More Prostitutes

A whole chapter of The Arcades Project was to be devoted to 'The Prostitute'. Benjamin was particularly interested in them. For him, 19th century Parisian prostitutes had mastered the secrets of the open market; in the respect that commodities had no advantages over them. Some of the commodity's charms were based on the market, and Prostitutes turned that into one of their many means of power. As such they were registered by Benjamin's favourite poet, Baudelaire in his 'Crépuscule du soir':

Against the lamplight, whose shivering is the wind's,

Prostitution spreads its light and life in the streets:

Like an anthill opening its issue it penetrates

Mysteriously everywhere by its own occult route;

Like an enemy mining the foundations of a fort,

Or a worm in an apple, eating what all should eat,

It circulates securely in the city's clogged heart.

Charming Hostess

Charming Hostess is a musical band, not dissimilar to Flesheaters, who provide a whirl of eerie harmony, hot rhythm and radical braininess, exploring the intersection of text and the sounding body-- complex ideas expressed physically, based on voice and vocal percussion, hand claps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence, where Diasporas collide, incorporating piyyutim and Pygmy counterpoint, doo-wop and niggunim, work songs and Torah chanting.

One of their recent releases is 'Trilectic', a look at the political-erotic world of Walter Benjamin.

The CD is based on the relationship between Benjamin and Asja Lacis and samplings and soundings can be found here:-

http://charminghostess.us/listen.html

We would particularly like to recommend Eskimo Suit which every one's favourite Alt-Rock Combo, Flesheaters are currently thinking of covering.

Charming Hostess' own account of the production of the album:-

NOTES ON TRILECTIC
The heart of this album is a setting of the work of Walter Benjamin (Marxist critic of aesthetics, philosophy and history) and Asja Lacis (Latvian Jewish firebrand and queen of agitprop).
I took Benjamin’s words from his Moscow Diary (1927)

His diary deals with a lot—the relationship of art to politics, what is radical art, what was Moscow like right after the revolution, Benjamin’s relationship to institutionalized socialism—but the emotional punch of the diary is provided by his insane love for the moody and diffident Asja Lacis. He really documents all his feelings, full-on opening a window into his emotional life. It’s very powerful and desperate.

Benjamin’s diary offers the thrill of an intellectual Rocky—a little guy kvetching against everything stacked against him. He’s willing to fight the impossible odds (theme music comes up) but since he’s a Jewish Rocky, he’s bound to lose. It’s pretty pathetic, pretty poignant, pretty funny too, like Kafka, but in real life—a story of love, politics, and the collection of toys, set among the Moscow art intelligentsia right after the revolution.
Asja Lacis’ autobiography, Professional Revolutionary, had not been translated when I started this project. Kristen Kopp, an old friend from anarchist commune days, did a translation, so it’s brand new and exciting. Professional Revolutionary is a strange piece of work:

Published in 1972, it’s 1/3 Soviet propaganda, 1/3 addled rambling , 1/3 compelling fragments about this fiery charismatic and her cool radical circle of friends. She talks about herself in the most impersonal way imaginable, only including things that are important politically, and those in a very scattered way. In between she includes all sorts of seemingly meaningless details, like what kind of dress a communist functionary’s wife was wearing, or how Benjamin felt about her rug. (She mostly refers to him as Benjamin, not Walter, even though they were boning.)
Weirdly, there is no emotional reportage at all—no insight into any human relationship. We might expect some light shed on her strange triangle with Benjamin and her main squeeze, Bernhard Reich. Another thing you might expect to hear about is the shaky health and well-being of her daughter Daga. Or maybe a mention of Lacis’ own health—we know from Benjamin that she had a nervous breakdown in 1927 and was hospitalized. But why? And how did it affect her? How did she really feel about Benjamin, about Reich, and about the Red Army general she was also involved with? What was the relationship between her work and her romantic life? Between the children she worked with and her own child? All these questions are posed by the facts of her life, but addressed neither by Lacis or Benjamin. I ended up writing in Asja’s words a lot, trying to read her motivations through her actions, and writing about her mysterious inner life.
What held the most interest for me was Lacis’ work—organizing a workers’ theater, writing subversive plays with children, making speeches to packed halls, fleeing the forces of fascism and resisting bourgeoisie. She was a pioneer art-Bolshevik, deeply invested in the Soviet state and working with everyday people and brilliant artists, philosophers, and political thinkers to bring forth a revolutionary union of progress, justice, and art. Sadly, Professional Revolutionary does not have enough about the real nuts and bolts of any of this. We hear some propagandistic and revisionist patter about some of her work, but the visceral fears and pleasures that one expects with the life she describes are not there. I can’t imagine Benjamin being in love with the author of her autobiography—she’s way too dogmatic and flat. According to his diary she is an impassioned debater and also a good listener. When we read their collaborative work, it’s funny and trenchant. None of this shows up in her description of herself.

The Lyrics for the album are displayed below:-

TRILECTIC by Charming Hostess
1. Meister of Culture—Asja
That captialism sucked, we didn’t even have to discuss.

He was against capitalism and had lost faith in the Tolstoyan idea of moral self-development.

He was for a violent overthrow of the capitalist state.

I met many intellectuals in Germany at that time who thought like this.

Often we would have the following dialogue. I would say:“You are smart, you have a field of knowledge, you have an education, but you have no material foundation for existence!”

Walter was silent. I would continue:“You know, in Riga, I was poor too.

Why? Because I was struggling against the bourgeois state and they brought all the forces of capital out to fight me. But where do you stand, Meister of Culture? Your brother is in the communist party, why not you?”


2. Gershom is Schocked—Text partially based on Gershom (Gerhardt) Scholem’s intro to the Moscow Diary. S

cholem was Benjamin’s best friend; he disapproved of Asja and didn’t understand their relationship.
G: Watch a couple lacking joy and easy courtship, looking at frustration and the city as a fortress. They’re almost always adversarial and she is so elusive she is slippery, slutty, slatternly she wants a new dress.

Continually rejecting the man, and standing him up again and again, he’s asking himself, “Well what can I do, if she might show up I’m not waiting in vain…” She’s enigmatic, baffling, an erotic cynic--Grasping and quarrelsome, unresolved, diffident, hostile, cruel and sick.

A: You can’t say the attachment was easy-In fact at first the whole thing made me kinda queasy. The man is so obsessed with tragedy

He never learned how to romance a lady! Gerhardt, you can call me a cynic, but your buddy here is downright pathetic.Gerhardt, you’ll never get this man to Palestine: I’m the queen of Moscow and he is mine.


3. Fortress Moscow—Walter
For me Moscow remains a fortress. The climate is harsh and I don’t speak the language, Reich is always there. Asja’s life is boxed in on every side: by Reich, by me, by poverty, by Daga, work and illness. By the attentions of a Red Army general and the exigencies of this revolution, which has made a people’s court of every building. But we can’t read ahead—walls within walls within walls.

4. Eskimo Suit—imagined Asja
In the diary, Walter and Asja walk by a Siberian fur suit in a store window. Asja wants it, and Walter can’t afford it.
W: Well, 250 rubles seems like a lot for an Eskimo suit. If I got you that, I’d have to leave right off.

A: I want a basket of fruit and I want some high leather boots and

I want a basket of fruit and an eskimo suitI want a lebanese oud and I want some home-made food and I want a much better mood and I want an eskimo suit

I want a brand new dress.When I’m with you, I am 9 feet long and I’m made of fur, I’m covered with pearls. And I’m sweating.

I want a question that’s moot. I want a javanese flute

I’m saying no loot, no voot. I want a green parachuteI want a chicory root. I want a little rooty toot

Iwant a brand new dress


5. The Secondary Purpose—Walter
Whether I achieve the secondary purpose of my journey—to escape the deadly melancholy Christmas—that remains to be seen.


6. If I am Still Holding Out Fairly Well—Walter
If I am still holding out fairly well, it is because despite everything, I recognize Asja’s attachment to me. The long gazes she directs at me—I cannot remember a woman granting gazes or kisses this long—have lost none of their power over me.


7. Hebrew Textbook—Asja
One time, Benjamin was carrying a Hebrew textbook. He said his friend Scholem was trying to talk him into moving to Palestine, where he would have a steady job. So with that in mind, he was trying to learn Hebrew.

I was speechless! And then I yelled at him:

“The way of any right thinking, progressive person leads to Moscow, not Palestine!”

I feel confident saying that because of me, Benjamin did not move to Palestine.


8. The Touch of Her Hands—Walter
Asja lay down on the bed. We kissed at length. But the thing that excited me most was the touch of her hands.

I placed my right palm directly against her left one

And we stayed in that position a long time.


9. Bread and Circuses—Asja
Benjamin accompanied me to a festival in Capri. (I was with Daga on the piazza, tried to buy almonds, he helped with Italian. Escorting me home, the packages fell from his

Hands were clumsy, spectacles threw sparks like small spotlights

Thick dark hair and narrow nose)

Fireworks in various colors exploded and their images were doubled: Above in the sky and below in the sea. We were hypnotized. He said: That costs the state a lot of money!

Those in power know that it’s worth it. The people need not only bread, but also circuses.

10. The Moon and Asja--Walter Will I always look at the moon and think of Asja?

11. Dream of Me—imagined Asja
Susan Buck-Morss, in her book The Dialectic of Seeing about Benjamin’s Arcades Project, describes Asja’s frustration with Walter’s nebbishy behavior. She suggests the potential longing for more of a John Reed character, less of a rootless cosmopolitan. When Asja and Walter met, he was married with a son. She had two lovers and a daughter.

I won’t break up your home, I got one of my own

I ask but favor one: Just that you dream of me

Your wife is beautiful and true. She will not do the things you do to her to you. I give her all her due. But will you dream of me?

Oh will you dream of me when you close your eyes?

Go on, let Gerhardt judge me cuz I let Bernhard touch me. I tell you what: He couldn’t budge me if you would dream of me.

I’m not an arcade in gay Paris. I’m neither phantasm nor fetish nor commodity. I’m just the real thing, baby—free! And all I’m asking for is just a little bit of your dream state, baby.

A loving father to your boy. A pride and joy above all other joy.

It’s good to give him every waking bit of time

But when you close your eyes, let me come to mindI dreamt I had you in my bed. I dreamt you had me on all fours. I dreamt you fucked me like John Reed, and I’m a good red—I pushed back and begged for more. I dreamed the vanguard of the left she came so hard she had to scream--So now close your eyes and dig the dream that I dream

Come on and dream of me when you close your eyes.

12. Sicily
The air fare is prohibitive and I don’t speak the language

The culture’s not near or dear to me but I wanna go to Sicily Charlie Luciano took a ride--an ice pick in the throat and he survived. No wonder they called him Lucky-- an original gangster from Trapani. That’s his home town in Sicily

Back at home there’s two kinds of pizza--Sicilian is better and it costs more. Everybody else can go to Napoli. I’ll go by myself to Sicily

I wanna go to Sicily

I want to be strong, to be ready to be alone ,to swing from trees and not fall down. I’m keeping it real like a ministering angel. Cuz I’m amazed that somebody dumb as me is still alive to tell the tale

Paradise disguised as hell/Hell disguised as paradise. I can see it with my own eyes. I can see the times I lied to me.

I’ll go by myself to Sicily

Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death

Further research has discovered that 'Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death', was not cancelled after all but was pulled by the publisher due to concern over the contents of the forthcoming issue.

"Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death" was published for four consecutive months in 1984 and then disappeared without trace. Issue 5 was the problem issue which caused the publisher to get cold feet. It was the cancellation of the series over the direction it was taking which led to Salech's disappearance and presumed death.

The issue was called "Prison Rape" and was a story where Benjamin was imprisoned in a New Tokyo jail where he basically got wind of all the shit going down. Here are some of Salech's notes for the issue:-

Issue begins with TV announcer reporting from outside the jail:

"Authorities in New Tokyo came under fire this week after reports that a 16-year-old girl had been repeatedly raped and tortured while being held in a prison cell with at least 20 men. The teenager had been arrested last month after being caught stealing.

She reportedly spent 26 days in a cell at the local police station, although no formal charges were brought. This week the girl emerged from custody covered in bruises and cigarette burns.

She was locked up with the male prisoners for at least a month and was forced to have sex in exchange for food. Many here believe that the girl had been deliberately imprisoned in order for other prisoners to sexually exploit her. The girl had been subjected to every imaginable type of physical and sexual aggression.

The revelations have unearthed other cases in which women were apparently imprisoned alongside men. On Wednesday there were reports that a 23-year-old woman had shared a cell with about 70 men."

As the reporter is talking we see a girl (with a sheet over her head) being led out and into a car, we also see Future Benjamin walking out after her. He does not enter the car, but instead wanders forlornly down the street.

Cut to:-

"Two Weeks Earlier...."

Louis Althusser

Louis Pierre Althusser 1918 – 1990 was a Marxist philosopher and friend and colleague of Benjamin. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser wrote two autobiographies, "The Future Lasts a Long Time” and "The Facts." These documents provide most of the information known about his life.
Althusser was born in French Algeria. He was named after his paternal uncle who had been killed in the First World War. Althusser alleged that his mother had intended to marry his uncle and married his father only because of the brother's demise. Althusser also alleges that his mother treated him as a substitute for his deceased uncle, to which he attributes deep psychological damage.
By 1947 this psychological damage had manifested itself to the extent that Althusser received electroconvulsive therapy. Althusser was from this time to suffer from periodic mental illness for the rest of his life.
In 1946, Althusser met Hélène Rytman, eight years older than he. She remained his companion until Althusser killed her in 1980. Althusser and Helene had a troubled, even tormented relationship. They were held together by bonds of mutual destructiveness. By 1980, he writes, "the two of us were shut up together in our own private hell." Helene seems to have been an unhappy woman, insecure, tormented and bitter. Desperate for the love and attention of her husband, she put up with his moods, his women-friends and his colleagues.

On November 16, 1980, Althusser strangled his wife, Hélène, to death. The exact circumstances are debated, with some claiming it was deliberate, others accidental. Althusser himself claimed not to have a clear memory of the event, saying that "while massaging his wife's neck [he] discovered he had strangled her." Since he was alone with his wife when she died, it is difficult to come to firm conclusions. Althusser was diagnosed as suffering from diminished responsibility, and he was not tried, but instead locked away in the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital. Althusser remained in hospital until 1983, when he was released and spent his last years in a dreary flat in north Paris, emerging occasionally to startle passers-by with "Je suis le grand Althusser!"

Althusser's work and his life, with his drugs, his analysts, his self-pity, his illusions and his moods, take on a curiously hermetic quality. He comes to resemble some minor medieval scholastic, desperately scrabbling around in categories of his own imagining. But even the most obscure theological speculation usually had as its goal something of significance. From Althusser's musings, however, nothing followed. They were not subject to proof and they had no intelligible worldly application, except as abstruse political apologetics. What does it say about modern academic life that such a figure can have trapped teachers and students for so long in the cage of his insane fictions, and traps them still?

Diary from August 7th, 1981, to the day of my death

Little is known of the final fate of M. Salech, author of 'Benjamin in the Future'. There is some suggestion that something from his Algerian past may have caught up with him and he may have been killed, but no body was ever found.

One of the only clues to the mystery of what happened to Salech was the discovery of a suitcase near the small French-Spanish border town of Portbou in February 1985. In the suitcase were a diary, a few sketches and some rough notes. The suitcase was found on a train which had had to be abandoned when torrential rain led to extensive flooding in the region. Salach had been on his way to Pria de Luge in Portugal where a mysterious group of his friends were expecting him. The group of friends is a further complication, in that they appear to be involved with a somewhat larger, and near mythical, secret society; the 'Madelaine's', dating from, and inspired by Marcel Proust. Salech cannot be traced past Portbou.

From his diary, titled Diary from August 7th, 1981, to the day of my death:- “My whole life has been a failure. I have nothing, I have nobody, I have achieved nothing. What has been the point of all of this? I have run away, both in reality and metaphorically. I am still running now, heading further away from home and retreating into more and more extreme fantasies. It is pathetic, I am pathetic."

The diary proceeds like that for the last several weeks before his ultimate disappearance. There are many references to some sort of dangerous "fantasy" which seems to be connected with the 'Madelaines' he is heading towards, in Portugal. We discover that the 'Madelaines' are all Algerian like himself and that he knows some of them, and has met with some of them in Paris.

The derriere comes back again

A great deal of The Arcades Project is concerned with Fashion and The Female Form, with particular attention paid to the derriere:-

Benjamin's notes dwell a great deal on such matters as "the out-and-out conflict" between the "tendency to elongate the female form" of the 1880 and the "rococo disposition to accentuate the lower body" particularly the bottom.

Benjamin later reflects that "In 1876, the derriere disappears; but it comes back again."

Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death

Benjamin in the Future issue 7 (as planned out by Salech) was to see Benjamin come across a Utopian city amongst the desolation of the future. This city was to be called "Harmony" and was to be based on Charles Fouriers "Harmony" which Benjamin writes about in "The Arcades Project".

Fourier was a Utopianist, he declared that concern and cooperation were the secrets of social success. He believed that a society that cooperated would see an immense improvement in their productivity levels. Workers would be recompensed for their labors according to their contribution. Fourier saw such cooperation occurring in communities which he called "phalanxes". Phalanxes were based around structures called "grand hotels." These buildings were four level apartment complexes where the richest had the uppermost apartments and the poorest enjoyed a ground floor residence. Wealth was determined by one's job; jobs were assigned based on the interests and desires of the individual. There were incentives: jobs people might not enjoy doing would receive higher pay.

We have looked at Phalanxes in previous posts. Salech, like the real Benjamin before him, had gathered a wealth of material, in the form of notes, on Fourier's "Harmony". Some of these notes were found in * ***** i* *******. Here are a few excerpts from those notes:-

"Only in the summery middle of the nineteenth century, only under it's sun, can one conceive of Fourier's fantasy materialized."

Simplism is the mark of civilization.

Fourier predicts that in 1828 the poles will become free ice and bring near world destruction.

Names of children in Fourier: Girls:Nyssa, Boys: Enryale. The educator: Hilarion.

Napoleon III belonged to a Fourierist group in 1848.

Bread plays only a small role in the diet of the Harmonians.

To the Harmonians, Constantinople is the capital of the earth.

Harmonians need very little sleep (like Fourier!). They live to the age of 150 at the very least.

Oriental Rugs

Benjamin was born on July 15th, 1892, in Berlin. His father was Emil Benjamin. Emil worked in a Berlin auction house which specialised in Oriental Rugs.

Gustave writes a letter

We have read Flaubert's letters before, as he has travelled round the orient. Here we see a different side of him as he writes to his wife:-

August 15, 1846

"I will cover you with love when next I see you, with caresses, with ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh, so that you faint and die. I want you to be amazed by me, and to confess to yourself that you had never even dreamed of such transports... When you are old, I want you to recall those few hours, I want your dry bones to quiver with joy when you think of them."

Gustave Flaubert, to his wife Louise Colet.

August 21, 1853

"Have you really not noticed, then, that here of all places, in this private, personal solitude that surrounds me, I have turned to you? All the memories of my youth speak to me as I walk, just as the sea shells crunch under my feet on the beach. The crash of every wave awakens far-distant reverberations within me. I hear the rumble of bygone days, and in my mind the whole endless series of old passions surges forward like the billows. I remember my spasms, my sorrows, gusts of desire that whistled like wind in the rigging, and vast vague longings that swirled in the dark like a flock of wild gulls in a storm cloud. On whom should I lean, if not on you? My weary mind turns for refreshment to the thought of you as a dusty traveler might sink onto a soft and grassy bank.

Adieu, I seal my letter, this is the hour when, alone amidst everything that sleeps, I open the drawer that holds my treasures. I look at your slippers, your handkerchief, your hair, your portrait. I re-read your letters, and breathe their musky perfume.
If you could know what I am feeling at this moment! My heart expands in the night, penetrated by a dew of love!"

Gustave Flaubert, to his wife Louise Colet

The Devil Tried to Rob my Shop

Little is known of the final fate of M. Salech, author of 'Benjamin in the Future'. There is some suggestion that something from his Algerian past may have caught up with him and he may have been killed, but no body was ever found. One of the only clues to the mystery of what happened to Salech was the discovery of a suitcase in the small French-Spanish border town of Portbou in February 1985. Inside a diary was found bearing Salech's name and his last known address in Paris. Also in the suitcase were a few sketches and some rough notes. The notes read as follows:-

"Old John Smith lived in a small cottage, as many people did in those far off days. The cottage stood on the top of a hill facing the east. On the evening of his 70th birthday, while he was sitting on his porch, facing the setting sun, John noticed a horseman riding towards him. The tree's made it difficult for him to see clearly but he perceived that the horseman had only one arm."

"My foot had been troubling me alot on that day. The group of people stopped speaking as I approached them. I noticed that there was a knife lying on the table."

"The thief stole the valuable belt, the young women stopped speaking when I approached them, the sheep runs in the valley, the knife was lying on the table, the devil tried to rob my shop."

These notes were clearly some story ideas or overheard conversations that Salech hoped to work into his Benjamin, or perhaps another, comic strip. Quite what Salech had in mind is abit of a mystery. There are a number of rumours that he had been developing a newspaper strip involving the devil. The rumours suggest that Salech had had the idea of a three panel gag strip wherein, every week the devil attempts, and fails, to commit a prosaic crime such as stealing a young girls belt, writing graffiti or attempting to rob a Chinese grocers. No examples of the strip have ever been found.

Some Lakeside

Issue number 2 of Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death is considered by many comic book commentators to be M. Salech’s masterpiece. Entitled ‘Some Lakeside’ (but more commonly known as ‘Sniper City’), in the story Astronaut No.9/Future Benjamin strays across a city as he searches for Asja.

The city is called 'Some Lakeside' but spray painted over the city name sign someone has written ‘Sniper City’. As he wanders the city Benjamin finds abandoned streets terrorised by gangs of snipers. After been attacked himself, he seeks refuge in a residents flat at the top of a huge tower where the story of what happened in Some Lakeside is explained……

Early drawings of the Leeds Arcades

Thornton's Arcade

Queen's Arcade

Astronaut No.9

An extra page included in the Trade Paperback release of 'Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death':-

"From the Files of Louis Althusser, discovered in the abandoned bunker where Benjamin awoke to find himself years in the future and in a robot body:-

• There are four 20th century humans in this time zone: Astronaut No.9; Asja Lacis, Adorno and Histler.
• There is one 21st century human in this time zone.
• Young people in this time zone dress like the Stasi, the SS and the NSA.
• Asja Lacis has tried to kill herself 4 times, twice in the 20th century and twice in the 28th.
• Althusser has never been heard from again.
• For Benjamin “Is crying suffering or release?”
• Benjamin on aging: “The conditions within Time are ferocious; our Time Suits begin to disintegrate after the first 20 years.”
• Althusser killed his wife back in our time.
• Asja does not want to be found.
• Benjamin's mysterious suitcase was never found. To this day no one knows what it contained. Benjamin would never let it leave his side. It was with him when he entered his hotel room in Portbou for the last time. It was not found the next day.
• Benjamin: “It’s a mirror (the world) we made to see ourselves in. All the things you don’t like are just the things you left outside when you were building your little house called “me”.
• Before he killed himself, Hitler prayed for forgiveness, but did not repent his sins."

Expensive Pieces of String

Gershom Scholem (1897–1982), was a Jewish Kabbalist and Benjamins best mate. The two of them were crazy for all things Kabbalah.

Our modern celebrity obsessed world has once again become interested in Kabbalah. Here is American Comedian Sandra Bernhard talking about the fact that the Kabbalah group she belongs to charges a small fortune for a piece of red string said to have magical properties (she is not joking here):-

“We give them the whole technology of special wrapping and prayers.”

Max and Gustave's Adventures in the Orient

Flaubert whilst on his journey through the Orient, went to a Hong Kong brothel where he was occupied by a Japanese girl. He wrote to Louis Bouilhet of the experience:

“The Japanese girl doesn’t put on airs, or go coy, like a French woman. And all the time she is laughing and making lots of tsu noises. When you come, the Japanese girl pulls with her teeth a sheet of cotton wool from her sleeve, catches you by the ‘boy’, gives you a massage and the cotton wool tickles your belly. All this is done with coquetry, laughing, singing and saying tsu.”

Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death

One of the reasons that it was so easy for Benjamin to go into the future and save that future from itself was precisely because his body has never been found. Benjamin's grave is empty, a mere marker, only symbolic. After his suicide his body disappeared.

And how is it that Benjamin is the perfect hero to save the future from itself? Of course, because the only way to save the future is to learn from the past. Benjamin's analysis of the past, of History was always of the most insightful nature, he was after all the first person to realise that "history flashes up as an image only at the instant when it can be recognized and then is never seen again."

Portrait of Benjamin

Benjamin's strong features and fat face have long been an inspiration to artists. Here's a recent example:

Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death

More sketches and rough drafts from "Benjamin in the Future." Here is a discarded cover sketch for issue 3 which shows what Benjamin looks like inside that big old tin can.

M.Salech

Turns out TheLeedsArcadesProject got things arse about tit and the writer of 'Benjamin's Adventures in the Future' was M.Salech, and not S.Moulhaile, as we had originally thought. Forgive our unfamiliarity with Algerian names. Anyway, we have managed to find a little information about Salech's life from a biography of comics creators:-

M. Salech was/is the son of a Berber Jewish mother and a Spanish father; his Algerian family history can be dated back over four centuries.
He was born in the town of Thamsin, Algeria, not far from Morocco, and grew up among the ravages of the Algerian war of independence. That brutal campaign, from 1955 to 1962, resulted not only in the defeat of the French colonialist administration, but also in the exodus of close to a million people who either fled or were pushed out by the new Muslim regime. It had been a bloody conflict with violence on both sides, the French torturing prisoners for information and suppressing rights, the Algerians resorting to terrorism in their quest for independence. This is the atmosphere in which Salech grew up.

He came to France in 1982 and began work as an artist for a French comics publisher. He co-created many strips but became most famous for his biographical strip "Algerian Song" about the Algerian War of Independence and its aftermath.

Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death

Benjamin's adventures in the future; "Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death" were cancelled after only 4 issues. It was written and drawn by the French Algerian, Salech Moulhaile. After some further research TheLeedsArcadesProject has discovered that the comic was not cancelled due to poor sales, as we had originally thought, but was in fact discontinued due to the disappearance of Moulhaile.

"Diary from August 7th, 2731, to the day of my death" was published for four consecutive months in 1984 and then disappeared without trace. Apparently the first 10 issues were to be, what we would call today, a complete arc. The remaining 6 issues of the arc were apparently mapped out and extensive notes written, but only the first 6 issues were drawn before Moulhaile one day suddenly disappeared. To this day no one has ever found out what happened to him. Only one photo of Moulhaile exists and little is known of his life before he came to Paris, from Algeria, in 1982. He was never married and had few friends. There is some suggestion on some message boards that something from his past in Algeria may have caught up with him and he may have been killed, but no body was ever found. One of the only clues to the mystery of what happened to Moulhaile was an entry in his diary for the day of his disappearance which read solely "Portbou".

Henry Irving Dies

Henry Irving dies in the lobby of the Midland Hotel, in Bradford, near Leeds.

Ruskin-Millais-Irving-Stoker

Earlier this week we looked at Millais’ portrait of Ruskin and also had a little look at a portrait by Millais of the actor/manager Henry Irving.

Ruskin actively engaged with the Victorian popular theatre. In 1888, Ruskin said: ‘I have always held the stage quite among the best and most necessary means of education – moral and intellectual.’ Ruskin was an enthusiastic and catholic theatre-goer, enjoying pantomime as much as Shakespeare. It is known that Henry Irving had a set of Ruskin’s works, and knew and engaged in debate with Ruskin.

Irving was the most famous actor of his generation and is still legendary today. He died in Bradford shortly after suffering a stroke during a performance in 1905. Irving, was appearing as Becket at the Bradford Theatre. During the performance he was seized with syncope just after uttering Becket's dying words 'Into thy hands, O Lord, into thy hands', and though he lived for an hour or so longer he never spoke again. He was brought off stage and taken to the lobby of the Bradford Midland Hotel, where he died.

Irving was very close to Bram Stoker and was the inspiration for the literary villain, Dracula.

Stoker was another interesting character, and he too knew Ruskin. Stoker married Florence Belcombe, a celebrated beauty whose former boyfriend was notorious sodomite Oscar Wilde. Stoker became business manager (at first as acting-manager) of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, a post he held for 27 years. The collaboration with Irving was very important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met, among others Whistler, Ruskin, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Louis Carrol. There has always been the suggestion that Stoker may have been gay for Irving.