Why Saul Bellow is boring - Exhibit A

"As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near." 

This is typical Saul Bellow, and one of his "greatest quotes".  Somewhere in this tangled, pompous, mish-mash of words, he's says something very,very IMPORTANT.