Title: The Ape Cycle

Author: Clare Winger Harris

Date of First Publication: Spring 1930

Place of Publication: Science Wonder Quarterly

Type: Short Story

Characters: No Character

Themes: POSTHUMAN; RACE/POLITICS; RETRO SF; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER

Critical Summary: The Ape Cycle tells the tale of the Stoddart family who over many years cultivate intelligent “prime” ape slaves to do all of man’s labor. At first, they raise ape laborers in secret, waiting until they have a product that is effective enough to present to the world. Eventually they do so, and over many years they revolutionize labor. Soon more and more specialized apes are bred to handle more complex work until the apes run nearly everything imaginable. Humans enjoy utopias like secluded ranches where they need not lift a finger. Eventually the apes continue to get smarter and the seeds of rebellion are sown. The revolution begins when a half ape, half human named Gunther, who resents being rejected by human society, helps the apes organize and enact the downfall of humans as their masters. The critical day comes where the apes rise up and seize control over mankind, they establish a new government and call this new era “the ape cycle.” Most of the humans who resist are killed by the physically superior apes, though human resistance factions begin to form. One of the Stoddart descendants is able to escape the clutches of his monkey captors and he and his lover plan to usurp the new ape rulership. They devise a plan to disguise one of them as an ape and drop bombs via plane on the capital city during a summit of all the ape leadership. The plan is successful and the apes crumble without their leadership. After the affair, the brave Stoddart is elected president as the world goes back to normal.

Clare Winger Harris’s short story The Ape Cycle features a similar motif present in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein of monsters born of man that herald man’s destruction. Throughout the story the question of “the soul” is raised and whether elevating apes’ level of intelligence would grant them a soul. The question of racism is also present. Additionally, we can see some characteristics of Dr. Frankenstein in the many generations of the Stoddart lineage. They are often only concerned with if they “could,” rather than the ethical ramification of if they “should.” As they continue to biologically enhance the apes to be more and more useful, without regarding their growing intellect, they inadvertently create the perfect adversary for humanity, beings that are both mentally on par with their human counterparts and physically stronger, much like Frankenstein’s monster;

Administrative Notes:  Aaron Broek, CSUF; Jonathan Donabo (editing)