This has really pretty prose and a clever story, but i feel like

Plebs shouldn't read Mishima.

>>9862964
Everyone should read Mishima why are you such an elitist prick

Its basically just babbys first Nietzsche and the kid partly resembled Mishima.

>>9862957
His missing father was Japanese antebellum masculinity and elan culture that was slaughtered by the war.

His mother was the feminizing influence of the west, and her store was the same, with some critique of capitalism as well.

The group of boys were the young angry post-war generation with a blood lust but no compass.

The sailor was the ideal Japanese male, who through submitting to the feminizing influence of the west lost not only his value as a man ie quitting the maritime life but his right to exist. His refusal to discipline the boy is just that, a loss of traditional discipline.

The end is the triumph of the militant Japanese youth, which of course never happened. See Decay of the Angel for just how depressed this realization made Mishima feel.

>>9863285
Illuminating. Thanks for that. (Not OP.)

Can you break down the cultural context of Temple of the Golden Pavilion?

>>9863285
>Decay of the Angel

Does Temple of Dawn get better? I thought Spring
Snow and Runaway Horses were great but have been stuck on TOD for some time. Honda is just such a pathetic character. I noticed that TOD has a different translator than the first two books.

>>9863372
>Honda is just such a pathetic character

The Decay of the Angel is basically a suicide note, and a necessary coda which absolutely brings the other novels together.

>>9863308
The burning of the temple was pretty obviously writing off the beautiful, historical japanese culture by modernity in the person of the kid. I found that novel had a lot of murakamiesque fluff desu

>>9863372
For whatever reason Mishi goes on a long tangent about buddhism and I can't remember what else in the middle of Temple of Dawn which reads more like non-fiction essay than a novel. Decay of the Angel is a return to form.

>>9862957
I wouldn't over-interpret it.
I read it as a simple celebration of common Japanese culture. Specifically the culture which is closer to nature itself (Read: casual Shinto) and idealized masculinity/femininity.
The only notable thing is how the antagonists and tragic figures in the story are the rich and the "modernized".
Note that the protagonist doesn't "beat" them à la "man against man", but by proving himself through heroic demonstration, à la "man against nature".

>>9862957
I gave up after the first couple of chapters. Didn't like the prose.