Error and rhythm: Herberto Helder and the Nietzschean project of revaluation of all values

Abstract

Herberto Helder is a privileged heir of Nietzsche. Conversely, Nietzschean philosophy offers strong subsidies to the poet’s reading. This essay intends to make an inventory of a small fraction of this rich kinship. In order to show that Herberto Helder fulfills in the artistic plane the revaluation of all values that Nietzsche projects in the philosophical realm, the Helderian-Nietzschean notions of “error” and “rhythm” are examined, being shown that the poet invests his writing with both the critical vigor and the productive efficiency that distinguish the philosopher’s work. By the notion of “error”, Herberto Helder dismantles the moral foundation of Western values. By the idea of “rhythm”, the poet shapes his own cosmology, for which the only legitimate criterion for creating values is life, conceived as will to power.