This is a great post, and I'm glad to have found something so original about Mishima. Thanks for writing this, Duncan!
The point you make about gracelessness is probably spot-on for Mishima's legacy in Japan -- most of the Japanese people I know, if they even know who he was, are clearly a little uncomfortable speaking about him. Whether this embarassment is a failure on his part, or their own failure to understand someone who lived so far outside the bounds of Japanese society (where suicide = shame, not pride), I'm still not sure, but reading your essay I'm thinking of the former. I remember one person, a retired high school Japanese teacher, telling me he found Mishima almost unreadable because of his overly Westernized style. He's a complicated figure.
If there's a moment in his life which seems to have stuck in the Japanese zeitgeist, it's probably his debate with the zenkyoto students in 1969. There was a hit Netflix documentary about it that came out a few years ago. His legacy is aesthetics (novels still sold anywhere you can get books here) and probably also political, but metaphysical/philosophical? Don't think he took off like he might have wanted.
Thanks so much for reading William. I agree I find his novels pretty good, but as you can tell I am very skeptical of their philosophical import. Once you piece the suggestions in his novel together, along with the explicit ideas in Sun and Steel, you find something that sounds cool but doesn't quite cohere.
This is a great post, and I'm glad to have found something so original about Mishima. Thanks for writing this, Duncan!
The point you make about gracelessness is probably spot-on for Mishima's legacy in Japan -- most of the Japanese people I know, if they even know who he was, are clearly a little uncomfortable speaking about him. Whether this embarassment is a failure on his part, or their own failure to understand someone who lived so far outside the bounds of Japanese society (where suicide = shame, not pride), I'm still not sure, but reading your essay I'm thinking of the former. I remember one person, a retired high school Japanese teacher, telling me he found Mishima almost unreadable because of his overly Westernized style. He's a complicated figure.
If there's a moment in his life which seems to have stuck in the Japanese zeitgeist, it's probably his debate with the zenkyoto students in 1969. There was a hit Netflix documentary about it that came out a few years ago. His legacy is aesthetics (novels still sold anywhere you can get books here) and probably also political, but metaphysical/philosophical? Don't think he took off like he might have wanted.
Thanks so much for reading William. I agree I find his novels pretty good, but as you can tell I am very skeptical of their philosophical import. Once you piece the suggestions in his novel together, along with the explicit ideas in Sun and Steel, you find something that sounds cool but doesn't quite cohere.
Omg that last line 🥲
Beautifully done.
🥰🥰🥰