Stanislaw Lem, a Polish author, wrote my favorite piece about the deliberate use of inconsistency in artistic work. I wish I could quote a bit of it directly but I don't have the book on hand. To paraphrase, he wrote how contradictory or inconsistent elements of an artistic work lend it incredible life and vivacity. One of the examples he uses is Shakespeare's Hamlet and how some scholars believed that Hamlet's inconsistent behavior is actually a leftover of multiple rewrites of the play that were combined and not properly edited due to time constraints. Lem stated that these contradictions make Hamlet more alive and more believable and more enjoyable as a character than if he had been written perfectly with no contradictions.
That sounds really interesting. Do you know, by any chance, the title of that book?
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