So...I was in a class the other day, in which a fellow student (how did this even come up?) declared that he was NOT going to be seeing Werner Herzog's new movie, because Werner (crazy genius that he is) had made some rather inflammatory remarks about yoga in a recent GQ interview.
Like that he thinks there should be a holy war against it.
Let me tell you something, people...I love me some Werner Herzog. (Though I have a really humiliating story about how I went to go see Grizzly Man thinking that it was a mockumentary--long story--and spent the whole movie sniggering quietly at all the people around me who "didn't get it". Oops! This, it turns out, would not be the most egregious thing about me in the eyes of Mr. Herzog. It turns out I've committed a much worse kind of crime in his eyes...but I'll get to that.) Anyhooo, I love him, I love his movies...love him love him love him. And I could not WAIT to go out and read the article in which he said terrible things about yoga.
And he did not disappoint.
Let me just give you the greatest hits from the interview (which, of course, was not about yoga, but about his new film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams...which looks amazing...but, here we are):
Werner Herzog: "Oh, I don't want introspection, I don't like to look at myself."
GQ Magazine: Why?
WH: "I've always been suspicious. I don't even look into my face. I shaved this morning, and I look at my cheeks so that I don't cut myself, but I don't even want to know the color of my eyes. I think psychology and self-reflection is one of the major catastrophes of the twentieth century. A major, major mistake. And it's only one of the mistakes of the twentieth century, which makes me think that the twentieth century in its entirety was a mistake."
...
WH: "For example, for me, I could never ever be with a woman who is three times a week with a psychiatrist. It's like an iron curtain between us. Like venetian blinds rattling down."
GQ: I don't know if it's related, but you've previously mentioned an intense antipathy to yoga classes. Could you be with a woman who did yoga?
WH: "Of course not. Of course not. I think there should be holy war against yoga classes. It detours us from real thinking. It's just this kind of...feeling and floating and meditation and whatever. It's as tourism in religions. People all of a sudden becoming Buddhist here in Los Angeles."
Okay, first of all can I say...I was a little sad that if Werner and I were to meet one another in a bar some late night (assuming of course that we weren't both happily spoken for...love you, baby!) that I would be rejected on the basis of my yoga-ing, alone. I mean, come on, didn't you hear all the smart things I said about the cine-ma?
This, however, is what I have long suspected. I tried as hard as I could to stay far from my hippy roots, but it's now official. I, in the eyes of one of this century's greatest filmmakers...am a twit.
BUT, in response to these heretofore referenced "inflammatory remarks"...I have only a few things I'd like to say:
First of all, as much as my heart leapt at the idea of actually being able to give up introspection altogether (this, people, could be the key to enlightenment!) I think that Werner Herzog is actually deeply introspective. He seems insanely curious about how people work and how the world works and why it is we do what we do...he may not be so interested in the idea of self-betterment, or of figuring out what mommy and daddy did to screw him up...but he's a looker-inner, yes indeedy.
But mostly what I want to say, is that I don't entirely disagree with him on these points.
The number of times I myself have wondered if I'm not just acting as some half-witted "tourist" in another culture's religion--chanting and telling stories about gods and goddesses and namaste-ing my little brains out--it's a lot. And, my god, there are times when I walk into some studio or other and am bowled over by racks of $90 yoga pants and a bunch of identical women with identical mat bags all shaking their perfectly blow-dried hair around, and I think--oh no. WHAT am I doing? What happened to my theatre degree and my poetic cynicism?
So, okay, I get it. I'm not surprised. Why would I think that this odd and brilliant and (admit it, dude) macho filmmaker, this auteur, isn't going to take one look at a room full of ladies in their tight yoga pants downdog-ing and prostrating and think that they're wasting their time, at best, and being colonialist idiots, at worst? I get it, man. I get it.
But here's the thing, and Werner...this part is for you:
Yes, there is a lot of opportunity for phony-ness and misplaced materialism and wishy-washy-ness in the yoga community. Yes, there are plenty of people who are using the practice of yoga to make themselves look better in the eyes of other people, or to distract themselves from their lives, or just to look awesome in jeans...yes. Yes, the western adoption of ONLY the physical practice of yoga, the asana, not the other seven limbs, can feel a little...well, western. Yes.
But, Werner, the truth is, having taken now about a hundred million yoga classes, I will tell you that without question MOST of the people who are practicing yoga are doing it because they, just like you, have some burning questions about the way people work, about the way the world works, and about why it is we all do what we do.
Having taken now about a hundred million yoga classes, I will tell you that most people just want to fucking breathe.
And, having taken now about a hundred million yoga classes, I will tell you that for some people, for whatever reason, the body and the breath and the use of imagery--when all of those things are put together--that something opens up for them. And that, that something, is something they require for survival.
Call it inspiration.
Call it the creative impulse.
Call it just plain old human joy.
Do I fault you for thinking that yoga is just one more indication of what's wrong with the 20th century? No. Do I love you any less? No, in fact, I think I might just love you a little more. Will I tell you what I do for a living if I run into you in a dark bar some late night...
Yes, indeed. I'm an actress. Can't say anything BAD about actresses, can you now? Oh...wait...
Nevermind.
