Tromber’s Reviews > Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories > Status Update
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Melville’s prose is heaven, swooning.
Billy Budd slips from ode to courtroom drama to a third place, the flattening of people and their history via art and subjective carelessness. The further Melville backs away, seeking an objective view, the muddier and more tragic it becomes. Time becomes myth, then is forgotten. The most Kiarostami-coded piece of written fiction I’ve found.
Piazza is clean, melancholy.
— Jan 19, 2026 04:27PM
Billy Budd slips from ode to courtroom drama to a third place, the flattening of people and their history via art and subjective carelessness. The further Melville backs away, seeking an objective view, the muddier and more tragic it becomes. Time becomes myth, then is forgotten. The most Kiarostami-coded piece of written fiction I’ve found.
Piazza is clean, melancholy.
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