japan (this was after France fell to Germany). He was engaging in espionage in what is now Vietnam, Loas, and Cambodia. His experience as a POW was certainly incorporated into Bridge over the River Kwai but we can also read some of that in Ulysse Mérou’s captivity in Planet of the Apes. The novel is important to this class for its commentary—it is a social science fiction political satire—on scientific authority, evolution, and intelligence (vs. intellectualism). There is also the theme about human-animal relations, which a contemporary satirical text deals with: South Park’s “Whale Whores” episode. We won’t spend too much time on this theme, but definitely be thinking about the assumptions we have of animals and, specifically, types of animals. Why are animal lives not held to the same value as human lives? Consider the term anthropocentric.

As mentioned before, some science fiction readers expect plot devices to be accurate—as scientifically precise as possible. This class looks at the allegorical aspects of science fiction: it’s a projection of the author’s cultural moment into an imagined (future) setting. Although we can clarify some of the “technical” details, let’s not get too bogged down in the physics of space travel. However, if you haven’t seen Interstellar (2014), you should. It’s out of this world–Ha!

Satire

One of my favorite genres! Satire is “a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, especially in order to make a political point, or a piece of writing that uses this style” (Cambridge University Dictionary). Other definitions will use irony–when something is supposed to have one effect but it has the opposite; working against the logic of one’s goal, morals, or self interests; being unable to see the folly with which a character observes the world. Ulysse Mérou finds himself in a world full of apes and is relegated to the status of an animal. The effect is to demonstrate how humans treat animals and other humans. Planet of the Apes is a political satire that shows readers the issues with assumptions of superiority and firmly held reason. Although Hollywood has produced many spoofs that satirize films (Spaceballs, Fear of a Black Hat, 27 Dresses), a satire doesn’t need a roman à clef, a specific text to poke fun at or simply reference.

Also, satire is not synonymous with sarcasm…but it’s close.

Anthropocene

On second thought, let’s get into the subject of privileging the human over the animal. The term Anthropocene refers to the current geological time period that is characterized by human activity significantly changing the planet. The term is actually a proposed term and not considered the agreed-upon scientific term, which is Holocene. However, the move is a political one that could gain more traction as the effects of a warming and polluted planet become impossible to ignore. Besides carbon pollution from the Industrial Revolution through today causing the atmosphere to warm, humans have devastated the environment in many ways:

  • Air particulates–soot, smoke, smog, and dust
  • Water pollution–ocean, rivers, drinking water, etc.
  • Microplastics–tiny fragments that end up in water
  • Nuclear weapons testing–specifically in the United States, increased rates of thyroid cancer (Remus Prăvălie, 2014)
  • Deforestation–human encroachment into forests, razing trees for homes and land to graze
  • Mercury–contaminating oceans and marine life from burning fossil fuels
  • Pesticides and herbicides–harmful to humans, soil, rivers, marine life

The proposed name makes sense when we consider the ways human activity has altered ecosystems on the planet. Another term that’s completely without controversy is ecocide,* human destruction of the environment. It has a sinister etymology for an English professor because it has a connotation of suicide: we kill the environment and ourselves. But don’t worry. Environmental destruction, like traffic, is someone else’s problem–not yours. Here are some sites I found in and around Charlotte:
*See sarcasm…

Science fiction, to return to the topic for today, often has post-apocalyptic settings because the authors project contemporary issues into a future setting. But environmental destruction isn’t an imaginary thing. This year’s COP27 in Egypt or last year’s COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, UK, as well as the Paris Climate Agreement are attempts to lessen the impacts of environmental destruction. Notice I didn’t write “halt”…

Solutions You Can Do!

  • Bug burgers and beetle wings!
  • Carbon offsets…well, there’s an issue there
    • “Oxfam has calculated that the total amount of land required for planned carbon removal could potentially be five times the size of India, or the equivalent of all the farmland on the planet” (Oxfam, August 2021, p. 7)
  • Drive less; walk more
  • Protect your fruit!

For more information, look at an Anthropocene timeline.

Obvious Allusions and Puns

“Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!” (1968 film)
Where is this line in the novel?

  • Ulysse Mérou is an allusion to the character Ulysses (or Odysseus) in Homer’s Odyssey.
  • Soror is the sister planet of Earth (p. 23). Any guess as to why “Soror” for the “sister” planet?
  • The Institute for Advanced Biological Science (p. 133) alludes (not perfectly, of course) to the Institut de France, which houses the French Academy of Sciences that you no doubt remember from the Pasteur-Pouchet Debate.
    • The Institute for Advanced Biological Science is official science
    • Consider the roles of the Orangutans, Gorillas, and Chimpanzees

Exploration and Discovery

Although there are other Earthlings as characters, we don’t see them enough to focus too much attention on them. However, I might ask you to comment about the Professor in next week’s post. We’ll see. Let’s think about how the protagonist, Ulysse Mérou, deals with this new world of Soror. We should try to compare the narrative of the Time Machine and Planet of the Apes to discover patterns between the two texts. Yes, patterns exist. I didn’t just pick these texts at random.

  • p. 13: “[T]he voyage lasted about two years our time, during which three and a half centuries must have elapsed on Earth.”
  • p. 13: “[T]he professor….often admitted he was tired of his fellow men.”
  • p. 14: The spaceship is a mini-Ark with vegetable, flowers, “some birds, butterflies, and even a monkey, a little chimpanzee…christened Hector.”
  • p. 18: The crew arrive in orbit around Soror, a comparable planet to Earth.
  • p. 22: Is it safe? They “tried it out first on [their] chimpanzee.”
    Foreshadowing to the tests the apes do on humans.
  • p. 23: “[W]e knew that a civilization existed….Rational beings…had molded the face of the planet.”
    Pay attention to the use of tools (or inability to use them) and how that makes a being intellectual as opposed to just intelligent.

Nova

Two years without female companionship. Imagine how happy the crew (except for the professor) is to see not just a woman but one considered conventionally beautiful by their culture’s standards. Notice how many references Ulysse makes to dogs (p. 31, 33, 49, 50).

  • p. 31: “Have you ever watched a timid puppy on the beach while his master is swimming?….Such, exactly, was the behavior of this girl.”
  • p. 33: Nova’s “peculiar swimming action resembling a dog’s…”
  • p. 49: “Men and women…snuggling up together as dogs do in the cold.”
  • p. 50: “But although [Nova] was marvelously beautiful, I still did not regard her as a woman. Her manner was that of a pet seeking the warmth of its master.”

More Observations of Nova

  • p. 30: “[H]er eyes….[had] a sort of void, an absence of expression reminding me of a wretched mad girl I had once known.”
  • p. 31: “[W]e heard her: but the sounds she uttered only added to the impression of animality created by her attitude.”
    How did Nova greet Hector, the crew’s pet chimpanzee?
  • p. 81: “My sleep was interrupted, however, by feverish nightmares, in which Nova’s body appeared in the guise of a monstrous serpent wound around my own body.”
    • Whoa! What does that dream mean?
  • p. 89: When Ulysee first tried talking to Zira, “Nova looked furious and could not keep still.”
  • p. 107: “I allowed myself to be stroked by [Zira’s] hairy hand, much to the displeasure of Nova.”
  • p. 115: “I, the ultimate achievement of millennial evolution….I, Ulysse Mérou, embarked like a peacock around the gorgeous Nova on the love display.”
  • p. 130: To calm Nova down, “[Ulysse] had had to resort to force to keep her quiet. After receiving a few thundering slaps across her beautiful face, she had eventually calmed down.”
  • p. 134: Zira didn’t like Ulysse slumming with Nova–“Since she was now convinced I had an ape’s mind, my intimacy with the young girl vexed and shocked her.”
  • p. 149: Using the flashlight to control Nova, “I am the absolute master at home, now that I possess this instrument, and no longer need any arguments more striking to keep her quiet.”
  • p. 194: “I often Think of Nova….Since I have changed camps I have even forbidden myself to show her more affection than I show to her fellows.”

p. 37: “’A female savage…belonging to some backward race like those found in New Guinea or in our African forests?’”

What it means to be civilized (or advanced) has to do with how cultures behave. What’s one of the worst practices to engage in for humans? What is a marker of a civilized people? One thing for sure is that technologies appear to mark civilized societies. Of course, such an attitude is culturally relativistic.

Postcolonial Theory

This is an introduction but postcolonial theory is an approach to literature that seeks to explain local and global relationships within the context of (specifically European) of the history of colonialism. Writers from the Global South often have postcolonial themes as main features of their texts. However, even privileged members of a former (or current…) colonial empire can offer insight into the context of colonization. For instance, the refugee crisis caused by migrants fleeing worn-torn areas is often met with disdain from Western countries with statements like “we can’t take everyone in,” “they need to stay and fight for their homes,” and “we’re not responsible for all the ills of the world.” Many within former colonial empires recognize the migrant crisis as one cause by Wester powers’ meddling in the affairs of previously colonized nations. Likewise, environmental impacts that cause inhabitants to flee can be seen as an extension of the environmental impacts perpetrated by industrial powers.

Now comes the fun part. Was Boulle promoting an uncritical view of colonization, or is he using Ulysse, an obvious reference to Odysseus, as an example of a privileged explorer who assumes all should recognize his humanity? The trials and tribulations he goes through to demonstrate his humanity satirizes Western colonial assumptions of natives. Might he even be a feminist?

Consider the issues around the language barriers between different groups.

Soror Humans

  • p. 41: Ulysse considered the Soror humans to have “a lack of conscious though; the absence of intelligence.”
  • p. 46: “[T]hese beings were roused to fury by objects. Things that were manufactured provoked their anger as well as their fear.”
  • p. 47: “Their women were all beautiful, though none could rival Nova’s splendor.”
  • p. 48: “[T]he shelters were not even huts, but nestlike constructions like those built by the big apes in our African forests.”
  • p. 112: Sex in captivity–“The only surprising element in these displays was the scientific ardor with which these apes followed them, never omitting to makes copious notes on the procedure.”
    • Let’s connect this to another scientific observation of animal mating. What could we say about the situation the apes are in as they try to record human mating?
    • What environment factors may affect the Soror humans’ behavior?

Film Clips

Well, I couldn’t figure out how to create clips of Planet of the Apes from my Blu-ray, but I found the YouTube clips for you to watch.

Clips from the 1968 film

Next Class

Continue reading another third of Planet of the Apes by next class, 11/09–make a wish!

Oxfam. Tightening the Net: Net Zero Climate Targets – Implications for Land and Food Equity. August 2021. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621205/bp-net-zero-land-food-equity-030821-en.pdf

“Satire”. Cambridge University Dictionary. nd, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/satire