Werner Herzog: Would You Die for the Pokémons? Would You Kill?
Prior to an interview with The Verge published Thursday, celebrated documentarian Werner Herzog was evidently unfamiliar with Pokémon Go, the game that—like his movies—explores how far the human creature will go to be the very best, like no one ever was.
“I don’t know what Pokémon Go is and what all these things are,” Herzog told the website. “Tell me about Pokémon Go. What is happening on Pokémon Go?”
Almost immediately, however, the filmmaker identified the question at the very core of the popular mobile app: What savagery will a dreamer tolerate to capture the pocket monsters? Will he bite a hand? From The Verge:
[Herzog:] Does it tell you you’re here at San Vicente, close to Sunset Boulevard?
[The Verge:] Yeah, it’s basically like a Google map.
But what does pokémon do at this corner here?
You might be able to catch some. It’s all completely virtual. It’s very simple, but it’s also an overlay of physically based information that now exists on top of the real world.
When two persons in search of a pokémon clash at the corner of Sunset in San Vicente is there violence? Is there murder?
They do fight, virtually.
Physically, do they fight?
No—
Do they bite each other’s hands? Do they punch each other?
The people or the...
Yes, there must be real people if it’s a real encounter with someone else.
Sadly, The Verge was unable to answer Herzog’s question, one that perhaps remains a mystery even to the gods.
