PrimatePoetics is Here

Four months ago I posted on spacecollective an essay in which I argued that the language researchers are teaching to great apes is producing a new literature. I have been going over this material many times since and am very to happy to announce that the latest version, much enlarged, is now available as a PDF booklet called "PrimatePoetics is Here". The blurb reads:

Apes in the wild have language and it takes only a small leap of imagination to try to give them a second, human, language. For over forty years researchers have been trying to do this with increasingly good results. Our language, when it is passed on to a different species, becomes a new language. PrimatePoetics is born from the realization that this language should be appreciated in its own right, as the greatest revolution in literature since the invention of written Chinese 4000 years ago. 'PrimatePoetics is Here' is the first primer to this new field. It explains where it comes from, it gives an overview of the field on an ape-by-ape basis and closes with an extensive anthology of relevant scientific and artistic sources. But most of all 'PrimatePoetics is Here' hopes to give a feel for the outsider charm of the language of the apes.

It can be downloaded at http://socialfiction.org. It is a long read, but I hope it is worth it. Do also check out the Everything About PrimatePoetics You Always Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask.

I look forward to your thoughts.

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Sat, May 31, 2008  Permanent link