On the Shelf
The Way forward for Fact
By Werner HerzogPenguin Press: 128 pages, $26
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Herzog’s new ebook, “The Future of Truth,” is an evaluation of our current “post-truth” panorama, a loose-jointed memoir wherein Herzog shares anecdotes about his life and profession, in addition to historic snapshots of the position of reality versus fantasy in artwork. It’s a sometimes Herzogian enterprise, extremely idiosyncratic and at instances frustratingly indirect. Nonetheless, the purpose is made: Fact is a malleable factor, liable to erasure and distortion, but we want it greater than ever.
“The quest for truth is something that has never left me,” says Herzog. “It is almost unreachable. Philosophers will all give you different answers as to what constitutes truth. There is something in human nature that has planted this quest for truth in us. It has been a daily presence in my life as a filmmaker and writer. Yet we should not overlook the fact that we also have a yearning for being misled, for being brought into something which suspends our disbelief.”
However fanciful tales aren’t simply shared by communities; we are able to use them in our private lives as a approach to eradicate the messiness of reality and supply a measure of consolation. In his ebook, Herzog relates one unusual incident that occurred on the set of Concord Korine’s 2007 movie, “Mister Lonely,” wherein Herzog performed a missionary named Father Umbrillo. Whereas taking pictures the movie at an airport off the east coast of Panama, Herzog, in costume, noticed a person on the opposite aspect of a excessive fence holding a sprig of flowers in his hand.
“He fascinated me somehow and I began speaking with him,” says Herzog. “He told me his wife had left him and taken the children, and he came to the airport every day with flowers, hoping she would return. I was still wearing my priest costume and he asked me if I would take his confession. I told him I was acting in a film but he didn’t care. He confessed. He wanted an environment that wasn’t true. It was very strange and beautiful.”
Within the public sphere, there are numerous variations on related mediated variations of the reality, tales that present a measure of emotional catharsis. Herzog cites skilled wrestling for example of a spectacle wherein the viewers members and performers collude in a story that’s patently false, but has all the weather of official competitors. “Everyone knows it’s made up, yet they collectively participate because it gives space for collective emotions to be expressed,” he says. “I call it an axiom of emotions. No matter how artificial something might be, the emotions are always true.”
“I know quite well what happened in the Soviet Union because my wife is from Siberia,” says Herzog. “In the former Soviet Union, everyone knew that what they were reading was lies. In our system, we do not ask these questions so deeply. And I do believe that the media create a bubble of narratives that is very lopsided. Not outright lies, but lies of omission.”
“It would be wrong to look at AI in terms of optimism or pessimism,” he says. “We know the dangers. Some AI is already actively used in warfare. But it will also dominate pharmaceuticals, for example. It will dominate human health. It is more a question of, ‘How much are we willing to delegate to AI? Do we want to delegate our dreams?’ My answer is no because I’m a storyteller. As a filmmaker, I know AI will never make anything half as good as my films.”
