Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
Phillip Dampier:
--- Quote from: Katie77 on January 06, 2007, 09:33:08 pm ---.......I thought EVERYONE owned and used one.....and when I saw it in the movie, I thought that was a pretty common occurence....
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They were trendy back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Technology solving the problems of carving. You mounted the holder on the wall in your kitchen and then plugged it in (they were cordless and you removed it when you needed to use it). My grandfather used it for one or two Thanksgiving meals carving the turkey (my grandfather would have been horrified by the wedge hunks Alma's new husband was making) into wafer thin slices. In our family, we always carved a plateful of meat - you didn't hack at the turkey when you wanted seconds - you cut the rest of the meat off after dinner and then either tossed the carcass or, inevitably, someone would want it to make stock or soup.
My father would never have anything of the sort in our house. He used the carving knife and he was the only one allowed to use it. I was amused with the alpha male scene in Jack's house because I've seen similar stuff in big family gatherings in my own life. The man of the house was the only one allowed to carve the meat. My mother woudn't touch his knives, nor would I. TV was -always- forbidden at the dinner table when I was growing up, so there would not have been that competition.
Katie77:
Cordless.........now that would be helpful......even the one I bought for my mum recently, still has a cord.......and I am always wary that the cord is well out of the way, so it doesnt get sliced, and maybe electrocute me..
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Katie77 on January 06, 2007, 09:33:08 pm ---.......I thought EVERYONE owned and used one.....and when I saw it in the movie, I thought that was a pretty common occurence....
--- End quote ---
In the stratum of U.S. society to which my family belonged, the upwardly striving working class, I'd say it was a pretty common occurence, at least when it was, as Philip says, trendy in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Mom and Dad thought it was a Big Deal when they finally got one--only way my dad could cut decent, even slices--which might have had something to do with the propensity of the womenfolk in our family to roast meat and poultry till it just about fell apart. ;D
I won't dispute that the electric knife may be intended to show poor Monroe as a wimp, but maybe, since that's Thanksgiving 1977, it also shows that he can give Alma the kind of trendy, up-to-date things that Ennis never gave her. Put another way, it may also speak to the economic factor in Alma's divorce of Ennis.
serious crayons:
That, plus an electric knife is the domesticated, indoor, society way to cut up meat -- as opposed to cutting up a whole elk at the campsite.
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 10, 2007, 05:38:06 pm ---... maybe, since that's Thanksgiving 1977, it also shows that he can give Alma the kind of trendy, up-to-date things that Ennis never gave her. Put another way, it may also speak to the economic factor in Alma's divorce of Ennis.
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--- Quote from: latjoreme on January 10, 2007, 10:26:29 pm ---That, plus an electric knife is the domesticated, indoor, society way to cut up meat -- as opposed to cutting up a whole elk at the campsite.
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Good points, you two. :)
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