So the gorillas’ intelligence overnight became more like that of humans, and this did not go unobserved by their human keepers. (Pierre Boulle is not writing this, by the way.) Soon, this got to the enlightened who demanded freedom for the apes, and this was granted. Cage doors the world around swung open, but lo! The gorillas refused to leave. Being curious, they of course went out and looked around, but were observed to be disdainful of the human part of the world. Their zoo quarters were greatly enlarged, which, as ape and man both agreed, was the gorillas’ just due. But the larger human environment continued to be of no interest to them—to say the least. In time, perhaps in response to the curiosity of the young gorillas, tours were organized by some of the older ones. Curiously, the points of interest- from a human point of view- always seemed to be unsavory scenes and places. Vacant lots full of dead rats, brickbats and broken glass—that sort of thing. It appeared to some humans that the older gorillas had, in effect, constructed an inverted Potemkin village, serving as “minders” to ensure the young saw only those things which reinforced the already strong notion that the zoo was a far better place. Those humans were in the minority. What business was it of theirs to interfere with the gorillas with their outdated, propagandistic anthropocentric notions? ….
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 11:55:19 +0000
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