The Apes of Eden - The Antiquities, Jon P. Gunn [best books to read in your 20s TXT] 📗
- Author: Jon P. Gunn
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The Apes of Eden
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Jon P. Gunn
iCrew Digital Productions
Chula Vista, California
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Social Media
Acknowledgements
The Apes of Eden
Prologue and Invocation
Antiquities of Eden
Genesis
Exodus
The Fall
The Classicist
The Classicist continued
The Classicist (concluded)
The Missionaries
The Missionaries (Continued)
The Missionaries (concluded)
David and the Cyclops
About the Author
The Apes of Eden: The Journey Begins
Copyright © 2013 by Kent F. Gunn
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
iCrew Digital Productions
Website: icrewdigital.com
Email: icrew@cox.net
First eBook Edition: September 2013
iCrew Digital Productions is an independent publisher of digital works. We support the efforts of authors who wish to self-publish in the digital realm
ISBN 978-0-9851752-0-7
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Acknowledgments
I met Jon P. Gunn through a Navy friend in 1983. He inspired me, entertained me, challenged me and then finally gave me one of the greatest gifts that I ever received, the manuscript for The Apes of Eden. He died shortly thereafter but made a solemn last request that I wait 30 years before sharing the Apes with the world. I am honoring that request by publishing The Apes of Eden as a trilogy.
iCrew Digital Productions started as a high school club at Hilltop High consisting of very talented individuals who are just now reaching the primes of their careers. iCrew was preceded by another group of students equally talented as a part of Southwest High Video Productions. iCrew continues with young, talented group of photographers at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Chula Vista. These kids are my inspiration and my family.
I would like to thank some of the many who the Apes of Eden begin their journey including Abigail Nieuwenhuis, formerly iCrew member Abby Beckner, who performed much of the editing on the Apes. iCrew Member Karin Street has provided much needed business sense and advice. Thanks to iCrew member Stacee Strickland, who pointed me to Annie Hobbs, who has created an inspiring cover that will bring in countless curious readers to the world of Literate Louie, the Scribe of the Tribe.
Special thanks to Cheryl Johnson of Skye’s the Limit Publishing for formatting the print version of The Apes of Eden. Her friendship and advice through the years have been invaluable.
And my greatest thanks to the author, who continues to inspire me. Each time I read the Apes of Eden, I learn more about him and his wonderful legacy. He was a magician with words. Let the magic continue.
Rick Lakin, Publisher
iCrew Digital Productions
The Apes of Eden
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Literate Louie, the Scribe of the Tribe
Prologue and Invocation
My present goal is briefly to describe
the mighty deeds of Eden’s famous Tribe
from high antiquity to modern times
in lucid, readable Heroic Rhymes
that nearly any member of our band
with brains between his ears, can understand.
Permit me, first, a word on scribal Style:
Traditions have been fixed for quite a while;
and I shall follow them, however it
displeases readers lacking taste and wit.
I write as Eden’s classic authors wrote.
Wherever possible, I try to quote
their golden iambs. Thus should every scribe
of Eden keep the records of the Tribe.
All tastes are not alike, I realize.
I nonetheless decline to compromise!
What compromise is possible? One type
of reader savors Art, the other, tripe.
There is no tepid "Middle Way" to go.
Like death, or pregnancy, it’s Yes or No--
You’ll either be enraptured by the terse,
majestic cadence of Heroic Verse
or else it drives you screaming up the wall.
There seems to be no neutral ground at all.
I don’t expect my work to go to waste.
We have, among us, apes of cultured taste:
the Literate Elite. I write for those.
Let lowbrows read some Scribbler’s dreary prose.
This book will fill some long-felt needs. For one,
our present tribal Archives weigh a ton.
The custom of inscribing all our lore
on chiseled slabs of stone, as heretofore,
has meant that history has put on weight
beyond my competence to estimate--
much less to carry. Nor have volunteers
come forth to share this load I’ve borne for years
through prairies, mountains, deserts, swamps and sloughs
as Eden’s Tribe it’s holy Quest pursues.
A sedentary race of stay-at-homes
is justified in storing weighty tomes,
but apes who have our quest-pursuing bent
with lighter reading ought to be content.
The land through which we travel now is rife
with deadly hazards to one’s health and life:
explosive gas from smoking fumeroles,
and dragons darting out of clefts and holes,
and winged snakes, concealed in clouds of gray
volcano smoke, to pounce upon their prey.
It’s difficult for someone to compete
unless he’s quick and agile on his feet,
and not encumbered by a heavy sack
of Literary Treasures on his back.
And if the harsh, relentless truth be told,
I’m past my prime of life: I’m getting old.
A lighter load would be a boon to me.
I’m not as nimble as I used to be.
Besides, too many "documents" we keep
are uninformative--a cumbrous heap
of sherds and fragments which cannot be read;
or commentaries, made by scribes long dead,
on writings which were subsequently lost
among the swamps and deserts we have crossed;
or whopping tales the ancient used to weave,
which now not even gaffers can believe
or myths our Senior Tribesmen have themselves
devised--of goblins, pixies, spooks and elves--
which scribes with little talent of their own
as chroniclers, immortalized in stone.
We have some archives which exist in three
or four editions, none of which agree.
Least valuable of all our books are those
in cryptic tongues no living tribesman knows.
Be sensible: Do antiquaries need
archaic texts which none of us can read?
There’s too much trash the Tribe of Eden owns
of which in vain we ask: What Mean These Stones?
The monsters we contend with, day by day,
have proven helpful, in a passive way.
The fuming pits abounding in this land
provide the chemicals with which I’ve tanned
the dragon-leather which, if bleached, makes quite
a choice material on which to write.
One modest credit more: I’m first to think
of using dragons’ soot-black blood for ink.
If all goes well, I shall present the whole
of Eden’s history on one small scroll,
in style and portability improved,
with errors and obscurities removed--
a text which may an inspiration be
to apes, throughout our future destiny,
instead of merely stirring up dissent
by giving quibblers grounds for argument.
In place of many clashing texts, I give
you one, coherent and definitive!
No “food for thought” is lost. I promise that.
I save the meat, although I trim the fat.
For this first time in many days, the view
is relatively peaceful--with a few
small winged serpents soaring in the night;
but not a single Dragon is in sight.
I’ll seize this priceless opportunity
to finish editing my History
before another troupe of monsters choose
to interrupt me. Let’s get started, Muse!
Literate Louie
Scribe of the Tribe
December, 19067
The First Book of Louie
commonly called
The Antiquities of Eden
Genesis
According to the legends of our race
the Tribe originated in a place
called Eden. It lies "east," but east of where
is now no longer known. It’s said that there
our first progenitors came down from trees
where they had ripened in the sun and breeze.
A second legend contradicts the first,
and says we fell from Heaven, roundly cursed
by worried gods who recognized that we
were latent threats to their supremacy,
and wisely chose to banish us to Hell
before they had a Great Revolt to quell.
We outmaneuvered them, and landed here
on Earth. Just how we did it isn’t clear;
the legend’s Happy Ending seems to
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