JH: My favorite part of Mihara—that they ditch the video games. Such a salient reaction. What’s your take on video games and the modern man?

PP: Modern man is, or has been, going through a phase where they need to simulate adventures in order to feel alive. We’ve got this guy living next door to us, and it is Halo or Warcraft, 6 hours a day. We can hear it through the walls. I think about why this guy finds it comforting to be in such a static condition. Usually my mind shifts to war, and maybe like in Mihara, this guy needs to actually go and kill someone real (or watch someone die) in order to realize he has a deeper self. But, not counting random acts of terrorism or localized land disputes, there is no general global duty to connect yourself to your darker self. But I think video games hint at that feeling. All the time you’re playing a video game, you feel like, if it just got a little more intense, if it just submerged me a little bit more, it would change me. Of course it never will, and modern man now needs to think of more creative ways to have deeper experiences. The Colosseum was built in Rome during the Pax Romana, or ‘time of peace’. Their need to feel the depth of death was so strong they simulated killing on the stage. You can see it even now, breaking through in fields like MMA and Ultimate Fighting. As I said at the top, this is a phase, and sadly, not some kind of gender evolution. Men are pretty basic dudes. It’s the men who stop moving and challenging themselves who end up driving women (and other men) crazy.