Thursday, January 20, 2011

Yukio Mishima

The discussion we had in class today about Yukio Mishima sounded extremely familiar to me, but I couldn't quite figure out why. Then it occurred to me that one of my brilliant friends actually wrote a blog post about Mishima.

For a little background information, my friend Caroline is an Art major at the University of Maine, and decided to create a blog chronicling her journey of reading a book from every Library of Congress subsection. (When I found out she was composing this blog, I accused her of having too much free time on her hands, then silently scorned myself for not reaching my full English major potential and thinking this up myself). In any case, her first book choice was From Africa to Zen: An Invitation to World Philosophy, and her subsequent blog post was taken from the chapter of the book on Japan, detailing none other than the story of Mishima.

Rereading the post now, I distinctly remember having to look up the definition of seppuku, then reeling in horror. But I think Caroline does a great job of interpreting the story and analyzing the aesthetics of death (as the blog is so aptly titled). I also cannot get over the coincidence of this topic coming up in two completely separate circumstances. Total mind blow.

Here's the link to the post: http://nowoverdue.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/aesthetic-death/

And if you are interested, I highly encourage you to read a few of her other posts on the blog, there is some pretty fascinating material.

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