This book was Crichton’s fourth best-selling novel combining thriller and science. Finally, a spoiler alert: the results section contains details of the plot development. Counterparts to real persons, places, and institutions are given in quotation marks, versus their real-life equivalents, which are not. Any resemblance to actual persons, living and dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.” Versions of this boiler-plate assertion appear in half the books, although this bold claim appears to be nonsense. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. I noted whether the reverse of a book’s title page contained a version of the following Standard Statement: “This book is a work of fiction. (Copeland lists at least 40 novels that meet the above criteria in her comprehensive list.) The primary aim was detailed scrutiny and analysis of text, based on careful reading and detailed note-taking following a predetermined but flexible outline: brief description of author and works, precis of plot, primatological topics developed, use of primatology, accuracy of use, accessories, brief summary.Īlso, I noted whether the books included ‘accessories,’ that is, acknowledgements, index, references, footnotes, preface, foreword, or other supplementary information. If this pilot project is informative, then more sources may be used in a broader, follow-up study. Selection of the novels was neither random nor systematic for this preliminary study, I used six books already close to hand (see below, 1–6, presented chronologically). Most important was that the novel must have at least one great ape as a major character, although this role was usually shared with at least one human being. I limited myself to adult fiction, published in English (even if published originally in another language). The reasoning was that novels provide more substantial potential for revealing patterns than do shorter or more constrained literary or cinematic efforts. Published (textual, not graphic) novels about great apes, rather than short stories, poems, films, television series, or plays, were chosen for scrutiny. How accurate is their use of primatological knowledge?Īccordingly, this preliminary analysis is aimed at primatologists, assuming their basic background of the discipline, as informed readers. To what aspects or topics in primatology do they refer? To what extent do authors make use of the findings of scientific primatology, in the broadest sense? The present, exploratory analysis aimed to answer the following questions: But how extensive and representative are these fictional portrayals of great apes? This is important, as many more lay readers will gain their knowledge or impressions of apes from novels than from journal articles or academic tomes. Thus, authors of fiction have more and more accumulated knowledge to choose from in crafting their works. Captive great apes are studied in laboratories, zoological gardens, retirement refuges, and rescue sanctuaries. For example, study sites of habituated wild chimpanzees continue to increase, and technical advances such as camera-trapping and drones provide more data. Recent fictional interest in great apes has much information to choose from, as primatologists publish more and more about them, in nature or in captivity. Hence, comparison between them and us seems to be irresistible, especially as differences more and more seem to be a matter of degree instead of kind. The explanation seems simple: Homo sapiens is also a great ape, and the other living genera, Gorilla, Pan, and Pongo, are our nearest extant cousins. Amongst nonhuman animals, the Order Primates seems to be favored by authors of fiction amongst primates, the great apes (Hominidae) are similarly more favored (Copeland 2015).
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