BOOK REVIEWS

Wish - A Biologically Engineered Love Story   Peter Goldsworthy, 1995   Angus and Robertson, Sydney   The Woman and the Ape   Peter Høeg, 1996   Various publishers and languages

"What do you call yourselves?" she asked. "I mean you don't say 'apes', do you?"    The ape thought this over, trying vainly to reconcile two incompatible languages before coming up with an acceptable compromise.    "'People'," it said. "We call ourselves 'people'."    "And us? What do you call us?"    "'Animals'" said the ape, "is what we call you."  The Woman and the Ape, III, 6

 The possibility of verbal communication between the various species of great apes is beginning to inspire writers of fiction.

Both of these novels focus on the relationship between a human and a nonhuman great ape, the latter 'humanised' to allow their contact to extend to what we might call 'love beyond the species barrier'.

Wish, beautifully illustrated with pictures of hand signs, tells the story of a teacher of sign-language, J.J., who is called to instruct a very unusual gorilla - Wish. It makes an eloquent case for the superior expressivity of Auslan - the sign language of the Australian deaf community - over spoken English.

Peter Goldsworthy systematically and entertainingly raises many of the issues involved in human treatment of our fellow great apes, while taking us on an astonishing and tragic journey of the imagination. He includes the GAP book in his reading list, while Peter Høeg makes the GAP part of his story.

Høeg sets his cautionary fable in present-day London, where his Danish anti-heroine, Madelene - an alcoholic of prodigious capacities - has close ties with important sectors of the animal-welfare community.

"The ape" in the story is Erasmus, a member of an unidentified species who are native to a temperate climate. Erasmus proves to be far more 'sophisticated' and intelligent than the average human -  he is the ultimate urbane gorilla - and soon combines the measured tones of diplomatic English with the clear-sightedness of someone who lives from day to day on his senses and his wits.

The difficulties of portraying realistic nonhuman characters in a novel are considerable, so it is not surprising that Wish and Erasmus are not delineated as well as the other figures. Neither of them become quite as real as individuals as their human counterparts, and their behaviour is sometimes interpreted too simply in terms of ape 'instincts'.

Their role is partly one of saviour. Neither J.J. nor Madelene have much chance of happiness in a world where human 'inhumanity' and power-seeking, plus the instrumentalisation of nature, override ordinary human needs. Their chance to step beyond their limitations and to find unsuspected depths within themselves is provided by an Other who is both more powerful and also more vulnerable than they are.

Both authors are firmly on the side of their nonhuman heroine/hero, while accentuating the dangers for animal activists of putting ideological progress or organisational success above the interests of the individual animals they are supposed to be helping.

Both are pessimistic about human capacities for empathy and honesty, but perhaps not for love, which is depicted as an unpredictable and involuntary liberating force. Wish and Erasmus represent an authenticity that most of the human actors lack. In a tale strewn with loose biblical allusions, Erasmus, in particular, is a kind of emissary from nature, reminding us of our dependence on the other animals and on the rest of nature as whole.

Oh. And, in case anyone gets the wrong idea about the kinds of non-human/human great-ape relationships we are advocating: As they say on TV, we advise readers not to try any of this at home!

PROFESSOR Carl Sagan (1934-1996), the pioneering American astronomer, died last December. He  was best known to the public for his TV series Cosmos, written with his wife, Anne Druyan. He advised NASA on projects including the Mariner, Viking, Pioneer and Voyager missions.

Sagan and Druyan were early signatories to GAP's Declaration on Great Apes. Sagan was to speak on The Great Ape Project at the 1996 World Congress for Animals, but ill health forced him to cancel.

In their book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Sagan and Druyan challenge the idea of human superiority: "A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them - without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret."

Sagan also asked: "If chimpanzees have consciousness, do they not have what until now has been described as 'human rights'?  How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?"

Senta Jerabek (1923-97) was a member of GAP-Australia. She was born in Prague, to a Jewish father and Catholic mother. Her father died in Treblinka. She herself survived two years in camps - including Auschwitz. On her release, she joined her mother in Prague, but fled from Czechoslovakia when the Communists took over. She found work as an X-ray assistant at a hospital in a Displaced Persons camp in Italy. In 1949, she emigrated to Australia, where she took up animal welfare work, becoming a councillor and magazine editor for the RSPCA.

She believed her compassion for animals came from knowing how it feels to be very hungry, cold and exploited. On seeing the TV film about Booee, she said the treatment of chimps there reminded her of her own experiences as a prisoner classified as 'sub-human'. In response, she sold some of her jewellery, raising AUS$5000, which GAP passed on to Booee's new home, the Wildlife Waystation.