one of the most impoverished modes of sci-fi writing, where the “what if apes were humans and humans were apes” concept is a literal narrative 1:1. nothing about ape society is epistemologically distinct from human society, and thousands of years of apes in the role of the conscious species have netted a world where they wear clothes, drive cars, etc. but are not fundamentally different from the humans who preceded them. Boulle's one idea is not very good and certainly nothing to write a novel about.

I quit when I read the following passage, which is part of Ulysse’s postulations that the dominant ape culture came about purely through imitating human culture:

Having first considered the highest manifestations of intelligence [i.e., art and science] it was only too easy to extend my thesis to other areas. That of industry quickly succumbed to my analysis. It seemed absolutely clear that industry did not require the presence of a rational being to maintain itself. Basically, industry consisted of manual laborers, always performing the selfsame tasks, who could easily be replaced by apes; and, at a higher level, of executives whose function was to draft certain reports and pronounce certain words under given circumstances.

the absurd narrowness of perspective on display in this summary of all non-artistic and non-scientific human endeavor is infuriating. I am already wary of the premise, which came about immediately following Algerian independence from France in 1962, the Algerian war for independence itself the culmination of over a decade of intense pushback against France from the countries they had colonized in Africa and Asia. I find it hard to believe that Boulle’s vision of a world of subhuman creatures whose culture is predicated on imitating white men isn’t rooted in French racism and white supremacy. at many times Ulysse’s sensibilities are shocked because of racial nobility and because, as a being made “in the image of God”, he is put in compromising situations that he feels are beneath him.

beyond the racial narrative though, Boulle’s clear dismissal of “industry” as a field that can exist simply through repetitive imitation shows that he doesn’t understand organizational thinking, psychology, or, fundamentally, science. it’s also obviously classist to describe laborers as apes who thrive under conditions where mimicry is the only skill needed for success. touch grass.