4 ms·

I mean he was a fascist. Never forget that.

Monobrow02 6y ago
Spoke the last man...
jeffreyrogers 6y ago
This is just a lazy attempt at character assassination. A Japanese guy who killed himself in 1970 is a fascist? Only if you completely redefine what words mean. "Fascism" in its modern usage means "person whose right-leaning political views I don't like". Completely ahistorical and intellectually bankrupt form of argument.
- morelisp 6y ago
  On the contrary, your reaction is some kneejerk response influenced by a perception of overuse of the word in modern politics. Mishima is unapologetically a fascist; much of the Japanese right was, some still even is. > A Japanese guy who killed himself in 1970 is a fascist? A Japanese guy who took over a government building to agitate for a sublimation of individuality and a return to an imperial ethnostate? Only through the group, I realised — through sharing the suffering of the group — could the body reach that height of existence that the individual alone could never attain. And for the body to reach that level at which the divine might be glimpsed, a dissolution of individuality was necessary. The tragic quality of the group was also necessary, the quality that constantly raised the group out of the abandon and torpor into which it was prone to lapse, leading it to an ever-mounting shared suffering and so to death, which was the ultimate suffering. The group must be open to death — which meant, of course, that it must be a community of warriors. The Futurists dreamed of writing so well, and this is from his worst book by far!
  - bsenftner 6y ago
    I don't know if there is a formal term for the concept, but it seems like there is a quality of skilled authorship where an author's own prose impresses themselves to the degree they believe their own selectively edited metaphorically enriched version of their voice over than their actual, humble I-might-fart-my-tooth-is-sore base reality. They get gobsmacked by their own writer's voice and then their personality morphs to some monster. History has pivotal personalities that seem to fit this pattern of moderately intelligent authors being gobsmacked by the power of editorship, which causes them to elevate their personality into Uberman Insanity.
morelisp 6y ago
Does anything about his art or his life even risk letting someone forget that?

Spoke the last man...

This is just a lazy attempt at character assassination. A Japanese guy who killed himself in 1970 is a fascist? Only if you completely redefine what words mean. "Fascism" in its modern usage means "person whose right-leaning political views I don't like". Completely ahistorical and intellectually bankrupt form of argument.

morelisp 6y ago
On the contrary, your reaction is some kneejerk response influenced by a perception of overuse of the word in modern politics. Mishima is unapologetically a fascist; much of the Japanese right was, some still even is. > A Japanese guy who killed himself in 1970 is a fascist? A Japanese guy who took over a government building to agitate for a sublimation of individuality and a return to an imperial ethnostate? Only through the group, I realised — through sharing the suffering of the group — could the body reach that height of existence that the individual alone could never attain. And for the body to reach that level at which the divine might be glimpsed, a dissolution of individuality was necessary. The tragic quality of the group was also necessary, the quality that constantly raised the group out of the abandon and torpor into which it was prone to lapse, leading it to an ever-mounting shared suffering and so to death, which was the ultimate suffering. The group must be open to death — which meant, of course, that it must be a community of warriors. The Futurists dreamed of writing so well, and this is from his worst book by far!
- bsenftner 6y ago
  I don't know if there is a formal term for the concept, but it seems like there is a quality of skilled authorship where an author's own prose impresses themselves to the degree they believe their own selectively edited metaphorically enriched version of their voice over than their actual, humble I-might-fart-my-tooth-is-sore base reality. They get gobsmacked by their own writer's voice and then their personality morphs to some monster. History has pivotal personalities that seem to fit this pattern of moderately intelligent authors being gobsmacked by the power of editorship, which causes them to elevate their personality into Uberman Insanity.

morelisp 6y ago

Does anything about his art or his life even risk letting someone forget that?