/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1822482]

ITT: "I've never read [author], where do i start?"

Yukio Mishima for me. What's his most accessible work?

[Anonymous No.1822484]

I think most people will tell you The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. I'd say Sun and Steel. It's short (~100 pages) and I believe captures much of his personal philosophy. I didn't care for it, but have at it if you've got a lazy few hours some afternoon.

[Anonymous No.1822488]

Specifically his fiction, since I've read some of his essays already.

Should I just jump in feet first with Infinite Jest?

[Anonymous No.1822504]

The key part of >>1822484
>didn't care for it

Skip Mishima. Unless you love boredom.

There's something in a Tuttle paperback on Bushido/Hagakure which is fine -- but it's nonfiction and not what you're after, here, right, OP? The best thing he ever wrote.

The Samurai Ethic and Modern Japan

The fiction is all but unreadable as far as I can tell. I've never gotten more than a few pages in.

[Anonymous No.1822507]

I want to read this guys shit because he looks stylish as fuck, i didn't even know his name until recently.

Anywho, where do i start?

[Anonymous No.1822511]

>>1822507
Le Etranger or w/e enough with this Stranger/Outsider troll bullshit
The Plague (quite good, prefer it to the above)
The Myth of Sisyphus

the first 2 are novels, the 3rd an essay. were i you, id go myth -> stranger -> plague

[Anonymous No.1822513]

I using vis-a-vis douchey?
(I think it is.)

[Anonymous No.1822517]

>>1822504
If i were to skip Mishima, would you be able to suggest a better Asian author? I'm trying to get a feel for the literature of the world.

[Anonymous No.1822518]

>>1822517
for a more modern outlook, try Haruki Murakami or Banana Yoshimoto. Something from the mid-20th century, Yasunari Kawabata or Kenzaburo Oe. at least give sun and steel a try (if you can find a copy), you can always put it down if it doesnt work for you.

[Anonymous No.1822520]

Another inquiring anon here.

The only thing I've read by Mishima was The School of Flesh (or so it's called in French, L'école de la chair. I don't know if was published under another name in English). It as nice, but if it had any trace of Mishima's philosophy, it had escaped me. Also, it didn't help that I've read it in French, a language which always gives me great troubles.

That was a couple of years ago. Now, I've ordered Spring Snow. Did I make the right choice?

[Anonymous No.1822521]

>>1822520

couldn't say, sorry :(

[Anonymous No.1822535]

has anyone read forbidden colors? i tried and failed i just couldnt understand the protagonists jumpy narrative but i definitely want to try again

[Anonymous No.1822539]

>>1822535
The Forbidden Colors? You mean The Giver?

[Anonymous No.1822545]

>>1822539
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Colors

that one
picked it up cause the plot rules

[Anonymous No.1822552]

Pynchon?

I've started the Crying of Lot 49.

[Anonymous No.1822554]

>>1822552
just avoid vineland

[Anonymous No.1822558]

>>1822554
Once I'm done with Lot 49 should I try Slow Learner or Gravity's Rainbow?

Oh, and is Against the Day any good or should I avoid it?

[Anonymous No.1822560]

>>1822558
try V.

[sandwiches No.1822561]

>>1822558
Read Mason & Dixon, then V. or GR.

[Anonymous No.1822636]

Yukoku is good. In fact, Mishima himself recommends this story to anyone who has not read his literature, for this short piece of writing incorporates the essence of Yukio Mishima in the purest form.

[Anonymous No.1822782]

I read a lot of Mishima when I was an Asian Studies major (a choice a lot of people questioned but I still got a job lol) and seriously, start with his nonfiction. It makes a very powerful statement about the changes in Japanese culture over the years. His death was pretty epic too.