crabs
Metaphors aside, does anyone have the background info on the crabs? Where were they? were they migrating? I read the section in my Herzong on Herzog book and he didn't mention it.
Dictated, but not read.
They are called Christmas Island red crabs.
Herzog included gorgeous footage of them in his documentary Echoes From A Somber Empire. He associates these rabidly teeming crabs with cannibalism and despotism.
Man Eat Man.
The horde of scrabbling crabs = The rise of the Nazis.
Survival of the Fittest.
Mankind devouring Mankind.
He associates these rabidly teeming crabs with cannibalism and despotism.
To me, that has always been Herzog's failing. Although he proclaims himself a naturalist (I believe it was in "Burden of Dreams" he made that surprising claim), he is merely an anthropomorphicist. That is, he sees nature in distincly human terms. Perhaps that is what led him to make the bizarre statement, "I believe in the universe the common denominator is chaos, hostility and murder" (again, from BoD I believe). And in all his films he assigns nature & animals malicious, jealous, angry, human traits. See Fitzcarraldo (jungle), Aguirre (jungle again), Nosferatu (rats), Grizzly Man (bears), Dwarves Started Small (chickens), etc.
Anyway, the metaphor of the crabs is interesting because it shows that Herzog still hasn't made peace with nature; he continues to see it as an adversary with human vices. Yet not a single crab is fighting with another. While some people may see the sublime beauty of these crabs quietly existing on a shoreline, Herzog sees angry, red demons.
I was very puzzled by the crab scene because I assumed that these gorgeous, vulnerable creatures represented the Jewish people and that the oncoming train represented the coming Holocaust that would pulverize them. But knowing how Herzog thinks, I agree your explanation is the one he had in mind. I'd like to know other peoples' first impressions when the saw the crabs. Am I the only one who thinks red crabs are cool? share
I was very puzzled by the crab scene because I assumed that these gorgeous, vulnerable creatures represented the Jewish people and that the oncoming train represented the coming Holocaust that would pulverize them.That is as valid as what I said. All in all, Humankind is its own Holocaust.
I think he is also saying that humans are animals.
The chicken dance at the end of Stroszek - humans are "dancing" like the chicken, life is a trap and the slings and arrows of misfortune force humans to erratically "dance" themselves to death, just as the base the chicken is stepping on is intentionally electrified, which forces the chicken to dance, and it will eventually dance itself to death.
Herzog is a naturalist, but being a naturalist does mean a person feels that the natural world is 100% devoid of beastial violence and harshness and peril.
As you noted, the natural world - animals and landscape combined - can be just as violent, angry, malicious, precipitous, unforgiving, unthinking, desolate, and isolated as humans.
What Herzog frequently gives us is a nature, both touched and untouched by humankind, that externalizes humankind's coiled and tumultuous inner state of mind and being.
share
Hey TO1, you've given me a lot of food for thought. The idea that life itself is a trap, and living creatures (humans as well as animals) are forced into absurd behaviour is very interesting. Great example with Stroszek and the chicken. So I guess when Herzog says that the universe is chaos, hostility & murder, he's not necessarily saying that living things are chaotic, hostile & murderous, but maybe he's saying we're forced into a savage existence due to absurd circumstances (like dancing on an electrified plate).
That would be consistent with how I interpreted the intro to Fitzcarraldo, where it mentions the myth of "Cuyahari Yaku" (my spelling might be off) which struck me as a cursed land. In other words, the jungle plants & animals themselves aren't evil, but nonetheless anyone who enters will fall prey to the evil forces at work. Hmm, I definitely need to give this more thought.
So back to the crabs, they could represent the Nazis, the Jews or perhaps both, and the train may represent the disaster that awaits everyone, since everyone fails to see the big picture. Tim Roth's character failed to see his impending doom, just as the Jewish villagers failed to see theirs, and as history shows even the Nazis were caught unawares.
I find them beautiful and disgusting the same time and they also seem to be invaders and potential vivtims the same time to me.
share[deleted]
Herzog has never called himself a naturalist or any other term along those lines. I would call him a romantic even though he refutes being one.
share