by Richard Klaw
The Apes of Wrath
Copyright © 2013 by Richard Klaw
This is a collected work of fiction. All events portrayed in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form without the express permission of the publisher.
Foreword copyright © 2013 by Rupert Wyatt
A Brief Introduction copyright © 2013 by Richard Klaw
Cover art copyright © 2012 by Alex Solis
Cover design and interior design by Elizabeth Story
Tachyon Publications
1459 18th Street #139
San Francisco, CA 94107
Series Editor: Jacob Weisman
Project Editor: Jill Roberts
Book ISBN 10: 1-61696-085-X
Book ISBN 13: 978-1-61696-085-8
Book printed in the United States by Worzalla
First Edition: 2013
“The Ape-Box Affair” © 1978 by James P. Blaylock. Originally published in Unearth, Spring 1978. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. Originally published in Graham’s Magazine, April 1841.
“Evil Robot Monkey” © 2008 by Mary Robinette Kowal. Originally published in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Vol. 2, edited by George Mann (Solaris Books: UK). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Apes in Literature” © 2013 by Jess Nevins. Original to this anthology.
“Tarzan’s First Love” by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Originally published in Blue Book, September 1916.
“Rachel in Love” © 1987 by Pat Murphy. Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1987. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Her Furry Face” © 1983 by Leigh Kennedy. Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Mid-December 1983. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Four-Color Ape” © 2013 by Scott A. Cupp. Original to this anthology.
“Red Shadows” by Robert E. Howard © 2013 Solomon Kane Inc. (“SKI”) SOLOMON KANE and related names, logos, characters and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks or registered trademarks of SKI. All Rights Reserved. ROBERT E. HOWARD is a trademark or registered trademark of Robert E. Howard Properties Inc. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved. “Red Shadows” first appeared in Weird Tales, August 1928.
“The Cult of the White Ape” © 1933 by Hugh B. Cave. Originally published in Weird Tales, February 1933. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.
“The Maze of Maâl Dweb” by Clark Ashton Smith. Originally published in Weird Tales, October 1938.
“Quidquid volueris” by Gustave Flaubert. Originally published in Oeuvres Complètes, Vol. NO 11 (Paris, Editions du Club de l’Honnête Homme, 1973–74). New translation by Gio Clairval copyright © 2013.
“Gorilla of Your Dreams: A Brief History of Simian Cinema” © 2005, revision © 2013 by Rick Klaw. This is a substantially revised and expanded version of the article that originally appeared in Moving Pictures Magazine, December/January 2005/2006.
“After King Kong Fell” © 1973, renewed © 1989 by Philip José Farmer. Originally published in Omega, edited by Roger Elwood (Walker & Company: New York). Reprinted by permission of The Philip José Farmer Family Trust.
“Deviation from a Theme” by Steven Utley. Copyright © 1976 by UPD Publishing Corporation. Originally published in Galaxy, May 1976. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program” © 1994 by Joe R. Lansdale. Originally published in Writer of the Purple Rage (Subterranean Press: Burton, MI). Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Men in the Monkey Suit” © 2013 by Mark Finn. Original to this anthology.
“Dr. Hudson’s Secret Gorilla” © 1977 by Howard Waldrop. Originally published in Shayol #1, November 1977. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“A Report to an Academy” by Franz Kafka. Originally published as “Ein Bericht für eine Akademie” in Der Jude, October 1917. This new translation by Gio Clairval copyright © 2013.
“Faded Roses” © 1989 by Karen Joy Fowler. Originally published in Omni, November 1989. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Other books by Richard Klaw
Anthologies (as editor):
Modern Perversity
Creature Features
Weird Business (with Joe R. Lansdale)
The Wild West Show
The Big Bigfoot Book
Rayguns over Texas (forthcoming)
Books (as Rick Klaw):
Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century
For Mom,
Who’d have thunk it’d all lead to this?
FOREWORD
Rupert Wyatt
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Richard Klaw
THE APE-BOX AFFAIR
James P. Blaylock
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
Edgar Allan Poe
EVIL ROBOT MONKEY
Mary Robinette Kowal
APES IN LITERATURE
Jess Nevins
TARZAN’S FIRST LOVE
Edgar Rice Burroughs
RACHEL IN LOVE
Pat Murphy
HER FURRY FACE
Leigh Kennedy
THE FOUR-COLOR APE
Scott A. Cupp
RED SHADOWS
Robert E. Howard
THE CULT OF THE WHITE APE
Hugh B. Cave
THE MAZE OF MAL DWEB
Clark Ashton Smith
QUIDQUID VOLUERIS
Gustave Flaubert
GORILLA OF YOUR DREAMS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF SIMIAN CINEMA
Rick Klaw
AFTER KING KONG FELL
Philip José Farmer
DEVIATION FROM A THEME
Steven Utley
GODZILLA’S TWELVE-STEP PROGRAM
Joe R. Lansdale
THE MEN IN THE MONKEY SUIT
Mark Finn
DR. HUDSON’S SECRET GORILLA
Howard Waldrop
THE APES AND THE TWO TRAVELERS
Aesop
A REPORT TO AN ACADEMY
Franz Kafka
FADED ROSES
Karen Joy Fowler
Author Biographies
About the Editor
FOREWORD
Rupert Wyatt
Consider the following characteristics of the most majestic of great apes: the mountain gorilla—
The dominant silverback generally determines the movements of his group, leading it to appropriate feeding sites throughout the year. He also mediates conflicts within the group and protects it from external threats. When the group is attacked by humans, leopards, or other gorillas, the silverback will protect them even at the cost of his own life. He is the center of attention during rest sessions, and young animals frequently stay close to him and include him in their games. If a mother dies or leaves the group, the silverback is usually the one who looks after her abandoned offspring, even allowing them to sleep in his nest. Experienced silverbacks are even capable of removing poachers’ snares from the hands or feet of their group members.1
You read this and one thing is clear: gorillas survive and prosper in a stable, cohesive, and nurturing environment that’s held together by a protective and resourceful leader. In short, their society represents the ideal human society: they are a mirror of our best selves.
And then there’s the chimpanzee—
Adult chimpanzees, particularly males, can be very aggressive. They are highly territorial and are known to kill other chimps. Chimpanzees also engage in targeted hunting of lo
wer order primates such as the red Colobus and bush babies, and use the meat from these kills as a “social tool” within their community.2
Sound familiar?
Of course, it would be unfair to paint chimps with such a broad brush. Their aggressive traits belie many other far more sociable habits. (For example they are known to share food, form coalitions, and even adopt young from outside groups.) Humans don’t hold the monopoly on contradiction. And that’s precisely why we’re fascinated by our closest cousins, and The Planet of the Apes mythology exploits that fascination to the fullest. It presents the notion that we are not the only sentient creatures on Earth, capable of both good will and savage instinct. Like us, apes are a contradiction.
So that being the case, then what is to stop the apes taking over?
Our bodies and histories are so similar—and we share nearly all of our genes.
They are far stronger and faster than us.
And they require little from their habitat save cover, food, and water.
Put it this way: I wouldn’t want to meet an angry ape in a dark alley. There’s a reason why there’s no “Planet of the Dogs” or “Planet of the Owls.”
But then as much as the idea may be abhorrent to our more intellectual and urbane selves, would it be so bad to climb that tree in the back garden or do away with a knife and fork for just one meal time? As an ex-ape myself, I’m often tempted.
And if you can get behind that, then let’s take it a step further—what would it be like to share the planet with another species that “talked back”? What if the closeness between humans and apes spilled over to be an absolute sameness?
This is the core question we should always be asking ourselves: What gives humans the right to dominate the planet? What are our obligations and what would happen if we were not the only game in town?
I have always wondered what an ape would say to his human counterpart were they ever to debate the hierarchy of the two species; if an ape could challenge his human counterpart to alpha status, using the power of speech to argue his point. Perhaps it might go something like this...
Has any ape ever torn the glands from a living man to graft them upon another ape for the sake of a brief and unnatural extension of that ape’s life?
Was Torquemada an ape?
Was Adolf Hitler an ape?
Has it been necessary to found a society for the protection of ape children?
Are all the wars between apes or men?
Was poison gas an ape invention or a human one?
Could you ever mention the word cruelty in the presence of an ape without blushing?
Are you not what we’ve always been: the cruelest of all animals?
That is one point of view, a critical and anti-human argument that supports animal rights.
As its director, I made Rise of the Planet of the Apes a film ABOUT animal rights. And here’s the reason why. We were telling the story from the apes’ point of view.
Apes are our protagonists, and therefore I had to somehow make a film that required its human audience to root for a different species against our very own. And remember, we weren’t telling a story that played out in isolation, but rather a global shift in hierarchy—The demise of our civilization and the dawn of a new alpha species: The Rise of the Ape.
How is it possible to do that? Surely that goes against every survival instinct we have. Why would we cheer and applaud the sight of our civilization being wiped off the face of the Earth?
The answer: Empathy.
That the film has been so successful and embraced by so many different age groups and backgrounds is testament to one of the greatest of all human qualities.
And that is why we are the alpha of our planet.
We are not the devil. We are humane; imaginative; creative; communicative; forgiving; caring; and nurturing.
As individuals we have it in us to achieve extraordinary things, even though as a group we are so often prone to falling prey to the darker aspects of our nature. All of this is encapsulated in the pages of this book. It’s why we need great leaders to show us the right path. And in these unsettled times of environmental destruction, species decline, human overpopulation, water shortage, social and economic revolution, it is all the more crucial we look for those selfless leaders and follow them through thick and thin. If we do so, our future knows no bounds.
We have much to learn from the silverback.
Rupert Wyatt
April 2012
_________________
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_gorilla
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee#Behavior
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Richard Klaw
Simians, especially the great apes, play an integral, vital role in our culture and in our collective unconscious. These creatures represent a part of humanity that must remain hidden. They can be both savage and gentle. They are much like man but they are not men. With their humanlike appearance and behaviors, it’s easy to see what Darwin saw. As humanity’s closest relation, how could apes not fascinate?
From Shakespeare’s Tempest to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels to James Fenimore Cooper’s The Monikins to Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” through the twentieth-century tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Max Brand, Earle Stanley Gardner, L. Sprague de Camp, Wyndham Lewis, Rudyard Kipling, Franz Kafka, Gaston Leroux, C. S. Lewis, Michael Crichton, Pierre Boulle, Bernard Malamud, Pat Murphy, and countless others, simians infuse the literary playground. Similar influences abound in other media, especially film, as typified with the popular and culturally significant movies such as King Kong, The Planet of the Apes series, Mighty Joe Young, and the numerous Tarzan incarnations.
Surprisingly, given the simian’s influential role in popular culture, only one previous anthology of ape fiction exists. Published in 1978 by Corgi, The Rivals of King Kong collected eight reprinted stories, two originals, and an excerpt from one of H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain books. Editor Michel Parry contributed the introduction and checklist of simian cinema. The difficult-to-locate collectible paperback original commands a ridiculous price ranging from $30–$200.
John DeNardo, producer of the Hugo Award-winning website SF Signal, asked me to contribute to his popular Mind Meld series. This confluence of thoughts by science fiction writers, artists, editors, and critics ponders topics and themes of interest to fans of the genre. The subject this time (“If you could publish a short fiction anthology containing up to twenty-five previously published sf/f/h stories, which stories would it include and why?”) enabled me to elaborate on one of the least understood and appreciated subgenres of fantastic fiction. I listed twenty-one stories all featuring apes by some of the biggest names in literature. It was a short jump to assembling this very book.
From that original list, I kept thirteen tales and added four more. The talented Gio Clairval supplied fresh translations for the Flaubert and Kafka contributions. Then using Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s extraordinary primer/anthology Steampunk as a template, I recruited fellow ape aficionados Scott A. Cupp, Mark Finn, and Jess Nevins to help me uncover the breadth of apes in pop culture and explore the simian’s place in literature, comics, and film. Rupert Wyatt’s marvelous foreword and the extraordinary Alex Solis cover round out this unique volume.
Despite the quality of the stories within, the authors are, at times, sadly the victims of the shallow and ignorant societal views of their time. Rather than preclude several otherwise excellent tales, I decided to include the unabridged versions, offensive beliefs and comments intact.
A brief note on the difference between apes and monkeys: While both are primates, apes do not have tails. Apes also tend to be larger and have bigger brains. Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons, and even humans are classified as apes, while baboons, marmosets, and macaques are monkeys.
THE APE-BOX AFFAIR
James P. Blaylock
Arguably the first American-penned steampunk story
, Blaylock’s inventive tale about the panic after an orangutan-piloted flying ship crash lands in St. James Park incorporates H. G. Wells and Jules Verne by way of The Three Stooges and Monty Python.
A good deal of controversy arose late in the last century over what has been referred to by the more livid newspapers as “The Horror in St. James Park” or “The Ape-Box Affair.” Even these thirty years later, a few people remember that little intrigue, though most would change the subject rather abruptly if you broached it, and many are still unaware of the relation, or rather the lack of relation, between the actual ape-box and the spacecraft that plunked down in the Park’s duck pond.
The memoirs of Professor Langdon St. Ives, however, which passed into my hands after the poor man’s odd disappearance, pretty clearly implicate him in the affair. His own orang-outang, I’ll swear it, and the so-called Hooded Alien are one and the same creature. There is little logical connection, however, between that creature and “the thing in the box” which has since also fallen my way, and is nothing more than a clockwork child’s toy. The ape puppet in that box, I find after a handy bit of detective work, was modeled after the heralded “Moko the Educated Ape” which toured with a Bulgarian Gypsy fair and which later became the central motif of the mysterious Robert Service sonnet, “The Headliner and the Breadliner.” That the ape in the box became linked to St. Ives’s shaven orang-outang is a matter of the wildest coincidence—a coincidence that generated a chain of activities no less strange or incredible. This then is the tale, and though the story is embellished here and there for the sake of dramatic realism, it is entirely factual in the main.
Professor St. Ives was a brilliant scientist, and the history books might some day acknowledge his full worth. But for the Chingford Tower fracas, and one or two other rather trivial affairs, he would be heralded by the Academy, instead of considered a sort of interesting lunatic.