/lit/ - Literature

>>10609268
The greeks and romans all felt inactivity to be effeminate. Tolstoy also felt robust activity to be an ideal. Pre-moderns didnt have the convenience we have available to us so they didnt have to actually worry about health (either you were doing labor all day or you were out hunting three times a week, and you wanted your wife fat so she wouldnt die in childbirth), until you start seeing the upper-class collegiate sports in the late 19th century at US and British universities as a response to poor health.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/modern-man-a-wimp-says-anthropologist-1802501.html

related, even early modern peasants had bonestructures similar to modern tennis pros. Furthermore, as the 20th century pushed forward in the west, we began to ultra-specialize, continuing a 10,000 year tradition of reduction in want increasing societal specialization. Instead of a priest class though, and intelligentsia was created.

Mishima is a total anomaly and mentally ill, and probably is outside this discussion.

>>10609268
You'd be surprised by how many public intellectuals were/are actual beasts in the gym.

>>10609268
Because they were unwilling to submit their inventions to the world for the ultimate test of their truthfulness.