fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3757 ]

[ SECRET POST #3757 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3757 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This one is a bit specific, but I could use some weighing in.

I'm writing an SF story set on a planet where the original human colonists all decided to clone a bunch of orangutan bodies and have their brains transplanted into them and then the second wave colonists come into conflict with the sapient orangutan descendants of the first wave whom they do recognise as human. My question is this: Some of my beta readers think that using orangutans is ripping of Terry Pratchett and I should pick another primate; is it okay to ignore them on this? I don't really want to write about people brain-swapping with chimps (cliched) or gorillas (potentially really racist). I don't feel like I'm ripping off Terry Pratchett, I just like the idea of sapient orangutans. If anything I'm closer to ripping off George Lucas with his wookies and ewoks.

Opinions?

The orangutan in Discworld was a librarian who got transformed via a magical accident. It's a totally different scenario so you're not ripping it off at all.

That was my feeling. It is a deliberate lifestyle choice rather than a magical thingie. Maybe one of the colonists was a Pratchett fan (or liked to binge watch Monkey Life) and hang a lampshade on it. Or maybe just leave it as a bunch of space hippies that just think being Orangs would be cool.

I would not think of Pratchett and personally I'd like to see more done with orangutans so that people will eventually stop calling them orangutangs.

I've never read the Pratchett books, but I don't see how this scenario is remotely like ewoks or wookies. Or how gorillas would be racist unless only black colonists transplant.

AYRT.

I don't know why I feel gorilla transplants would be racist, I just kinda do. I just feel uneasy over it and would rather not go there. Plus I really like orangutans. I feel there is more in there with them than the other primates, I think -mind is the plaything of the body trope alert- that it would make a more creative difference.

The ewoks thing... I'm going, since these are still fully sapient and human culture originator minds at play, with sort of treetop villages as the centres of the population. Not as permanent and as well constructed as Lucas', with all the platforms and bridges, something a bit more ramshackle but still recognisable to a baseline human as a village in the trees even if it is more just a loose meeting place than a permanent residence.

Oh. So, "villagers in trees" is your main "but they're more like ewoks!" point?

Kinda. I mean the ewoks are kinda the biggest primate-type sapient with tree-villages in pop culture, IYSWIM? I worry by invoking that trope it might be too close to that. I was somewhat surprised when some of my betas threw up the Terry Pratchett thing instead. It has got me all second guessing myself.

Ewoks are aliens though. Orangutans are Earth creatures. And you're putting human brains in them. It's so weird to me that ewoks and wookies are things you jump to at all.

I came up with a story which involves main characters who are descendants of space hippies who thought becoming orangutans was a cool idea. I think we can safely say that logical connections have very little to do with my thought processes.

Genuinely curious...how is it cliché to use chimps instead of Orangutans? I'd think it would be more practical, as Orangutans are kind of physically bulky.

Oh come on, every time you have a sentient ape it is a chimp.

Planet of the Apes, Detective Chimp, the super intelligent space chimp from The Simpsons.

I'm sure there are others.

...but usually not as a result of brain swapping. And there are legitimate scientific reasons why chimps are a good candidate, so it's not just an arbitrary choice.

Get better beta readers.

How are the descendant orangutans intelligent if what made their ancestors intelligent was the result of surgical implantation of human brains into orangutan bodies? The humans-in-orangutan-bodies would just give birth to normal orangutans without human brains in them. (Cut off rats' tails, their babies will still have tails.)

Please answer that question first.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3757 ]

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