{"title":"Aliens and Alienation in Pierre Boulle’s La Planète des Singes","authors":"P. Scott","doi":"10.1080/02639904.2020.1766858","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article offers a radical re-reading of Pierre Boulle’s Planète des singes (1963), a novel dealing with interplanetary exploration in 2500 and the discovery of a world in the Betelgeuse system with three orders of rational simian species and a subjugated humanoid race void of rationality and abused by the primates on the planet. This close of the novel focuses on the narrator’s love affairs with two extraterrestrial females (one a low-intelligence humanoid, the other a rational chimpanzee-like creature). In this framed science-fiction novel, Boulle creates a first-person narrative with a dislikeable central character, Ulysse, who unwittingly engineers the downfall and extinction of humankind. I propose that the work should be interpreted less in the satiric tradition, with which it undoubtedly possesses affinities, and more as a veiled and sustained critique of Western capitalism and the consumerist society of the reader. Boulle subtly uses the taboo relationships of Ulysse with two aliens as a reflection on social codes and agencies of control.","PeriodicalId":41864,"journal":{"name":"Romance Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"26 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02639904.2020.1766858","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Romance Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02639904.2020.1766858","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, ROMANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article offers a radical re-reading of Pierre Boulle’s Planète des singes (1963), a novel dealing with interplanetary exploration in 2500 and the discovery of a world in the Betelgeuse system with three orders of rational simian species and a subjugated humanoid race void of rationality and abused by the primates on the planet. This close of the novel focuses on the narrator’s love affairs with two extraterrestrial females (one a low-intelligence humanoid, the other a rational chimpanzee-like creature). In this framed science-fiction novel, Boulle creates a first-person narrative with a dislikeable central character, Ulysse, who unwittingly engineers the downfall and extinction of humankind. I propose that the work should be interpreted less in the satiric tradition, with which it undoubtedly possesses affinities, and more as a veiled and sustained critique of Western capitalism and the consumerist society of the reader. Boulle subtly uses the taboo relationships of Ulysse with two aliens as a reflection on social codes and agencies of control.
摘要:本文对Pierre Boulle的《星象计划》(Planète des singes,1963)进行了彻底的重读,这本小说讲述了2500年的星际探索,以及在参宿四系统中发现的一个世界,该世界由三个理性的猿类目和一个被征服的、缺乏理性的、被地球上灵长类动物虐待的人形种族组成。小说的这一结尾聚焦于叙述者与两位外星女性(一位是智力低下的人形生物,另一位是理性的黑猩猩类生物)的恋情。在这部装帧的科幻小说中,Boulle用一个令人讨厌的中心人物Ulysse创造了一个第一人称叙事,他无意中策划了人类的衰落和灭绝。我建议,这部作品不应该被解读为讽刺传统,因为它无疑与讽刺传统有着密切的联系,而应该更多地被解读为对西方资本主义和读者消费主义社会的含蓄而持久的批判。Boulle巧妙地利用了尤利西斯与两个外星人之间的禁忌关系来反思社会规范和控制机构。