/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15082653]

thoughts on Mishima?

[Anonymous No.15082669]

Repressed homosexual schitzo edgelord.

[Anonymous No.15082674]

>>15082653
He was a great writer and his life inspires me everyday
>>15082669
Based

[Anonymous No.15082702]

>>15082669
Currently reading Forbidden Colors and that sounds about right.

[Anonymous No.15082779]

>>15082653
The cult of personality around him reminds me of Kanye

[Anonymous No.15082781]

>>15082653
I love him

[Anonymous No.15082923]

I love the part when Kiyoaki has that dream where he shoots the sky and then Isao shoots the pheasant.

[Anonymous No.15082926]

>>15082653
Swords are cool.

[Anonymous No.15082974]

>>15082653
why is there a thread a day about this guy

[Anonymous No.15083129]

>>15082653
The golden pavilion is the best book I have ever read. Confessions was allright but this one is next level. Apart from the great characters mishima is able to write timelessly while most other authors get on my nerves with their styles that were obvioulsy "hip" at their times (currently reading thomas mann and he is guilty of that). Few people create timeless art and mishima is one of them. I dont care a bit about his real life drama, guy is a genius

[Anonymous No.15083137]

Never got too too into him but he was certainly a maverick and visionary. Thoroughly enjoyed Spring Snow for its delicate aesthetics and rarified depiction of the Japanese aristocracy. Liked The Temple of the Golden Pavilion for the idea that a young man can be driven bad by an unobtainable standard of transcendent beauty. Enjoyed Sun and Steel for its vigorous athleticism and optimistic outlook. But that is where I stopped, partly because this board ruined it for me with its preponderance of self-hating closet cases.

[Anonymous No.15083842]

>>15082779
Mishima is certainly deserving of one. He's the peak human being, a noble of the soul. How can you not want to follow or even aspire to be such a man? What saddens me is that there are no men like him anymore. All the role models we now have are materialist celebrities, envoys of the dollar and banes of the spirit.

One manlet sickly emotionally unstable asian boy with a world stacked against him, transformed himself, rejected comfort and acceptance for his art and cause. The world just doesn't make these people anymore.

[Anonymous No.15084011]

Mishima lived his one particular truth. That is what is admirable about him. His own particular will was more powerful than the world around him. Every word that he spoke he meant with utter sincerity, every idea, every passion, every emotion, they meant something to him. I don't think he really wanted the world to change. I don't think he was a revolutionary in the sense that he wanted to lead an army to remake the world in his image. He was an actor, an artist, a poet, and a mystic. He simply took the world for what it was, took himself for what he was, and did everything he can to live his life true to them.

[Anonymous No.15084019]

>>15082653
Underrated Phantom Thief, mementos exploration would not have been worth it without him

[Anonymous No.15084020]

>>15082653
Beyond the politics and the life story, he was a great writer with a really refined sense of aesthetics

[Anonymous No.15084025]

>>15082669
>repressed
everyone is
>homo
good
>schizo
good
>edgelord
good

[Anonymous No.15084206]

>>15084011
Never looked at it through this perspective. My critics of him was his total absence of rampant nationalism and his sometimes blunt writings about the post-war Japan. As much as I prefer the Kawabata style (more subtle), I can respect Mishimas vision as an artist.
Thanks for your take anon.

[Anonymous No.15084362]

>>15083137
First 100 pages of Spring Snow are pretty comfy before everything gets depressing. With the theme of traditional Japanese culture vs the modernization it really brought to mind Ozu.

[Anonymous No.15084540]

>Visit University of Tokyo with delegation of Japanese graduate students.
>Walking on the university grounds.
>My Japanese friend, fellow grad student, attended University of Tokyo as an undergrad.
>We’re walking together, talking about his time there and notable graduates.
>I mentioned Mishima.
>Friend replies.
>”Oh yes, he was a kind of, ano, a kind of crazy person.”

They didn’t deserve him, and they deserve what’s coming.

[Anonymous No.15085017]

>>15082669
There's 0 evidence of him being a repressed faggot. It's either women who can't understand that men sometimes bond deeply without it being sexual. Or it's basedcuck men who don't understand his philosophy and try to simplify him, to maintain some superiority over his vision. When in reality his sexuality, whatever it was, has 0 to do with his genius craft.

[Anonymous No.15085025]

>>15082974
I could do that

[Anonymous No.15085033]

>>15085017
Body building in japan is considered extremely faggotity.

[Anonymous No.15085058]

>>15083842
>He's the peak human being
i know a better one

[Anonymous No.15085066]

>>15085033
What the public opinion was of something at the time isnt evidence.

[Anonymous No.15085095]

>>15085033
Yeah, Japan is such an expert on masculinity.

[Anonymous No.15085119]

>>15085017
>There's 0 evidence of him being a repressed faggot
You're right, he was just a faggot and owned it. Pretty based desu

[Anonymous No.15085170]

Based and transcendentpilled

[Anonymous No.15085214]

>>15085058
No you don't.

[Anonymous No.15085245]

>>15082653
Was he a Kantian?

[Anonymous No.15086736]

My brother, who is a University professor in Tokyo, says that Mishima is generally regarded as a nutjob in Japan.

[Anonymous No.15086740]

>>15082653
shit

[Anonymous No.15086803]

>>15082653
>Mishima
Should'a bombed that shithole after Naga

[Anonymous No.15086811]

>>15085017
He bugged young boys
Read his biography, Persona

[Anonymous No.15086914]

>>15082653
A capable and interesting artist, and although I'm not into his particular style of prose I can see what tremendous merit he had as an author, but like a lot of counter-cultural political figures of the 20th century he failed to zero in on disrupting the infrastructure of his adversary, which ultimately made his death pointless. The Guardian-reading types and treehuggers who blocked the road entrance to the UK's first major fracking plant doggedly for years to the point it became economically nonviable for the company to continue already did infinitely more for their cause than someone like Mishima achieved. Same with 'Uncle Ted'. Apart from one timber lobbyist his violence was utterly ineffectual. He should have been targeting data firms, yuppie sociologists from the Rand set with grand designs for social engineering, manufacturing plants etc. if he really wanted to impede the development of the technological society he hated. Getting the manifesto published was a smart thought but he should have been more direct across the board. Disruption of infrastructure is the single biggest thing anyone can do to harm decentralised political enemies of the sort these people were opposed to. That is borne of my own socialist leanings; greed exists in the hearts of man, not in the figureheads of a political party, movement, or company. So simply transferring wealth from one set of hands to another does nothing to change the situation. Seize and destroy the physical and digital assets that wealth consists of and you have a far greater chance of making a difference. Yelling a speech at a half-empty military yard and then botching your own assisted suicide isn't enough to make you some kind of grand martyr.

[Anonymous No.15086928]

>>15086736
Part of the reason I like Mishima is because I don't give a shit what the average Japanese person of today thinks, much as I love German literature but haven't had a decent conversation with a living German in years. Their opinion is irrelevant. They failed.

[Anonymous No.15086940]

>>15086914
>The Guardian-reading types and treehuggers who blocked the road entrance to the UK's first major fracking plant doggedly for years
why were they not just arrested?

[Anonymous No.15086950]

>>15086914
This but Unironically

[Anonymous No.15086987]

>>15086914
He didn't want his coup to succede though, he wasn't in it for the politics, but for the aesthetics. His coup was essentially a staged suicide.

[Anonymous No.15087076]

Why the fuck is sun and steel still out of print rreeeeee

[Anonymous No.15087079]

>>15086940
They were arrested, over and over. Elderly folks, the leader of a minor political party, doesn't matter who they were, they were dragged away over the tarmac by cops using overreaching counter-terrorism powers to defend a private company. Some protesters stayed away after being arrested or spooked and were replaced by new ones, others came back over and over. Some of them I agree with on most political issues, others I don't at all, but they were all ordinary people making a *material* difference for what they believe in and they have my respect for that. None of this "winning the argument" abstract academic bullshit.

Special mention to these two guys trying to disable British-made fighter jets being sold to Saudi Arabia, better Christians than 99% of the Church of England.
https://www.pressenza.com/2017/10/uk-activists-not-guilty-trying-disarm-fighter-jets-headed-yemen/

Unfortunately they failed, unlike the Lancashire protests against Cuadrilla (who insist they will return to the area at some point, but a temporary victory at least), but the directness of their attempt deserves a bit more repute, I think, than Mishima's speech- whether you think the latter was performative or not.

>>15086987
I'd prefer to give the man the benefit of the doubt and believe he had some amount of self-belief that his actions; that although it was pretty obvious to any sane person that there would be no coup, the event might at least lead to some kind of cultural shift among the Japanese people. Obviously that didn't come to pass either, but if it was entirely the performance of a self-hating loser that would make it even worse in some ways. He must have had some degree of confidence in his own actions to live out the part so well until his mate bungled the execution.

[Anonymous No.15087084]

>>15085017
He literally went to gay bars

[Anonymous No.15087085]

>>15085017
You're utterly retarded, the reason he wasn't a repressed faggot is because he was an active faggot who made no secret about his homosexuality (which he regarded as part of his psychopathologies) and that is precisely why it is central to his craft

[Anonymous No.15087137]

Why is the second book in the Sea of Fertility called “Runaway Horses”? Spring Snow makes sense, Temple of Dawn makes sense, and Decay of the Angle makes sense. I know there was the scene when Isao was saying farewell to Makiko that used the term “runaway stallion” after they even embraced or kissed but I don’t know how it relates to the book as a whole

[Anonymous No.15087145]

>>15087137
Isn't it referring to the young political rebels in a romantic-but-derogatory way?

[Anonymous No.15087150]

>>15086736
Japanese people are cucked salarymen and consoomers who have been debasing themselves to the West and Americanization for decades now. They’re basically feminized Last Men

[Anonymous No.15087220]

>>15087084
Nothing wrong with some casual gay sex, I mean, the greeks did it.

[Anonymous No.15087425]

WHERE CAN I GET A PHYSICAL COPY OF SUN AND STEEL GOD DAMN IT

[Anonymous No.15087474]

>>15082653
>5'1"

[Anonymous No.15087493]

>>15084540
>talking to japanese guy, say i'm into jap /lit/ and he asks which
>say Dazai
>he says, "do you want to commit suicide?"
>say Mishima
>he says, "you really do want to commit suicide, huh?"
>say murakami is overrated
>he agrees and we have a beer together

[Anonymous No.15087524]

>>15087079
>He must have had some degree of confidence in his own actions to live out the part so well until his mate bungled the execution.

that's his mate, pic related. dang, mishima had some shitty tastes.

[Anonymous No.15087565]

>>15086914
you don't think the reason is not as progressive as Korea now or the west is thanks to the impacta of his actions and words on the Japanese society?

[Anonymous No.15087613]

>>15087425
Ebay. Expect to pay a hundred dollars

[Anonymous No.15087651]

>>15087565
No. Economic protectionism after the bubble + That's what tye Japanese are like naturally on social issues, they were always going to hit a limit with westernisation on stuff like race or LGBT sooner or later. Meanwhile re: industry the westernisation carries on at full pace.

[Anonymous No.15087661]

>>15087079
>Special mention to these two guys trying to disable British-made fighter jets being sold to Saudi Arabia, better Christians than 99% of the Church of England.
That has nothing to do with christianity, I dont know why you inserted that.

[Anonymous No.15087760]

>>15087661
It wasn't really a fleshed out thought, just that they embodied the values of peace and goodwill to all men and so on commonly espoused to be the traits of modern Christianity more than the monied megapreachers in the US and Africa or the Catholic diddlers

[Anonymous No.15087767]

>>15087661
>>15087760
oh and the fact the two men concerned are a Reverend and a Quaker, important to know that to understand my point

[Anonymous No.15087780]

>>15087767
>>15087760
Get your slave religion out of the thread of this chad Nietzchean

[Anonymous No.15087786]

>>15087780
I'm not a religious person, I just found it ironic that an act that flew largely under the radar is far more in tune with the purported principles of a religion than the living figures it is most commonly known for. It was hardly the crux of my post.

[Anonymous No.15088568]

>>15085033
Maybe that’s why none of their women want to fuck them.

[Anonymous No.15088580]

>>15087076
I think someone on here mentioned that the English rights are held by some cucked publishing company that may be opposed to right wing literature. I was able to get my hands on it from two different libraries though.

[Anonymous No.15088964]

>>15088580
Goddamn

[Anonymous No.15088993]

>>15082669
Read Patriotism and while the prose (of the translation) is nice, the summary of the rest of his works seems to be this.
Is Sun and Steel worth reading if I can't be bothered by schizofaggotry?

[Anonymous No.15089036]

I like his frequent blend of romantic passion and violence

[Anonymous No.15089042]

>>15088580
What country? Im a brit and no libraries in my area have it, they generally all have pretty shit collections in my experience
I want a copy but 100 is too much, I would consider one for under 50 if I could find one

[Anonymous No.15089057]

>>15088580
Kodansha used to own rights but shut down in 2011, how can I find out who has them now?

[Anonymous No.15089125]

>>15088580
what's stopping someone from making a new english translation and using that as they please?

[Anonymous No.15089416]

>>15089042
US. My local public library has it and when I was in graduate school one of the school libraries had it. At a lot of US libraries you can also have the book sent for from another city’s or college’s library system if yours doesn’t have it (there’s a sort of confederation and inter-library loan agreement between many libraries).

>>15089057
Not sure. Jut saw it mentioned on here a while back (think they said some Canadian company held the rights). You can find the e-version fairly easy though if you can’t get a physical copy. (Think I have it on one of my computers actually.)

>>15089125
I guess the fact that if you’re fluent in Japanese you don’t need the English version? Also, I’m not that informed about how international translation copyright works, or whether the Japanese have something where the copyright expires like we do with English language authors.

[Anonymous No.15089444]

is there a PDF of sun and steel? anytime i want a physical copy of an out of print book available on pdf I get staples to print it out and bind it for me for like 15 bucks

[Anonymous No.15089509]

>>15087084
Researching for Forbidden Colors. He writes about the experience of a straight author going to one in the book

[Anonymous No.15089511]

>>15089444
>is there a PDF of sun and steel? anytime i want a physical copy of an out of print book available on pdf I get staples to print it out and bind it for me for like 15 bucks

I'm the guy who posted above your post. I had a pdf of it, but just realized I think it was on my laptop that stopped working a month or so ago, so I don't think I can get to it easily. Pretty sure I got it cause it was posted on /lit, so someone probably has it. (It might be on that one literature database that people are always posting on here, but I can't remember the name.) Sorry to not be of more help.

[Anonymous No.15089538]

It’d be nice if we could get to the bottom of why whoever has the English rights to this keeps it out of print.

[Anonymous No.15089546]

>>15089511
It's on Libgen in pdf and epub

[Anonymous No.15089565]

Lmaoing @ ur lives

[Anonymous No.15089873]

>>15089565
Did the doll come with it?

[Anonymous No.15089992]

>>15082653
absolutely incredible. i love him so muhc
>>15082669
good.
>>15085017
cope

[Anonymous No.15090137]

Can anyone recommend a stand-alone book (not part of a series) by him that’s good? So far I’ve read Sun and Steel and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea.

[Anonymous No.15090186]

>>15090137
Confessions of a mask

[Anonymous No.15090633]

I have never read him, where do I start?

[Anonymous No.15090643]

[Anonymous No.15090834]

>>15087085
If he was so actively homo then link a source to that and then call me a retard again if you can nigger.

[Anonymous No.15090851]

>>15090633
>>15090186

[Anonymous No.15090901]

>>15087425
>>15087076
you gonna pay they will never reprint it just hold the rights

[Anonymous No.15090973]

>>15090834

[Anonymous No.15091127]

>>15089509
>pretending to be gay for research
you're just memeing now

[Anonymous No.15091241]

>>15090851
Thanks!

[Anonymous No.15091730]

[Anonymous No.15091747]

how is his wife so deluded that she thinks he was not a homo when he admits it over and over again?

[Anonymous No.15091754]

[Anonymous No.15091770]

He makes me proud to be a homo, it's amazing how superior gays are

[Anonymous No.15091867]

>>15089444
it on z-book

[Anonymous No.15091920]

in the movie there is a scene where he's dancing with fags and the fags makes fun of him for him lacking muscles, where is that from? is it just made up?

[Anonymous No.15092893]

>>15086736
ironic that it turned out to be the West that became most eager to understand him

[Anonymous No.15094120]

>>15090633
>>15090137
I started with The Sailor but after reading Star I think thats the best place to start
It is so short that anyone can read it in one sitting and, while its less like his other works, it is a fairly good representation of what to expect with mishima

[Anonymous No.15094125]

>>15091754
thanks for this anon

[Anonymous No.15094179]

>>15090137
>>15090633

short stories but runs Mishima's full range

[Anonymous No.15095075]

>>15091127
He went to the bar, he didn't have gay sex for research. Nigga have you even read forbidden colors?

[Anonymous No.15095190]

>>15085033
no wonder the suicide there is so high

[Anonymous No.15095285]

>>15082653

readin after the banquet and i enjoy it :)

[Anonymous No.15095526]

>>15094125
De nada.

[Anonymous No.15095557]

>>15082669
>tzo
the jew rat fears the samurai.

eat shit kike

[Anonymous No.15095609]

[Talking about unfit people pretty much] "They represented one type of narcissism that I could never forgive"
Mishima doesn't really expand on this point. I understand what he's getting at but I don't think that narcissism is the right term to use.

How is being overweight narcissistic? Because fatties think that they should be treated as equals despite being subhuman?

[Anonymous No.15095671]

>>15095609

[Anonymous No.15095696]

>>15095609
>>15095671
Say that to my face

[Anonymous No.15095761]

>>15085033
>source: trust me

are you saying that japs think machio is a faggot

[Anonymous No.15095765]

>>15095761
He never take any interest in the girls.
Yes

[Anonymous No.15095773]

>>15085033
They're obsessed with being healthy weight though. Not sure you're telling the truth lad.

[Anonymous No.15095801]

>>15086914
That kind of grandstanding is a lot easier when the society generally supports the cause (environmentalism is popular) and when you have money and lawyers to back you up. Getting into legal trouble as a leftist is not a big deal. Getting into legal trouble as anything even remotely "right wing" gets you Ruby Ridge and Waco.

[Anonymous No.15097191]

>>15083129
i've gotta re-read that one. it's been too long.

[Anonymous No.15097285]

>>15084540
Where is that pic?

[Anonymous No.15097415]

>>15084019
Not even a proper phantom thief, get FUCKED Mishima you stupid cunt

[Anonymous No.15097451]

>>15095801
that was because of the guns. lefties would get in trouble for trying to establish a commune like that too, it's practically training a militia

[Anonymous No.15097884]

could an anon post a pdf of Star? can't find it anywhere.

[Anonymous No.15097939]

I think alot is lost in translation because it his works read like YA novels to me

[Anonymous No.15099255]

>>15097415
>gives you massive XP buffs
Nah get fucked

[Anonymous No.15100362]

[Anonymous No.15100394]

>>15097451
Mishima's group didn't carry any weapons btw.

[Anonymous No.15100399]

[Anonymous No.15100440]

>>15090973
the sword is supposed to be a penis and the rose an anal rosebud

[Anonymous No.15100666]

>>15090633
Acts of Worship. Depending on which of its short stories you like best is what you should read next.

[Anonymous No.15101087]

>tfw you will never fuck Mishima's tight yellow bussy

[Anonymous No.15101103]

>>15095671
it begs the question if anyone can clean up, and to what extent. incel memes aside, I personally think yes, pretty much any functioning human can improve their looks with effort.

[Anonymous No.15101307]

[Anonymous No.15101511]

>>15090137
It's very short, but Patriotism is great.

[Anonymous No.15101525]

>>15101087
Feels bad, Mishima is peak femboy philosophy

[Anonymous No.15101542]

>>15082653
My favorite author and artist of all time by far
A personal hero and an incredible historical figure

>>15082669
Yeah pretty much

[Anonymous No.15101608]

>>15082974
me on the right

[Anonymous No.15102109]

>>15082669
fpbp

[Anonymous No.15102153]

I can't deny that as a young homo I was enamored by his aesthetic. I read his biography when I was a teenager (The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima) and was entranced. He made of his entire lifestyle an art. I loved his imaginative willpower, this force of imagination that was self-assured enough to embody these antiquated samurai-poet ideals during the 20th century. I enjoyed his subversive yet traditional literary output, which depicted scandalous liaisons and epic national ambition in the same stroke. I respected (although had no reason to care or believe in) his willingness to die for his ideals.

Not everyone can be both a gifted writer and a force of personality and that is what I always aspired to be. More than that not everyone can be both at the same time and advance their mythology with such perfect consilience.

[Anonymous No.15102475]

>>15082653
plugged his asshole with cotton and harakiri'd himself.

[Anonymous No.15103525]

>>15095671
Truth. If you visually repulsive you deserve the scorn you get.

[Anonymous No.15103532]

>>15090633
I started with Spring Snow but Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea is generally regarded as his easiest to start with.

[Anonymous No.15103556]

>>15086914
>Yelling a speech at a half-empty military yard and then botching your own assisted suicide isn't enough to make you some kind of grand martyr.

He didn't actually go in expecting it to work.

[Anonymous No.15103563]

>>15085245
Iirc Kant is very briefly mentioned in Spring Snow.

[Anonymous No.15103612]

I really liked Sailor Who Fell From Grace, then I read Temple of the Golden Pavilion and found it interesting in certain chapters, but much of it was a drag to get through.

[Anonymous No.15103693]

>>15103556
So he wasn't even sincere in regards to the motives of his planned suicide? That's even worse.

[Anonymous No.15103705]

>>15103693
i wish i was as dense as you, life would be easier

[Anonymous No.15104333]

[Anonymous No.15104409]

has anyone here considered learning japanese to read mishima?

[Anonymous No.15104416]

>>15104409
For Kyoko's House, but I also intend to go to Japan next year

[Anonymous No.15105068]

>>15103693
Do you believe in anything at all?

[Anonymous No.15105320]

>>15097285
Its a exposition

[Anonymous No.15106070]

>>15082653
I think this guy sums it up pretty succinctly. Wish I could provide an original thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVdxJGT9PRw

[Anonymous No.15106226]

Personally I prefer his earlier works to the late stuff (when he became mainstream), shame most of his work is still untranslated.

His life was just as interesting as his literature though, if not more

[Anonymous No.15106285]

the way he talks english is quite funny

his Japanese voice is fairly deep, but when he speaks English he puts on this nasally upper class English voice which sounds a bit like Peter Cushing

[Anonymous No.15106299]

>writes an entire chapter of just children killing and mutilating a cat

Based

[Anonymous No.15106514]

>>15106226
sea of fertility is probably his best work
His very early stuff was good until after The Temple of...
Then it picked back up again with Sun and Steel and the tetralogy

[Anonymous No.15107019]

He's written my favorite love stories of all time

[Anonymous No.15107052]

any guide on learning Japanese?

[Anonymous No.15107085]

>>15082653
One of the greatest. There is simply no one like him.

[Anonymous No.15107118]

>>15107052
go to /jp/ bro that's their thing

[Anonymous No.15107154]

Greater writer, odd sort of chap. That more or less describes most modern japanese artists before the 70's.