Borges & Bush

From Borges' "This Craft of Verse":

Here I remember another book that struck me: I remember Melville's Moby Dick. I am not sure if I believe in Captain Ahab, I am not sure if I believe in his feud with the white whale; I can hardly tell the characters apart. Yet I believe in the story--that is, I believe in it as in a kind of parable (though I don't exactly know what it is a parable of--perhaps a parable of the struggle against evil, of the wrong way of fighting evil). (page 109)

I read Moby Dick quite a few years ago, but I see Borges' point, and I happen to agree with it. Too bad our own Captain Ahab probably doesn't, though he is managing the destruction of everything around him. The quote is not political, but since I don't tend to read literary criticism, it stuck me as pertinent to a current situation, whether it is a common view among readers or not, I do not know.

It is always pleasurable to have someone give you another way of viewing something, to take and do with as you like. Generally when asked, I advise people to read the book, but unless they have a great interest in the working of nineteenth century whaling ships to skim the technical chapters, though those too, I am sure, appeal to some with an interest in cetaceans or the various manners of coiling rope.