The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima (Ad-Free/Patron Only Early Access)
An occasionally overwritten but often stunning masterpiece from the one and only.
Comments (7)
Excellent - i subscribed to your patreon today after seeing this review on youtube - The best course i had in college was East Asian Literature taught by the amazing John Balaban, an incredible teacher. During the Vietnam war, Balaban travelled throughout the country collecting and transcribing the traditional oral poetry known as Ca Dao. He had incredible stories of his time there. we covered three books in this seminar - all highly recommended 1) Temple of the Golden Pavilion 2) Mipam - Lama Yongden 3) Journey to the West / Monkey - Wu Cheng'en Thanks
Hello and welcome! Thank you so much for your support and recommendations.
So far, this one and Sun and Steel have been my two favorite works by Mishima that I’ve read so far. At some point I plan on getting into the Sea of Fertility tetralogy cause I really want to read Runaway Horses. Great video as always, Cliff! Thank you!
I find this to be Mishima's most transcendent work – an unimaginably rich synthesis of the symbolic and the real, Buddhism and the self. Passingly few novels operate with metaphorical profundities on so many levels, and fewer still successfully. 'Enjô' is worth seeking out but far from Don Ishikawa's best work (it is needlessly conventional.) Yukio also appeared in one proper gangster movie, 'Afraid to Die (1960),' with Ayako Wakao – I recall it being mildly disappointing if watchable.
Years ago I read Sailor Who Was Rejected by the Sea and I thought it was pretty good. This sounds even better. Hope I'll get to it in the foreseeable future. Thanks for the review!
Sadly, Mishima's seppaku was not glorious, but very much mishandled. The young soldier who was to behead him was very inept, and basically made a mess of things.
Nice, I'm reading Crime and Punishment right now too. Looking forward to watching your review after I finish it