Death in Midsummer: And Other Stories by Yukio Mishima (PATRON ONLY)

Coincidentally (synchronicity!) I read Confessions of a Mask in July—so far, the only Mishima I've read. I was struck by two things: how painfully it laid bare his psyche with a sexual frankness that would be hard to imagine in a work from the same time period in the US. But secondly by how often his fantasies foreshadowed his own demise: even as a child he showed a fascination with bloodshed and suicide, and he often coupled his sexual desire with daydreams of violence such as stabbings and piercings. (Yes, the book purports to be a novel, but it's clearly highly autobiographical.)

The movie adaptation of “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” was set in England, and was very unsettling, I recall, due to its believability. In the 70s, I think.

This comment doesn’t really have anything to do with the video but it made me think of something. I have heard you saying that ur writing is bad and all of that. I haven’t read it but just according to me, the scripts for these videos are very well written. I think u have a big talent for just commentating literature in a very beautiful and elegant yet personal way. Maybe writing a book with some essays about your favourite authors and their works? Like harold bloom in “How to read and why?”

In a Mishima phase at the moment, reading Runaway Horses (the second in his tetralogy The Sea of Fertility), and so far, the tetralogy is beautiful, sometimes too much so, to where I’ve had to take a day off of reading it and read something else (the imagery is very purposeful, however, it’s very dense). It seems like Mishima was interested in questions of whether inner worlds can impact the outer world (which I think sums up the romantic side of him) and the implications it carries in the people who know us and live on after we’re gone. There’s a lot about Buddhism, consciousness, logic versus passion, the sea, and death, of course. The first one, Spring Snow, has that melodrama quality as well, almost reading out like a play at times, but with some of the greatest scenes I’ve read, at least on a first reading. These books, at least so far, are very indulgent, which I think makes sense considering they were his goodbye (Decay of the Angel being the final book in the series). Anyways, if you ever get a craving for Mishima again, would be interested to hear your thoughts on the first one. I often wonder if his works hit me so hard because I’m still young, and maybe that’s who he really felt he related to: young men, because of his sensitivity and overwhelming passions and desires and isolation from the world around him. It’s almost an extreme version of youth. I wonder if, when I reread these at a later date, when I’m older and (hopefully) more experienced, they’ll still have the same brilliance. He’s still one of my favorites and I recommend him to everyone, but yea. Anyways, another great review as always, thanks for introducing new books I would’ve never thought of reading (discovered the likes of Mishima and Pirandello through you). Keep it up, man