Werner Herzog eats his shoe | Hacker News Reader

Werner Herzog eats his shoe

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117 pointsgraderjs32 comments

    If you say to a child 'I'll kill you if you do that', and he does it, you must kill him, or he will never trust you.

-- Bertrand Russell (from my memory, so probably not quite verbatim)

Do you have any recollection of where you read this quote? I've tried searching for the original wording but had no luck.

Sorry! Don't know. I thought probably his autobiography, but I've just searched a PDF of that, and his History of Western Philosophy, and it's not in either of those. I guess one of his essays - must be one of the ones collected in books, because those are the only ones I've read, but that doesn't narrow it down much :-(

He also graciously listened to interviewer play him Paul F. Tompkins impression of him, and gave a warm response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmQAsyFE-Mc

Sometimes I think with Herzog and Kinski two lunatics had found each other and it is interesting to see how both dealt with it. While Kinski was pulled down by it like in a vortex Herzog seems to have learned to ride the wave and use it at his advantage.

Werner Herzog is the only sane person on the planet. He should build an asylum overlooking the Pacific Ocean to put the rest of us in.

Gunshot Victims Have High Risk Of Being Shot Again In The Future, UW Researchers Find [1][2]

[1] https://www.knkx.org/law/2015-02-24/gunshot-victims-have-hig...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrRNM9cMBDk

That's because they include people in gangs or targeted for domestic abuse, caught up in feuds with others, and such.

There's also the fact that a person in a seedy area with lots of violence going on, might be victim or witness more than a shooting in his lifetime too, even if they're totally innocent and more involved.

But with those factors taken out, it's not like being shot once is connected to being shot again via any other mysterious route...

So, yes, if you were shot once at a drug deal gone wrong, or John Wick tried to killed you and missed at some point, you'll likely be shot again.

If, on the other hand, you were an accidental victim of some random mass shooting, or got caught in a crossfire once and you're not living in some ghetto, it's not like you'll be more likely to be shot again because of it.

> a seedy area with lots of violence going on

E.g. America.

https://archive.org/details/shortwernerherzogeatshisshoe1980...

We have a Swedish politician that could take a lesson from that... don't promise what you can't keep, or take the consequences. If you say you will eat your shoes if something happens, it is a promise you should keep. Kudos to Herzog for living up to his words.

Not to derail this into another subthread about the politics of sweden, but who are you refering to? The only one I know who have made such a promise was Kindberg-Batra when she was a candidate for the Stockholm municipality.

I would guess Annie Lööf. https://twitter.com/lindbergpolemik/status/14094562255955763...

Yes, I meant her

I meant Lööf, I did not know Kindberg-Batra had broken a similar promise.

Well she (being a bit of a edgelord in her younger days) promised to "show skin" if she got elected, and some people thoght that they would get a strip tease or something like that. As I remember it, she did post a square super zoomed in image supposedly of her body but it was impossible to actually identify any specific body part.

Only one ? All politicians i know are patologic liars and they will twist as the wind changes direction.

Only one that promised to eat her shoes, and failed to do it once she broke her promise

I wonder how toxic boiled shoe leather is. Would there be anything nasty left from the tanning process or polish?

Depends on how it was tanned. I wouldn't want to eat chrome tanned leather.

Probably not more or less than this, that you already eat:

https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/04/11/how-much-plastic-d...

https://plasticoceans.org/humans-eating-plastic-over-40-poun...

Saw the short film somewhere (maybe Criterion Channel?) ... He did quite a bit of cheating by eating only a specific portion and not eating it raw... Still pretty funny though.

Also look up the story of him jumping into a cactus... Ouch (I think they mention it in the film)

According to WP: "He did not eat the sole of the shoe, however, explaining that one does not eat the bones of the chicken."

Even in defeat he remains Werner Herzog.

Wasn’t defeat. He did this to compel Errol Morris to finish a film. Morris is now one of our greatest documentarians.

This was true victory

"One" may not, but I usually eat at least part of them. The marrow is the most delicious part, and the cartilage is good for you.

The cactus story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_05oG6WCY

> "Also look up the story of him jumping into a cactus... Ouch (I think they mention it in the film)"

Not to forget when he was shot during an interview and plays it cool.

https://youtu.be/HrRNM9cMBDk

One of the many glories of The Mandalorian is Herzog's role.

And if you haven't seen Fitzcarraldo, put down your computing device and go watch that movie instead.

The period with Fitzcaraldo, Agguire Wrath of God, and Cobra Verde was amazing.

After watching "Fitzcarraldo", be sure to watch "Burden of Dreams".

Another director would have used practical special effects (models) to film dragging the steamship over the mountain and riding it down the rapids. Herzog dragged a real steamship over the actual mountain and he and the film crew rode it down the rapids.

In "Aguirre Wrath of God" the conquistadors war party lose half of their equipment when a flood sweeps one of the rafts away. This was not part of the script, during on location shooting an actual flood swept one of the movie crews rafts away with a lot of the equipment and props.

See also Peter Beck of Rocketlab eating his own hat: https://youtu.be/agqxJw5ISdk?t=189

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