Encounters at the End of the World - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

Levin · 03-07-2009, 05:02 PM

Watched this Werner Herzog documentary. Recommended. There is something about Herzog's movies that is instantly accessible and plain, and yet vague and mysterious at the same time. He goes to Antarctica to explore the terrain, both physical and human. He finds there people who wander so much, they slipped off a cliff and fell to the bottom of the world. Philosophers all (as well as truck drivers, scientists, botanists, linguists . . .). I guess it's something about the constant light or constant darkness, as the season may dictate, and the limited pallette (white, blue, gray, and brown), or just the sheer contrast of places that invokes questions about Will we still be here in 100 years? What will the end ultimately be like? Are we just here to give conscience to the Earth's beauty, to recognize it as such? Every last person there believes our time is limited on this Earth, and nature will adapt to our presence and do away with us. There's no more fragile surface than snow and ice because they are impermanent states.

My only gripe is that I thought Herzog was unfair to the Penguin scientist, who'd been observing the penguins for 20 years, and supposedly had become somewhat deranged and unable to converse normally with human beings. I didn't see that at all.

Oh, and there's a penguin that will haunt your dreams. Not nightmares, but melancholy, sad dreams.

03-07-2009, 05:02 PM	#1
Levin Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 1,484	Encounters at the End of the World Watched this Werner Herzog documentary. Recommended. There is something about Herzog's movies that is instantly accessible and plain, and yet vague and mysterious at the same time. He goes to Antarctica to explore the terrain, both physical and human. He finds there people who wander so much, they slipped off a cliff and fell to the bottom of the world. Philosophers all (as well as truck drivers, scientists, botanists, linguists . . .). I guess it's something about the constant light or constant darkness, as the season may dictate, and the limited pallette (white, blue, gray, and brown), or just the sheer contrast of places that invokes questions about Will we still be here in 100 years? What will the end ultimately be like? Are we just here to give conscience to the Earth's beauty, to recognize it as such? Every last person there believes our time is limited on this Earth, and nature will adapt to our presence and do away with us. There's no more fragile surface than snow and ice because they are impermanent states. My only gripe is that I thought Herzog was unfair to the Penguin scientist, who'd been observing the penguins for 20 years, and supposedly had become somewhat deranged and unable to converse normally with human beings. I didn't see that at all. Oh, and there's a penguin that will haunt your dreams. Not nightmares, but melancholy, sad dreams. __________________ "Now I say that I know the meaning of my life: 'To live for God, for my soul.' And this meaning, in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and marvelous. Such is the meaning of all existence." Levin, Anna Karenina, Part 8, Chapter 12 Last edited by Levin; 03-07-2009 at 05:05 PM.