Frank Ocean and The Library

While reading this short story, I could not help but be reminded of a Frank Ocean song, "Dust". The song is about past love and that it is all in this library. Given the academic nature of a library, it is also a spot to learn from the past—both what someone did right and what someone did wrong. One of my favorite lyrics comes in the first verse, "every book in here I wroteSome I'm not too proud of some I wish I could burn So many pages I wrote, wish I could revise them But there's no erasing and the best advice I got Was keep writing, and keep living, and keep loving". I think that this is related to Babel because the tower of Babel was the spot where all language seemed like gibberish and it was not making sense to Yahweh, however it was essential to have the different languages because that was the only way for people to learn from their mistakes; in "The Library of Babel" all of the books have every possible translation and most of them make absolutely no sense. Finally, I find it interesting that there is Messanic Man in the Library who possibly has read every book and knows all. In "Dust" Frank Ocean is the person who has experienced and pondered every single thing he could have done differently with his past love.