Just finished reading, what I would now categorize as one of Aldous Huxley’s forgotten masterpieces, Ape and Essence. Describing a dystopian future resembling 1984 of Orwell and We of Zamyatin more than the other Huxley classic Brave New World, Ape and Essence is an attempt to study the causes and effects of human desires. Describing a world in the aftermath of the nuclear havoc wrecked by a Third World War, Huxley’s main theme here is the rationing of happiness in all forms but primarily sexual; for the primary world view now is that, being happy is to submit to the wishes of the Devil who is all set to take over.
Ape and Essence is a film script written by the enigmatic Mr. William Tallis, rejected by the studios of Hollywood and that by sheer luck falls into the hands of a day dreaming film executive. With his friend, he tracks down Mr. Tallis to his residence only to learn that he had died without knowing the fate of his script. The rest of the book is after that, an honest reproduction of Mr. Tallis’s script. This script moves back and forth across time to the period just preceding the third world war and a time many years later, after the world has been destroyed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Using baboons as a metaphor for the state that human race has descended to in the first period, Tallis describes the blindness and hedonism that seem to be the order of the day. As prisoners and playthings, these baboons have famous scientists, all tied and chained up, who though unwilling do the bidding of their primate masters destroying all humanity. Simultaneously, it tracks a group of New Zealander scientists (whose country escaped the fate of the rest of the world since it was inconsequential) who alight on the shores of California only to encounter a civilization, that now worships the Devil and considers women as unholy vessels since due to the after effects of radiation, the babies they give birth to are deformed. One of the scientific party, Dr. Poole, is captured by the local people and it is through his eyes that the reader experiences the horrific rituals that humanity has fallen back on to ensure its survival in this toughest of times. The book ends with Dr. Poole escaping from the settlement and trying to find a way to the north where supposedly humanity thrives in environs that are more rational. He however is not alone; with him, he takes Loola, and the knowledge that this rule of Devil can only be undone by the rule of love.
While the basic plot and theme of Ape and Essence have the potential of placing it in the pantheon of the great dystopian novels, Huxley’s narrative choices greatly undermine this potential. The point of view for the reader continuously shifts from the initial executive to Mr. Tallis to the director of the movie to finally Dr. Poole. Thereafter also, it does not remain static; Huxley takes care to switch the narrative continuously from Dr. Poole to the camera, always making the reader aware that he is not experiencing a reality but rather a motion picture being shot. The power of a dystopian description lies greatly in the immediacy that the reader feels while experiencing the text. The structure of both Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984 is such that the reader feels himself/herself looking directly into an orb to see the future or an alternate reality. This induces a sense of a very real fear and alarm in the reader that is lost here with the filtering of content through numerous narrative lenses before reaching the reader.
Many of the dystopian descriptions are primarily the descriptions existing worlds, as they exists – Huxley though tries in Brave New World to bridge the gap between the real and the fictional. Ape and Essence on the other hand is not a study of dystopia, as much it is of the reasons for its emergence in the first place. Its foci are not the machinations of the State or any controlling entity but the individuals that inhabit this collective. Huxley’s contention clearly is that it is humanity itself that is responsible for the state of the world, whether it is the presented dystopia or the utopia governed by love that Dr. Poole imagines. Huxley, I do not think was entirely comfortable with the notion that all responsibility lies equally on the shoulders of all individuals rather than primarily on those who control and run the numerous institutions that humanity has built and nurtured over the ages. It is this conflict, that probably lead him to dilute his message with the introduction of the numerous and varying POVs.
Regardless, of Huxley’s comfort levels with this idea, the underlying treatment of the core theme of Ape and Essence, that of the role of human desires in our destiny, laid the groundwork for 1984 and other such groundbreaking works. However, an incisive treatment of the basic theme remains unexplored in the realms of literature as far as I know and one should read this brilliant piece only for this reason.
[Credits: To Satvik for buying the book in the first place. And then convincing me to read it, saying this is better than Brave New World and lending the book without any compunctions.]
Credits! Always credit your sources!