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Orangutans first appeared in Western fiction in the 18th century and have been used to comment on human society. Written by the pseudonymous A. Ardra, Tintinnabulum naturae (The Bell of Nature, 1772) is told from the point of view of a human-orangutan hybrid who calls himself the "metaphysician of the woods". Around 50 years later, the anonymously written work The Orang Outang is narrated by a pure orangutan in captivity in the US, writing a letter critiquing Boston society to her friend in Java. [1] : 108–09
Thomas Love Peacock's 1817 novel Melincourt features Sir Oran Haut Ton, an orangutan who lives among English people and becomes a candidate for Member of Parliament. The novel satirises the class and political system of Britain. Oran's purity and status as a "natural man" stands in contrast to the immorality and corruption of the "civilised" humans. [1] : 110–11 In Frank Challice Constable's The Curse of Intellect (1895), the protagonist Reuben Power travels to Borneo and captures an orangutan to train it to speak so he can "know what a beast like that might think of us". [1] : 114–15 Orangutans are featured prominently in the 1963 science fiction novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle and the media franchise derived from it. They are typically portrayed as bureaucrats like Dr. Zaius, the science minister. [1] : 118–19, 175–76
Orangutans are sometimes portrayed as antagonists, notably in the 1832 Walter Scott novel Count Robert of Paris and the 1841 Edgar Allan Poe short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue . [1] : 145 Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book added a jazzy orangutan named King Louie, who tries to get Mowgli to teach him how to make fire. [1] : 266 The 1986 horror film Link features an intelligent orangutan which serves a university professor but has sinister motives; he plots against humanity and stalks a female student assistant. [1] : 174–75 Other stories have portrayed orangutans helping humans, such as The Librarian in Terry Pratchett's fantasy novels Discworld and in Dale Smith's 2004 novel What the Orangutan Told Alice. [1] : 123 More comical portrayals of the orangutan include the 1996 film Dunston Checks In . [1] : 181
