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/lit/ - Literature

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18201444 No.18201444 [Reply] [Original]

I am interested in Yukio Mishima but am not sure what order is best to read his work. I've read Confessions of a Mask, which was very good but felt more like half of a autobiography than a story.
Should I read the rest of his work chronologically, or read a biography about him first? I have heard 'Life and Death of Yukio Mishima' by Henry Scott Stokes is good. Also, at what point should I watch the Paul Schrader movie about him?

>> No.18201456

Sound of Waves and Life for Sale if you want more stories.

Sun and Steel if you want get /fit/.

>> No.18201466
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18201466

>>18201444
Start with The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, then Confessions of a Mask, then some of those other 50's novels like The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Sound of Waves, and his many short stories and plays. Don't forget Patriotism as a play and movie. It wouldn't hurt to watch some of the other movies Mishima starred in either. "The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima" is a good documentary.

End with Sun and Steel, and the tetralogy.

>> No.18201489

>>18201466
Wow I didn't know he was an actor too. Awesome guy desu

>> No.18201546

>>18201444
I loved "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea" and its the first one I read

>> No.18201583

>>18201489
I'd recommend you watch the documentary before anything else, it goes into him being an actor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxCvr6U2jjE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okkccaekiHQ

>> No.18201598
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18201598

>people like him no longer exist

>> No.18201645
File: 3.28 MB, 3466x2841, Mishima last words.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18201645

>>18201598

>> No.18201658
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18201658

>>18201645
>...of the Japanese people that have continued since antiquity
>since antiquity

>> No.18201700

>>18201658
It's a Volkish thing, though they lived primitively in antiquity.

>> No.18201860

>>18201645
What's the book?

>> No.18202144

>>18201860
I haven't read it, but I think an anon once said it was from Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist: An Intellectual Portrait.

>> No.18202254
File: 920 KB, 2048x1206, Let Them Enter - Vasili Vereshchagin (1871).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18202254

>>18202144
thank you!

>> No.18202296

You can mis him altogether

>> No.18203232

>>18201444

Any knowledge of Japanese culture, history, or religion required before reading his works?

>> No.18203333
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18203333

>>18201444
aesthetics, philosophy of beauty: golden temple, spring snow,

imperialism, living for a higher, a spiritual purpose, philosophy of action: patriotism, runaway horses, sun and steel,

nihilism, decadence: sailor who fell from grace, the temple of dawn, the decay of the angel

>> No.18203454

>>18203232
im no expert but the changing of Japan's national identity post WW2 is pretty important as well as the concepts of japanese honour e.g. samurai code

>> No.18204647

sailor > temple > tetralogy

>> No.18204719

>>18204647
the tetralogy is almost just a compilation of all the motifs in all his work, i feel like reading as much of his work as you can before reading it might make it hit a lot harder

>> No.18205136

>>18201444
Just read whatever you want and start exploring

>> No.18205377

>>18201444
Just read buddy

>> No.18206762

>>18203333

>> No.18206771

>>18201444
/lgbt/ Mishima > /pol/ Mishima

>> No.18208258
File: 608 KB, 1750x2536, StarMishima.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18208258

>>18201489

He put some of his experience as an actor in pic related (short story) which is worth the read.

>> No.18208308

>>18203232
>>18203454

I would go earlier than post-WWII and learn a bit about the Meiji Restoration. That's when Japan first started modernizing and adopting Western culture and is more so what Mishima is reacting to in the greater context of things.