The Lord of the Apes Goes to a Dinner Party

In On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, Nietzsche proposes that the human intellect is aimless and arbitrary in nature. He further states that there were "eternities in which it did not exist" and that "when it is all over with the human intellect, nothing will have happened." The power of knowing, claims Nietzsche, is reprehensible and unimportant.

While humans shamelessly hold claim to being the pinnacle of nature, and even further, make a distinction between humans and nature, Nietzsche states that this "war against all (or the self) [bellum omni contra omnes]" and the 'peace' which results from searching for the truth is the first contrast between truth and lie.

This struggle between man and his inability to accept his inclusion in nature is evident in the film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan. This film, which is very much true to Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes.  In particular, the dinner scene in which John Clayton (he wasn't explicitly referred to as Tarzan) is asked to entertain guests at a dinner party.

The guests at the dinner party think of Clayton as a savage, even though he is the grandson of the Earl of Greystoke. His natural instincts towards food consumption are mocked by those in attendance (including the Earl of Greystoke himself) and Clayton is regarded as a source of entertainment. While Clayton has previously lived as one with nature, the others regard him as a lesser being even though he is landed gentry and physically the same as the others. The members of polite society act according to a model of correct behavior, set forth because of their station in life. Nietzsche regards this model as non-existent in nature, as nature is not concerned with a form or concept from which others originate. 

The abstraction from nature is also evident in the main course of the dinner. A roasted chicken is served with adornments that remind the dinner guests of its original form, albiet in a very stylized manner. This abstraction from nature only serves to reinforce the belief that humans exist outside of the natural world. While this type pf illusion is considered rational, it perpetrates the lie that humans aren't from nature. 

Clayton himself is then asked to entertain the guests. While he has a rudimentary knowledge of English, he is an excellent mimic. This is probably due to a necessary need to elude potential predators during his formative years as a 'savage'. While this in itself is a lie, it is still inclusive of nature and not seeking to become separate from it. 

During the course of this display, Clayton disabuses the other guests to the fact that they are in fact a part of the natural world and not exclusive from it. He uses his skills to imitate animals to ultimately win Jane's affections (and delights and frightens her in the process). While the guests at the dinner party are comfortable living in the ultimate deception of the intellect, Clayton serves as a reminder that man is an intuitive beast at his primordial core, and the need for abstraction is an irrelevant byproduct of the modern world. The action of the refined members of high society to fashion Clayton into a functioning member of society further perpetrates the myth of man as being exclusive of nature.

Nietzsche described this abstraction as an ardent desire to refashion the world which presents itself to waking man, so that it will be as colorful, irregular, lacking in results and coherence, charming and eternally new as the world of dreams.  This statement, with influences from Pascal, hints at fashioning the world to meet man;s needs, rather than man adapting to the world around him.