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50 Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read
By Bill , Moderator · 74 posts · 930 views
By Bill , Moderator · 74 posts · 930 views
last updated Mar 29, 2014 10:53AM
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From what I can tell, Yukio Mishima was not a very happy man.
Granted, the only works that I have read of this very prolific author are this and Kinkakuji, but I'm seeing a pattern already, and it doesn't point towards Mishima being a cheerful, laid-back guy. Of course, his suicide by seppuku is also a good indicator that he took things way too seriously.
Published in 1948, Confessions of a Mask addresses a subject that would have been taboo anywhere, not just Japan. The main character, whose name ...more
Granted, the only works that I have read of this very prolific author are this and Kinkakuji, but I'm seeing a pattern already, and it doesn't point towards Mishima being a cheerful, laid-back guy. Of course, his suicide by seppuku is also a good indicator that he took things way too seriously.
Published in 1948, Confessions of a Mask addresses a subject that would have been taboo anywhere, not just Japan. The main character, whose name ...more
Mishima has long been one of the major blind spots in my ongoing exploration of queer lit, something rectified this year with my reading of Confessions of a Mask. Alas, I was left surprisingly… indifferent by the experience. I fully admit that I often struggle with texts where suicide and other kinds of violence–towards the self or otherwise–are afforded prominent thematic positions, and I suspect this general disinclination was compounded by some fundamental problems with what feels like a duti
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Yukio Mishima's first novel that made an impression to the world outside Japan. A 'Gay' classic but also for those who think about identity as well. A very beautiful book in my opinion as well as a work that can't go back what it was before. It must have been an incredible experience for Mishima to write a book like this.
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I'm definitely on a Mishima kick right now. His prose reads as effortlessly as (by all accounts) it was created. An excellent insight into Mishima's burgeoning obsession with beauty and the traditional warrior ethos of Japan, which would culminate in his ritualistic suicide. Also, a frank examination of homosexual attraction.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews! ...more
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews! ...more
his observation traveling in Tokyo in 1945, after a bombardment: "When we transferred to the metropolitan loop line, about ninety percent of the passengers were air-raid victims. Now there was an even more noticeable smell of fire. They were loud and boastful as they related to each other the dangers they had undergone. In the true sense of the word, this was a rebellious mob: it was a mob that harbored a radiant discontent, an overflowing, triumphant, high-spirited dissatisfaction."
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Jun 06, 2007
Adam Hodgins
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review of another edition
Shelves:
memoirs-biography,
queer
Jul 06, 2009
Ching-In
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Amanda
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Andrew
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