Herzog Part II: Great men take on the potato

Wrapping up Saul Bellow's Herzog, where the going gets tough and the tough take baths.

First up, the failed murder. Herzog gets his dad's old revolver, works himself into a state of total conviction that killing his ex-wife Madeleine and her lover is not just justified but righteous, and then loses his nerve at the last moment while watching the guy give his daughter a bath. A brothers K rerun?

Up next, potato love: Herzog's own dismissive term for humble, unglamorous sentimentality. The stuff he's spent the whole book mocking while secretly craving it. And Rich's new favorite concept handle. 

Finally, the Nietzsche breakup. A final burst of letters, an uncalled for closing shot at semen reabsorption as the fuel of creativity, and the implication that Herzog doesn't resolve his arguments so much as simply stop needing to win them. Plus the book's real-life backstory. 

Chapters

(00:00:00) intro, and loving Herzog more the second time around
(00:01:44) the custody plot: Herzog gets his dad's gun
(00:08:55) the Brothers Karamazov parallel: two men who couldn't pull the trigger
(00:15:10) potato love: Herzog's word for humble, unglamorous love
(00:22:46) the child-killing trial, and humanity's urge to bite and pity its food
(00:30:35) Madeleine takes June, and an unreliable narrator's sob story
(00:37:18) the final letters: making a clean break with Nietzsche
(00:40:54) Ramona, and giving up the 'great man' act for good
(00:47:15) Saul Bellow's real-life betrayal, and why he wrote a book instead of more letters

 

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