WALTER BENJAMIN STARES AT THE SEA

by C.D. Rose

Melville House
(www.mhpbooks.com)
2023, 213 pages, $19.99

ISBN 978-1-68589-084-1

Click Here to Purchase

SEA is a striking, rewarding collection of vignettes.

“The Disappearer.” Like most of these lengthy vignettes, this one centers on the hot, developing wave of filmmaking circa 1870. It features Louis Aime’ Augustin Le Prince, who disappeared from history. The dual U.S.-French citizen is cited with the first film ever made, “Roundhay Garden Scene,” circa 1889, featuring people in the Whitley family parading around a Leeds suburban house garden. But this inventor was battling with the likes of Edison Electric Company, the Lumieres’ train film and others. Did LePrince commit suicide or was he murdered?

“Violins and Pianos Are Horses,” about the composer who really understood the stark manipulations of these instruments.

“Arkady Who Couldn’t See and Artem Who Couldn’t Hear.” A traveler on a Russian train encounters two very unique and gifted twin brothers who are building a large, sprawling house out of matchsticks. The traveler learns quite a bit on the way.

“The Neva Star.” What happens to ships moored for years if not decades in ports such as Naples? What becomes of their crews? What does the crew of one boat do to pass the time? If they leave the ship, are their rights to employment suddenly terminated?

“Sister.” It’s hard to tell if one man imagines a sister, or if he is haunted by her ghost.

The title story examines one’s man’s life in existential fashion, about time, about work as a writer, about Paris, or about Los Angeles, staring at the Pacific Ocean.