"I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are"
About this Quote
Saramago’s preference for “perplexity” and “doubt” isn’t postmodern decoration; it’s an ethical stance. Uncertainty forces responsibility. A character who can’t hide behind the right answer has to choose, and choice exposes motive. That’s where Saramago’s work lives: in the gap between what people say they believe and what they do when the rules stop protecting them. His novels often stage that gap with allegorical pressure-cookers (blindness, bureaucratic absurdity, divine silence) where the old heroic script fails and the supposedly decent unravel.
The subtext is also a rejection of aesthetic obedience. “Positive” heroes are not just cliched; they’re politically convenient. They teach readers to admire the finished product rather than examine the conditions that produced it. Saramago insists that humans are not exemplary statues but unstable, contradictory creatures, and literature that pretends otherwise isn’t uplifting - it’s anesthetic. Doubt, in his hands, becomes realism with teeth.
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Saramago, Jose. (2026, January 15). I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-never-appreciated-positive-heroes-in-literature-148793/
Chicago Style
Saramago, Jose. "I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-never-appreciated-positive-heroes-in-literature-148793/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-never-appreciated-positive-heroes-in-literature-148793/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
