Herzog y la ambigüedad significativa

Resumen

There is a strain of paradox and ambiguity in Herzog by Saul Bellow. Overcome by senselessness and the incomprehensible in the world and in his own life, Herzog, an intellectual, has an immense desire for truth and clarity. He has spent his life talking to himself, but not the world. He is alone and insulated; yet he places emphasis on the value of friendship; he is alienated and masochistic, but he still dreams of brotherhood; he opposes cultural nihilism and the ‘Wasteland outlook’, yet he is, fundamentally, a depressive. These contradictions and ambiguities reveal to him the inadequacy of the intellect, which constitutes a ‘realm of confusion’. He discovers that clarity, truth and meaning may be grasped only through the intensity and perpetual commitment to their pursuit, which will keep the mind and the imagination working at their highest potential.