Apes in fiction: does the content of novels reflect primatological knowledge?

Novels about great apes and humans continue to be consistently popular with the reading public, sometimes reaching best-seller status. Media reviews of these books rarely comment on their primatological roots, nor do primatological journals review them. In a non-quantitative, pilot study, I scrutini...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPrimates Vol. 62; no. 2; pp. 321 - 330
Main Author McGrew, William C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Singapore Springer Singapore 01.03.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Animal Ecology
Apes
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Evolutionary Biology
Intelligence
Life Sciences
Novels
Original
Original Article
Sexuality
Zoology
Gorilla
Chimpanzee
Hominidae
Pan
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Summary:Novels about great apes and humans continue to be consistently popular with the reading public, sometimes reaching best-seller status. Media reviews of these books rarely comment on their primatological roots, nor do primatological journals review them. In a non-quantitative, pilot study, I scrutinize six prominent novels, in terms of three questions: How do the novels make use of primatology? What aspects of primatology do they use? How accurate is their use of primatology? Such novels overwhelmingly concentrate on language, with intelligence and sexuality lagging far behind; other topics, such as culture or technology, receive little or no attention. Apes in nature are rarely mentioned. Inaccuracies abound, even at the most basic level of primatological knowledge that easily could be remedied. Both authors and primatologists would benefit from more informative interaction before publication.
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ISSN:0032-8332
1610-7365
DOI:10.1007/s10329-021-00889-8