MovieChat Forums > My Dinner with Andre (1981) Discussion > The electric blanket discussion literall...

The electric blanket discussion literally blew my mind!

posted 9 years ago by edlitz36
8 replies | jump to latest

I have had thoughts and even discussions with friends (the more intelligent ones at least) about this sort of topic but not so much to this extent.

The electric blanket discussion in the film brings up the parallels of how humans live on the planet vs. how all other animals live. The term "indoors" is an entirely man-made construct. Aside from domesticated pets, no other animal species lives indoors, they all live (survive actually) in their natural habitat, fighting against the elements. It's a daily struggle of adaptation and survival. When it's summer, wild animals endure the heat. In the winter, they migrate, hibernate or simply endure the cold. Could you imagine spending one month of your life in the mindset of a deer? Actually searching for food in nature, avoiding predators, finding shelter during thunderstorms? What do humans do in bad weather? We simply tune it out and put on our noise-canceling headphones or get absorbed in a TV show or movie on Netflix.

When it's cold, we as humans don't endure it. We crank up the heat or wrap ourselves up in our electric blanket and in doing so, we almost forget that weather even exists-- animals living in the wild certainly never forget it! The struggle against nature that virtually every living thing combats day by day has been completely eradicated from our lives. We as a species are so completely out of tune with the natural world and its processes.

We are animals spawned from nature after all but we have completely disconnected ourselves from our natural environment, and even worse (as Andre stated), we have disconnected ourselves from each other within our own species. If all humans in North America lived in nature during the winter time (without blankets or furnaces), if we actually endured the cold, yes, we'd all be miserable sleeping at night. But it would generate a sense of empathy for other people, because we're all facing the cold weather -- we'd all be in it together, a sense of connectedness if you will. And not just a connectedness to each other but also to nature and all other living things (deer, groundhogs, snakes) that also must endure the cold.

When using an electric blanket, you become too comfortable and completely forget your troubles. The following thoughts wouldn't even cross your mind, "Hey does my friend Johnny have a warm blanket on this cold night? Is he comfortable like I am at this moment, or did his heater break down? Oh well, I'm comfortable so..." etc.

You can argue that our distinctive evolution has naturally led us to the invention of the furnace, the electric blanket and other creature comforts that keep us warm in the winter. We are the only species intelligent enough to do so as we are the only species that is self aware. But this self-awareness (known as human consciousness) is really a curse, a tragic misstep in evolution as Rust Cohle puts it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8x73UW8Hjk). This self-awareness led to the creation of society and our current way of living on this planet. The source of most of our angst, frustrations, depression, malaise, ennui, feelings of dissociation and isolation is really the result of our species' separation from the natural world (where we truly belong) and our difficulty in adjusting to our isolated, phony, unnatural new habitat that we dubbed "society". I mean, you don't see wild animals suffering from seasonal affective disorder.

If society were to ever break down-- and based on current trends, it inevitably will--, most members of our species would succumb to mass extinction. Since most of us have never learned to hunt or forage, or learned to truly adapt to changing weather patterns (like our wild animal colleagues). Most people don't even have a basic understanding of agricultural cycles and how the earth, soil and nutrients come together to produce vegetables. All we know how to do is to drive to the grocery store or order a Big Mac at the drive-thru. So if you really think about it, animals in nature are really more aware than we are. And there in lies the paradox, despite all of our species' technological advances (with global communication, medical research and space exploration), we are indeed truly ignorant.

What a brilliant, thought-provoking film this was.

Religion should be made fun of. If I believed that stuff, I'd keep it to myself. -Larry David

[–] Owlwise 9 years ago

Yours is a pretty thought-provoking post, too!

This is exactly the sort of thing I get from watching My Dinner With Andre many times over the years. If only more films were even 1/10th as thought-provoking!

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] georgijeg1 8 years ago

First of all i would like to agree with you that this was a very thought-provoking film. It certainly made me rethink my life and the way i do things automatically like a robot 99% of the time.

But i also think the greatest achievement of mankind is the ability to constantly improve our standard of living. While people in the stone age were certainly more aware of the world around them, it was a thoroughly unpleasant existence. Would you say that it was really better to spend all day trying to find food or shelter than it is for people today to go to work? Back then you could never know if you would be able to eat anything the next day or not. Today the vast majority of people in the developed world do not have to worry about food. So we are free to do other things, like pursuing hobbies, being creative, thinking and inventing new things.

If electric blankets didn't exist, a huge chunk of Wally's free time would be dedicated to figuring out why the heating doesn't work and arranging to have insulating windows installed. But now he can choose to cuddle up in bed and think about the plot of his next play. Or alternatively if he lives in 2016 he can choose to take selfies and post them on Facebook with various hashtags, or he can check out Kim Kardashian's latest nude photos on his latest generation iPad.
But the point is that he is now at least free to choose if he wants to spend his time in a meaningful way or not. People in the stone age who had no assistance from modern technology never had this choice. They always simply had to do whatever was necessary to survive. In this regard they really were like other animals.

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

The term "indoors" is an entirely man-made construct. Aside from domesticated pets, no other animal species lives indoors, they all live (survive actually) in their natural habitat, fighting against the elements. It's a daily struggle of adaptation and survival. When it's summer, wild animals endure the heat. In the winter, they migrate, hibernate or simply endure the cold.

Not true at all. Plenty of animals live "indoors" to escape the abrasive climate. Bears hibernate in caves to escape the cold.

Some animals even build their own houses. Birds build nests, and not just the stereotypical cartoon nests, but fully encapsulating and insulating nests. Beavers build damns with underwater areas where they can sleep and live in. Species of lizards and mice will dig holes to escape from the harsh heat of a summer. Bees build hives. Ants have anthills.

Indoors is not a "man-made construct." It's a natural construct common to many species.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] keyser_soze_smokes 8 years ago

Literally?
Mindless?
Enlightening.

(\___/)This is Bunny! Put him on your
(='.'=)signature to help him gain
(")_(")world domination

[–] pinansky 8 years ago

You (and Gregory's character) fall victim to the "noble savage" myth. The problem is it runs up against facts and falls apart. Modern anthropology that studies primitive cultures has thoroughly debunked these idea. They are susceptible to the same neurosis, power politics, prejudices and so on as we have in modern society, yet with even GREATER brutality because they live in a world of scarcity, so the stakes are higher. You can give your lunch for a homeless man because you know you can buy another meal for yourself. Would you be so charitable if you had no idea when or where you might eat next?

Empathy and charity are luxuries of safety and abundance a brutal primitive world has LESS not MORE of these things.

Man is a social animal, a look at our closest relatives reveals they play

[–] Etxpeme 8 years ago

if we actually endured the cold, yes, we'd all be miserable sleeping at night.

This is entirely subjective and a generalization. I, for once, find it extremely hard to sleep without being cold. I think I'm in the minority but I'm sure there are more people out there who share this trait with me.

But it would generate a sense of empathy for other people, because we're all facing the cold weather -- we'd all be in it together, a sense of connectedness if you will.

Again, subjective. We can also have a sense of empathy for those who, like us, are warm, comfortable and cozy in their homes.

And not just a connectedness to each other but also to nature and all other living things (deer, groundhogs, snakes) that also must endure the cold.

I think you're anthropomorphizing them. They have fur and a fat layer that keep them protected from the cold. Penguins and polar bears can survive -40 degrees (ºF and ºC)

When using an electric blanket, you become too comfortable and completely forget your troubles.

Or not. They're not magical nor psychedelic. You're generalizing way too much.

The following thoughts wouldn't even cross your mind, "Hey does my friend Johnny have a warm blanket on this cold night? Is he comfortable like I am at this moment, or did his heater break down? Oh well, I'm comfortable so..." etc.

Again, generalizing. And if you were cold, you'd probably be thinking of how freaking cold you are, I don't think you would care for other people being cold. In fact, call me a pessimist, but I think (now I'm generalizing too) that to care about other people's well being, we first have to ''aquire'' our own well being. Meaning, if you're hungry you won't care about hungry childs in Africa; you will care about you being hungry and you getting something to eat. Then, only after you have eaten and made sure you'll have something to eat in the foreseeable future, will you care about starving childs in Africa. Same for being cold.

The source of most of our angst, frustrations, depression, malaise, ennui, feelings of dissociation and isolation is really the result of our species' separation from the natural world (where we truly belong)

This is subjective. There can be many causes to these things. Separation from the natural world could be one of them but saying it's the only reason is a simplistic approach.

and our difficulty in adjusting to our isolated, phony, unnatural new habitat that we dubbed "society".

Society isn't our habitat; cities and villages are. We'd still have society if we ''lived in the wild''. Probably, there would be an alpha male who'd get most if not all the ladies. Maybe, we'd also have a smartass who'd (re)discover fire and he would get the respect of the others. And, lastly there would be this poor guy who can't get chicks, can't hunt, can't fight, has no one to care about him, and has to stay all day picking cherries with old ladies, therefore, he has: angst, frustration, depression, malaise, ennui, feelings of dissociation and isolation (despite living in the wild).

you don't see wild animals suffering from seasonal affective disorder.

A quick Google search shows that pets can have it. Also, would you know it if you saw it? For all we know foxes, bears, cougars... could be depressed for not being able to find food in Winter. But we wouldn't know it even if we saw it, would we?

If society were to ever break down-- and based on current trends, it inevitably will--

You can't know that.

So if you really think about it, animals in nature are really more aware than we are.

According to the Oxford dictionary: aware means ''having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact''. And I can't be sure but I'd say we have much more knowledge about our surroundings that animals do. Most people don't know how to survive in the wild simply because they don't need it, much as animals don't know how to survive in cities because they don't need it.

[–] Owlwise 8 years ago

Yours is one way of experiencing the world; the OP's is another. One of the points of the film, I think, is that no single worldview is sufficient for all people; there must be an ongoing dialogue between different ones. Wally & Andre could easily been seen as two aspects of one person, trying to balance & intertwine two very different worldviews. To totally embrace just one of them, no matter which one, would ultimately be insufficient.

As Anais Nin once said, "We do not see the world as it is, we see it as we are."