:fire:True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.
:sparkle:Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.
:broken:I still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line...
True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys. — javi2541997
This Yukio Mishima quote reminds me ofTrue beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.
— @javi2541997
Can you makes sense of this one for me?
Those quotes sound like Nietzsche. — Tom Storm
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so,
because it serenely disdains to destroy us.
Every angel is terrible. — Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies
which includes an in-the-moment appreciation of beauty, sort of like being lucky to be there in the moment? — Dawnstorm
I'm hardly an expert in Japanese culture, but I'm certainly not used to have this concept be accompanied by such violent language. I'd guess it's an expression of passion? — Dawnstorm
One of Mishima's traumas was not having the chance to fight in WWII, because he thought it would be priceless to die defending the honour of his homeland. Since then, he always had a fetish for war and bellicose topics. Too much passion on him? — javi2541997
we don't have this instant recoil that we would have if Mishima would have been a German, an Englishman or an American. This tells something about us, not of the Japanese or their culture. — ssu
Think about. What would we think about a writer that would be an ardent patriot like Mishima if he would be German? He would be the jingoist ultra-nationalist and people would just try to find hints of nazism, white supremacy and racism in his writings. How would a German who would favour Prussian militarism look like today?ssu, I don't follow you in that quote. What do you mean by "instant recoil" if Mishima would have been German instead of Japanese? — javi2541997
Onoda’s three decades spent in the jungle – initially with three comrades and finally alone – came to be seen as an example of the extraordinary lengths to which some Japanese soldiers would go to demonstrate their loyalty to the then emperor, in whose name they fought.
Refusing to believe that the war had ended with Japan’s defeat in August 1945, Onoda drew on his training in guerilla warfare to kill as many as 30 people whom he mistakenly believed to be enemy soldiers.
Think about. What would we think about a writer that would be an ardent patriot like Mishima if he would be German? He would be the jingoist ultra-nationalist and people would just try to find hints of nazism, white supremacy and racism in his writings. How would a German who would favour Prussian militarism look like today? — ssu
Above all, remember how the Japanese soldiers of the new Self-Defence forces reacted to Mishima. They started to hiss and jeer. — ssu
just like the story of the last Hiro Onoda, the last Japanese soldier to surrender in the Phillipines in 1974. Well, he too was disappointed about post-WW2 when he finally got back to Japan.
Hiro Onoda surrendering in 1974. — ssu
I wonder what Mishima would have written about Onoda — ssu
Hence we are far more open to hear what truly a Japanese writer writes and we don't immediately go for the character assassination. We tolerate views that we would immediately not even to bother to listen, if it would be our society. What comes to my mind is the stereotypical cultural studies student, who is fascinated about cultures and traditions of all people except his or her own.Yes, I agree. He would be heavily criticised, and his works would suffer a bit of censorship, or at least he would be sued and seated in a trial. — javi2541997
And that is a far more nuanced view, which makes it interesting.Yes, I know Japan had imperialistic views towards Korea and China, but according to Mishima, that's just politics, and he wanted to focus on the spirit of the nation, and (again) Japan is intrinsically violent, although they promoted actions of peace since the 1945 debacle. — javi2541997
He didn't understand that the Japan Self-Defence Forces was a totally different animal than the Imperial Army or Navy of the past. These institutions had been disbanded and the first implementation of the SCAP was to form a the National Police Reserve in 1950, and the JSDF was formed as late as 1954. And this is actually very crucial to understand post-WW2 armed forces of Germany and Japan. There was a dramatic ideological change from as both Germany and Japan cut their ties to the past military culture and started with citizen-soldiers and with influence of American military training. (In fact the WW2 era Wehrmacht continued in the East German Volksarmee as there was no emphasis on changing the old culture in the DDR as there was no denazification effort as Communist East Germany assumed it had no ties to the Wehrmacht.)A very good point, ssu. Honestly, after reading biographies on Mishima's life, I think he had never expected such a reaction from the Self-Defence Forces. — javi2541997
They are not at all laughing at him, but smiling and in the following video you can see people clapping their hands. And I suspect that the Japanese male next to him is likely a veteran officer of Onoda that was there to convince him that the war is over. Also note the American officer and Phillipine Army general. Here is actual video of the surrender. He is treated with quite the respect with a lot of Phillipine Army officers around him, not at all as some lunatic.Look how the people are laughing at him and his katana. — javi2541997
Weren't you Spanish? I think that you will find it in your history too.Damn! I have always missed that pure loyalist behaviour that the useless politicians of my country don't have... — javi2541997
What comes to my mind is the stereotypical cultural studies student, who is fascinated about cultures and traditions of all people except his or her own. — ssu
They are not at all laughing at him, but smiling and in the following video you can see people clapping their hands. — ssu
And especially since Yukio hadn't himself served... — ssu
Weren't you Spanish? I think that you will find it in your history too. — ssu
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