Apes in fiction: does the content of novels reflect primatological knowledge?
Primates
; 62(2): 321-330, 2021 Mar.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33538937
ABSTRACT
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.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Hominidae
/
Fictional Works as Topic
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Primates
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United kingdom