Today I read the short story “A Report to an Academy,” by Franz Kafka. It’s a fascinating story about how an ape learns to adapt and become a man in order to leave his cage. The story really illustrated the cultural changes I described in my review for chapter one (Lower than the Angels) of The Ascent of Man by J. Bronowski; the ape didn’t change biologically to become like a man, remaining exactly like it was, but it learned new habits and overcame strong dislikes out of necessity. I found it very engaging, since the ape sometimes makes everything sound like a trap, with freedom an idea that can never quite be reached — although he escaped the cage, by doing so, he had to become a man, and to escape his new life and return to his former life as an ape, he would have to relearn the manners of an ape. I enjoyed learning about how quickly he changed into becoming a man — humans took hundreds of thousands of years — and his description of the time that he first drank alcohol and spoke. I would rate this book 9.6/10 and recommend it to anyone interested in a good, quick read.
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