Unless you’ve been living underground awaiting the coming apocalypse, or maybe you just don’t like movies, you’ve probably seen the famous scene with Charlton Heston and the Statue of Liberty. Or perhaps you’re a lot younger than me, and you watched the newer series with James Franco and the CGI apes. There is even a lesser-known version by Tim Burton. But did you know it all started as a book by French author Pierre Boulle?
Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes was written in 1963, five short years before the Heston adaptation, and it remains a classic of science fiction. While the breakneck pacing is much closer to the works of Burroughs/Howard/Lovecraft, particularly when compared to the glacially slow storytelling familiar to modern authors, I enjoyed this book tremendously, and it’s only a shame that more novels can’t be written like this today. This is how I wrote my first self-published book, The Dark Age of Enya, only to realize big-name agents frown upon fiction where events are resolved in the same chapter they appear in. Aside from its pacing, Planet of the Apes dramatically expands upon the story we know from the films. The ape civilization shown in the Heston and Franco adaptations is far more limited in scope. In the book, we are treated to simian versions of New York City, with apes in cars, apes piloting planes, apes working from skyscraper office buildings, and even an ape-run stock exchange. It also features quite a bit of casual nudity, since all of the native humans of Soror (the titular planet) have reverted to an animal state of intelligence, which is always a plus in my book, despite the implication that clothes = intelligence.
The story of apes running the world is as absurd as it is horrifying, when the human population is treated to the same levels of cruelty as animals here on Earth. Before proving his advanced mental capacity, the hero, Ulysee, is locked in a cage, forced to wear a collar when taken out, and constantly subjected to sadistic scientific experiments. And, unlike what Heston endured in the movie, Ulysee is marooned on Soror for years.
Boulle’s novel can be read as a simple adventure, but like the very best novels, there is a deeper level to be found in the text, a social commentary pointing to the very worst transgressions of our (human) civilization.
The Art of Storytelling 
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