Last month saw the lates installment in the Planet of the Apes saga, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Interestingly, one can very much trace my fascination and, I suppose, involvement with the Medieval America project to the series. The movies, particularly the opening for Battle, instilled in me the possiiblities for a reverted society, one that seemed closer to nature, as opposed to a decaying scavenger world (Although the film had some of that too).
Sussing out the actual civillization level for the Ape societies has always been a debate among fans. The original setting with its alien fashiion and archictecture probably obsfucates it a little, but things like guns, cameras, hoses and surgery makes it somewhat analagous to the mid 19th century. The 2001 Tim Burton movie largely presents Ape City as a distinctly pre-modern (If very opulent!) civillization although with odd elements like a Jazz band and a some kind of junior sports league, replete with matching jerseys. Such anarchronisms are probably to be expected, considering its origins (And White's Neo-Medieval world doubtless has a few), but the new Kingdom was the first to sort of explicitly go for a heroic fantasy quest vibe, and is perhaps the most adjacent to the Medieval American world.
Notably, the film has a scene where our heroes ecounter a herd of wild zebras. (actually, the term is supposed to be a "dazzle of zebras) Something that's always brought up is what kind of non-native animals would exist, escaping from zoos and private collections. (Like, Pablo's Escobar's hippos or the abslute mess that is the Everglades) White never really talked about that, simply that native fauna likes wolves could reclaim some of their territory. As I've mentioned in the past, and the last entry in particular, humans would probably never let too many exotic animals get that far, seeing them as pests or threats, or just resources to be harvested without culivating a sustainable population. Which brings us the to Great Apes themselves-this segment on Life After People (which likely inspired a lot of Kingom's lore) presents Chimps carving out a niche in Florida, but with these species already endangered on their home territory, could they last in Medieval America? Though perhaps in the more inpenetrable regions of the New World, they might do a little better. But it's also ingteresting to wonder, if they're around or not, how aware Medieval Americans are aware of the concept of apes. There is of course, the Bigfoot legend, and smaller monkeys are endemic to the Americas. (And the "ape vs monkey" distinction is a pretty amusing conversation, as great apes (which include humans) are actually a branch of monkey, and it should be said the two terms can be intelligible in many languages, particularly the romance languages (Of no small importance, as Planet of the Apes was originally a French novel, La Planète des singes.))
Overall I bring this up to sort of ponder how Planet of the Apes, if not something that would literally happen, would reoccur as a "piece of popular culture turned ancient legend" that's a recurring trope in post-apocalyptic fiction. It's something I try to use sparingly, but what's interesting about the Apes series is that is the franchise with the most pararells to the Medieval America concept (I don't think it could co-exist), with the most mmainstream penetration. Shannara and the Emberverse are still very niche, and the mad Max series, while a very iconic treatise on the reversion to Barbarism, still has a lot of industrial asthetics and resources that are esssential to the plot. So one is tempted to ask what kind of place it holds in the popular imagination; A cautionary tale, a looming threat, a belief that just as civillization could revert, humans could "de-evolve" (either into the dumb brutes of the series, or perhaps into apes themselves, similar to the stories of Conan the Barbarian.) Or perhaps, a "there but for the Grace of God" scenario, that things might be tough, but at least we're not game for killer Gorillas.
