Planet of the Apes and Philosophy edited by John Huss

(opencourtbooks.com) This publisher (an offshoot of the company that does Cricket – the kids waiting room magazine that doesn’t have Goofus and Gallant, making it either the Goofus or the Gallant of waiting room kids magazines, depending on your point  of view) ha been doing collections of pop culture themed philosophy essays for years. I’ve ignored their Simpsons, Beatles and Colbert collections, but this one is unmissable for a few reasons. The first is that Chicago rock n roll fans certainly remember Huss as the wordier, cleverer Jonathan Richman of his day when he haunted clubs in town. The second is that anyone who has ever sat through a cable marathon (or self-curated a VHS or DVD marathon) of the orignal Apes series has so many ideas of what the films say about life, earth, war, evolution, and Ricardo Montalban that it’s a thrill to read what others think. The third is that we must do all we can to make Heston’s revelation not come true! My only gripe is that too many essays here expect me to have a working knowledge of the remakes.