>Mishima came to view human intimacy as basically sentimental and fatuous - he came to disdain women on grounds that coveting female beauty was a source of spiritual and moral malaise - as when lust for a woman was consummated, it simply led to the imposition of boring, pointless, and dreary obligations and expectations that robbed a man of his youthful and vital ambitions. He came to view sex itself as a cheap and shallow way in which people utilize their physical body (and that of others) to achieve a temporary catharsis and escape from the self. His seminal erotic experience was (despite the opague language in describing it) masturbatory - he came upon (presumably on ground's of Mann's repeated reference to it) the iconography of Sebastian, and determined that this represented the ultimate expression of beauty - essence combined with form in the masculine body. Of course, Sebastian was a Saint - in Mann's (and Yukio's estimation) beauty is a masculine province, and the distilled, emblematic expression of beauty is a man exhibiting poise under torture in the flower of his youth - not encumbered by either the ravage of age and decrepitude, nor tainted by common sexuality and the impurity of lust. Sex, thus, to Mishima, was a corruption of beauty - in his own words, ''those of us who never had physical health in childhood don't lose ourselves in sex'' - the mission of the aesthete, the Saint, the artist, the philosopher is to capture beauty in an upright, virginal, and manly capacity - the only way to achieve this is to become the form of beauty itself, and to prepare oneself for sacrifice (physical and spiritual).
Mishima came to view human intimacy as basically sentimental and fatuous - he came to disdain women on grounds that...
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wtf I unironically love Mishima now
just an abstract way of being on the no wanks train
>To understand Yukio Mishima, you need to understand the primary influences he was inspired by and in dialog with - primarily Thomas Mann, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Nietzsche - his body of work is very strongly grounded here, with the exception of the Sea of Fertility series; which is really a treatment of Japan's confused and syncretic religious tendencies. His most well-known works in the West, and the ones that defined him as a major author, are really philisophic novels in the European tradition.
>Why is this important?
>Its important because its essential to Mishima's view of sex, eroticism, and transcendental beauty. There's a tremendously misguided (and deliberately obfuscatory) effort in academia to portray Mishima as a ''closeted gay man'' - Roy Starrs is one of the only Western scholars who has made an effort to refute this narrative. His primary source, of course, is Mishima's thinly-veiled autobiography, Confessions of a Mask. Confessions describes a boy who was emotionally maimed by an overbearing grandmother who prevented him from associating with other boys, who was emotionally incestuous towards her charge, who preyed upon the boy's introversion and sensitivity, and who demanded he suppress his own willful impulses. His other parental figures were a callous, workaholic father who was cruel to the boy on grounds of his physical and emotional frailty and ill-health, and a mother who had abandoned him to the demented and selfish wiles of his grandmother. The legacy of this was that Mishima the boy became alienated from the world - to the point that his sense of self and his developing moral core fractured irreparably. The introversion he relied upon to sustain an ''inner-world'' which was essential to his psychic survival rendered him increasingly unable to relate to the world and its demands as a complete person. As he grew older, he was forced to don ''masks'' to deceive others with an appearance of superficiality and emotional normalcy. In reality, he was becoming less and less normal as his mind matured. He was literally becoming obsessed by macabre and erotic fantasies and fascinations, the expression(s) of which would, if brought into reality, make him a monstrous and criminal figure.
no he was cool
>The erotic ideal in Mishima's canon is expressed in Patriotism and Kyoko's House - the latter of course being the more significant. Mishima's alter-ego in the novel is a fractured personality who pursues narcissism to mitigate his emptiness. First as an actor, then as a bodybuilder. Aimless and unsatisfied, he is rescued by a female Yakuza who wishes to enslave him - on the condition that he never purport to love her in exchange for her patronage and he agree to mutual suicide on her terms. He agrees with the stipulation of, ''you mustn't kiss me until I am dead''. She obliges, and their pact is consummated - the underlying idea being that life can only be defined by death, and that erotic love can only host meaning if it constitutes sacrifice. Mere lust, be it animalistic and free or constrained by matrimony, is a ruse - people who believe love entails ''risk'' in and of itself are sentimental and deluded.
>The motifs here, obviously, are extremely homoerotic - that doesn't tell us anything. Homoeroticism is a basic component of high culture and passion. Its context is basically religious, anti-rational, anti-liberal, and highly traditional if not primordial and pagan. In contrast, the ''gay'' identity and ideology are the opposite - Larry Kramer actually gets into this quite extensively, as does Michael Foucault. Both are/were deranged in their own right, but they're absolutely correct in their assessment of the origin of ''gay'' identity. We can examine this further if you wish, but for now its best not to go that far outside the scope.
>Mishima didn't really want to be married - he married to satisfy his honor obligations to his parents. He agreed to an arranged marriage on the stipulation that his wife to be would have 1) never read his work; and 2) never take an interest in his work. This makes quite a bit of sense - his ''career'' couldn't really be reconciled with the demands of social respectability.
>Mishima's homoeroticism wasn't a ''secret'' - he was constantly airing these ideas in public, and his detractors and rivals (including the Japanese communist student movement) regularly portrayed him as a deranged, De Sade type of figure. Nobody believed Mishima was sexually normal - his wife, as were his parents, were profoundly discomforted by the trajectory of his life, and largely tried to avoid its implications. Paul Schrader noted that Mishima's estate objected really to the entire project of the biopic - singling out scenes that implied homosexuality as they thought it was emblematic of his ''problems''. Mishima was a great man, but he was also a pathologically disturbed individual - and this wasn't a ''secret''. He got increasingly savaged by critics overtime on grounds of this, and his parents and his wife suffered for it.
>Presenting the issue of Mishima being a ''gay man'' who had to hide a private life really misses the point by a mile; Mishima was actually a diabolical individual, and this became clear on November 25, 1970. Until then his friends, family and supporters had tried to convince the world he was a satirist or an eccentric - he wasn't: He meant everything he said. That's quite a bit more disconcerting than being a homosexual - if you think homosexual authors are rare or controversial, you're a rather sheltered person.
>No - its well known that modern Japan considered homosexuality to be a deviant behavior - and your source reflects that. They didn't conceptualize a ''gay'' identity. Nobody, other than Westerners, believes that sexual behavior or lust is an immutable trait that constitutes a cultural or social identity. Its a bizarre concept, rooted in ideology.
Keep going!
still this tbqh
I want to read his books now, sounds like me desu
source, sempatchi
>as when lust for a woman was consummated, it simply led to the imposition of boring, pointless, and dreary obligations and expectations that robbed a man of his youthful and vital ambitions
Painfully accurate. There was a girl I loved madly for 7 years. When I finally got to fuck her, all that love and adoration which drove me to create all of my best ever writing and art disappeared the second my dick touched her pussy. I couldn't even cum, just lay there staring at the ceiling while she sucked my dick and thought about how dreadfully banal and dull this is.
And there's something terribly sad and banal about that
>There was a girl I loved madly for 7 years
I don't think that's normal user
great insight.would love to read more. is this your own analysis or is this from a book? is so, could you provide source?
I want to read sun and steel but I can't find a copy
>He meant everything he said
that is what makes him the realest motherfucker that ever lived.
I want to read Mishima's gayest work. Which is it? Confessions of a Mask?
Forbidden Colours
thank you based user
typical faggot narcissism and stunted emotional development
whatever. you can pretty much do a lot worse than he did.
he was a faggot
gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
lol what a faggot
Ís this Thomas777?
...
Unironically true.
Thanks user.
Where is this from?
agreed tbqh
This nigga straight sexualized the Apollonian
So he was basically Veeky Forums+/pol/+/r9k/?
don't forget Veeky Forums
Post your best ever writing.
but wasnt he like 5'2?
just like fit
Just like everyone else on Veeky Forums
This is incredible writing. I was moved to laughter, tears, and the most ass-puckering of cringes. 10/10 would read a novel of this.
ah...shit.
So what, your best ever writing was about how you wanted to be with a girl? If so then you weren't much of an artist, we all get excited when we like someone. If you were truly an artist you would embrace any change in your life, especially something as big as being in a relationship, and try to capture its essence in your work.
Just look at Tolstoy: happily married, big family, had fucked a ton of whores in his youth, created the most perfect novels without any overly conceited notions about aesthetics. Literally can't think of a more manly writer.
Then why did he fake tuberculosis to avoid going to war?
Are you saying he wasn't gay.
"One night Mishima flew over to America just for sex. He came up and had dinner with me and described quite bluntly what he wanted and asked could I steer him to the right place... His need for a white man that night was very great, and his specifications were detailed. Afterward, it flashed into my mind that Mishima was impotent."
villagevoice.com
>Presenting the issue of Mishima being a ''gay man'' who had to hide a private life really misses the point by a mile; Mishima was actually a diabolical individual, and this became clear on November 25, 1970. Until then his friends, family and supporters had tried to convince the world he was a satirist or an eccentric - he wasn't: He meant everything he said. That's quite a bit more disconcerting than being a homosexual - if you think homosexual authors are rare or controversial, you're a rather sheltered person.
>No - its well known that modern Japan considered homosexuality to be a deviant behavior - and your source reflects that. They didn't conceptualize a ''gay'' identity. Nobody, other than Westerners, believes that sexual behavior or lust is an immutable trait that constitutes a cultural or social identity. Its a bizarre concept, rooted in ideology.
>can't find a copy
it's like you didn't read the sticky
seems you confusing 'artist' with 'Tony Robbins seminar'
pdf-archive.com
you're welcome
Looks like someone was jelli.
did he died
Yes
...
Tfw you'll never hang out in a hot tub with mishima
I'll never understand where the "closeted gay" accusation comes from. What the fuck was closeted about him? I wish I could publish my first novel at 25 about my weird sadistic gay fetishes.
He had a wife. But he was neither closeted nor was he "gay".
nazi pederast pedant detected...........
Great play
you could if you weren't such a pussy and just dug up his body
Madagascar, plz.
With his mutilated headless body? No thanks
well, didn't know you were such a judgmental, picky fuck
pathetic
God damn he was handsome
tbqh I would kiss him passionately and play with his nipples while stroking his hair with my other hand
no homo
...
Fucking gold:
[Today 02:25 PM] Thomas777: The Negroes are unique b/c like 1800 pointed out, they just use their sinecure to try to live like the Monopoly guy. They don't work to improve the political power of Blacks generally like Chinese or even Mexicans do. Give a Black a no-work job funded by federal pork to the tune of 150k/year, and he'll buy a Mercedes, torture waiters, pretend to be a pimp, then declare bankruptcy. Give a Chink the same job and everyone from his village is suddenly living well and he's laundering money through a Chinatown 'community center'
[Today 11:23 AM] Thomas777: You don't live in America so you don't know how annoying it is to be surrounded by Jews, fags, Yids, tards, mental cases, racially incorrect weirdos, aging commie fossils, and assorted other fuck-chum who all scream that their superpatriots and we need to circle the wagons and kill people that they don't like in between sucking off the Jew mafia casino racket masquerading as ''government''
[Today 06:42 PM] Thomas777: I think in America you're ''liberal'' if you want Negroes to gangbang your daughter, and you're ''conservative'' if you want one Negro to marry her and start behaving himself.
thephora.net
[Today 11:13 PM] Thomas777: America has been dysfunctional from day 1. It's way too into niggers. Healthy people don't get into niggers one way or the other - we just think they're an oddity, like a pelican or a venus fly trap.
Thomas777: People also have this deluded idea that lawyers are some cognitive elite and that law school is really rigorous or something. This could not be further from the truth. A lot of lawyers are genuinely stupid people, and in law school you actually get penalized if the arguments you present are considered overly complicated. Its a repository of dumb people who are ambitious. Its the opposite of a science program where there are smart people who are unambitious.
that wasn't love
>The Romans weren't pagans because they had no concept of paganism
This is entirely a matter of definitions. He probably was gay according to western ideas about homosexuality. If you don't have a concept of homosexuality as social identity then it makes no sense to call him gay which means that this is exactly what people mean when they accuse him of that. That doesn't change at all because he was Japanese and came from Japan.
The so-called "romantic love match", founded upon the ashes of medieval Teutonic chivalry and the courtly love idealized by Troubadours, does not exist and the consequences of it have proven disastrous for the west
that's not what I meant! I mean that love is not lusting after a person for a long period of time. if that guy had really loved her, he would have tried to help her out. he would have wanted the best for her. that's what love is.
>Not a single person in the world before the Troubadours experienced romantic love
>Non-Western nations have no sense of romantic love until contact with the west
You do know the Romans used to make fun of Cato for romantically loving his wife.
tbqh it makes sense given the Roman mindset
you only penetrate people of lower status than you, so your wife could not possibly be on the same level of humanity as you are
>unironically loving a subhuman cumrag
lol gay
Good. Women are not beautiful and to love one would be a major character flaw.
OH, YER ALL WET!
I don't understand your position. First you say the Troubadours invented romantic love and now you say it makes sense that the Romans would make fun of romantic love between a husband and wife.
I'm not this user m80
What the fuck is this shit this is beautiful
This is fabricated. People in this thread are just agreeing cause they're faggots and this jives with their view of things.
Well said.
Love is emotional delight in another, nothing more. A straight man can love men as well as women, but in the former case this is called "platonic." Love makes lust more intense, and sex infinitely more enjoyable. To "want the best for someone" is not love, it's a foisted moral obligation.
Where does the greentext in the OP come from?
If you're going to post books i'm going to too.
Just for some context these were written by a self-identified Calvinist-Strasserist-Nihilist who spent half of his life in a trance on heroin
cool
but whomst?
ya boi thomas777
just like he said, Veeky Forums, /pol/, and /r9k/ all rolled into one
That was the standard in Japan before Western nutrition
was that nibba gay?
He was eromenos
>old man fucking kids
im about to buy the sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, what else should i get not necessary of Mishima?
Death in Midsummer and Other Stories
>
Sounds like he was doing something right
Which books are must reads of his, preferably in order of your preference.
I'm drawn to him primarily for political reasons, but he seems to be much deeper of a thinker than just "muh modernism, #FashyGoy"
Confessions of a Mask
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Kyoko's House
Sun and Steel
The Sea of Fertility
yes. not opie, but i've kept this post open on my phone for several weeks now. just read it to my wife yesterday.
you read to your wife how when lust for a woman is consummated it only leads to the imposition of boring, pointless, and dreary obligations and expectations that robs a man of his youthful and vital ambitions? lol
;-)
tbf, she really liked 'patriotism' and was about to start 'the sound of waves'