softly, softly, catchee monkey
Towards the end of the twenty-second century, Sooty Mangabey #347,233 is trapped with countless other monkeys who have all been forced to type at random as part of a real life ‘infinite monkey theorem’ experiment within the confines of a scientific research facility. Their aimless typing mostly produces jumbles of letters and numbers. But, occasionally, they compose blank verse poetry, television scripts, short novels and one act plays. The sooty mangabey relays the story of Chet, a well-intentioned but lonely illicit arms dealer who gets caught up with Adam, an unsure and anxious bathroom supply salesman perpetually teetering on the edge of suicide. The two become entangled in a frenetic narrative that blurs absurdity and profundity as it snowballs towards catastrophe.
Darkly funny, exceedingly eccentric and singularly American, Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey is a study of the peculiarity of history, the many different types of self-destruction and the behavior of apes contained in a giant laboratory with nothing to do but type away their lives.
