The Final Rhapsody of Charles Bowden
Editor's note: Scott Carrier visited with Chuck Bowden shortly before his death. This profile, based on that visit and decades years of friendship, originally appeared in High Country News. Read Clara Jeffery's remembrance of Bowden here.
He first saw the whale nearly 20 years ago, in Mexico. He was standing watch, so to speak, and the dark ocean exploded in foam and spray and there in front of him was the monster he'd been pursuing, the source of all the violence and corruption he'd seen. It scared the hell out of him and he turned away. He didn't go after it.
Then, a few years later, the whale came back and killed a friend of his, and Bowden blames himself for this. If he would have fought the whale in the beginning, he believes, his friend would still be alive.
"I was a coward," he says.
It didn't happen quite like that. The whale is an allegory, because I promised I wouldn't write the real names and places. But his friend did die and the thing that killed him is the thing Bowden saw, and it was like a horrible monster. The allegory fits. Bowden is Ahab and he's going after Moby Dick.
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/03/charles-bowdens-fury