/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19205998]

I went into this expecting some steamy man-on-man Japanese brothel house homoerotica and instead got a philosophical treatise on Zen. Can someone explain to me what I just read?

[Anonymous No.19206101]

I didn’t like this book and it made me think less of him as an author. His best novels are The Sailor that Fell from Grace with the Sea, Thirst for Love, and The Frolic of the Beasts. His actual best novel is The Sound of Waves, but that’s a re-telling of Daphnis and Chloe so I’m not sure it counts.

[Anonymous No.19206124]

>>19206101
Why didn't you like it?

[Anonymous No.19206128]

>>19205998
>steamy man-on-man Japanese brothel house homoerotica
Try Forbidden Colours

[Anonymous No.19206134]

>>19206101
>doesn’t mention the tetralogy
Wew

[Anonymous No.19206143]

>>19206124
It was just too perverse and decadent and frankly, boring. I put it down for a bit shortly after the monk with the club foot came into the picture and the other monk died.

>>19206134
I’ll admit here that I haven’t read it. Although, most seem underwhelmed by it.

[Anonymous No.19206165]

>>19206143
I agree about it being boring. It's very 'classic' in it's structure (i.e. long, descriptive sentences whose only purpose is to set the scene).

I think the decadence and perversity is part of the theme, but the reasoning behind it eludes me. I realized I was out of my element when the club-footed monk starts telling his story.

PS: He's a horrible person btw lol

[Anonymous No.19206188]

>>19206101
This is probably his greatest novel.

[Anonymous No.19206199]

>>19206165
I just don’t like realism. I especially don’t like particularly perverse or overly-intellectualized realism. This book was both. The fact that the character is like a deranged aesthete or something as I recall and there are perverse, bizarre characters and obscene shock value descriptions and events doesn’t make actually make a novel good. It makes it shtick.

[Anonymous No.19206248]

>>19206199
Perversity and decadence are part of the human condition. I never felt they were contrived, especially since for Mishima they are things he felt in his bones.

[Anonymous No.19206268]

>>19206199
Sounds like a based book. Might pick it up.

[Anonymous No.19206887]

>>19205998

[Anonymous No.19207509]

>>19206165


How was he a horrible person please elaborate

[Anonymous No.19207627]

>>19207509
he was a militant nationalist which is le evil to faggot commies like the guy you responded to

[Anonymous No.19207737]

>>19206143
>It was just too perverse and decadent and frankly, boring