Yukio Mishima's works, I have only read Kinkaku-ji Temple. In Mishima's pen, I was impressed by Kinkaku's dreamlike and floating beauty, coupled with his somewhat unique personal experience, such as the crazy physical transformation at the age of 30, the practice of tendon meat, and later the promotion of the spirit of Bushido, and the suicide of the abdomen cut in the tradition of Japanese Bushido.
So I took it for granted that Yukio Mishima was the kind of romantic, freehand, maverick, eclectic author.
After reading "The Novelist's Holiday", I realized the shallowness of my cognition.
This book contains essays and reviews written by Yukio Mishima during his heyday, and an exclusive collection of Yukio Mishima's unfinished posthumous work "A Brief History of Japanese Literature" before his death.
In these articles, Mishima boldly analyzes contemporary civilization, society, literature, art and many other issues with its rich and profound sensitivity. Most of the time, his writing is rigorous, rational, sharp, and in some places a little obscure and metaphysical.
When it comes to novel creation, he directly states that when he revisits his past works, whether in terms of writing, the depth of his understanding of human nature, and his view of life, he often finds places that can be interpreted more perfectly.
But he also pointed out that novelists can only gradually learn more facts by constantly writing. "Now I think it's red, I write white when I'm 25, but when I'm 40, I might think it's green." If you wait until you can clearly discern it, no one will be able to write a novel.
In fact, not only writers and novelists, most people have such a mental process, but ordinary people rarely review and reflect, and the writing of writers and novelists is also a process of continuous self-awareness!
When it comes to Osamu Dazai, Mishima makes no secret of his disgust and contempt, so to speak, a comprehensive negation from the work to personality.
He showed a disdain for Dazai's kind of bereavement literature, calling it "a weak style like a disabled person", and that a strong and powerful style was naturally more beautiful than a pale and weak style.
It is also said that Osamu Dazai's personality tendency is to win the sympathy of the outside world after self-harm. Because at least half of Dazai's character flaws can be cured by cold baths, mechanical gymnastics, and regular routines, problems that should be solved through lifestyle should not seek answers in the field of art.
Either way, human beings believe that the useless self is already a transgression, not to mention further forcing others to accept this view.
It can be said that it is very poisonous and very mean.
Mishima Yukio is known as the "Hemingway of Japan", and both have experiences such as "weakness", "femininity", and "inferiority" in childhood, so that in their youth and even adulthood, they continue to develop in the opposite direction: such as physical transformation, horse fighting, etc.
Therefore, the beauty that Mishima advocates is the beauty of masculinity and the beauty of Bushido, and it is not difficult to understand that for the decadent beauty and the beauty of loss shown in many of Dazai's works, Mishima's feeling of disgust and abandonment.
In addition to Dazai, there are many authors in the book on some other world-class writers and works, such as Stendhal, Balzac, Proust, etc., so reading this book, or need to have some literary common sense, some classic writers and works in the history of world literature, have a general understanding, otherwise there will be a certain degree of difficulty in reading, will also lose part of the pleasure of reading.
Of course, in addition to literature and novels, this book also involves art, drama, society and other aspects, such as art focusing on the famous French painters, The important figure of Rococo's artistic painting style, Hua Tuo, and his representative painting "Zhoufa West Moss Island", and the drama also focuses on his views on theater, script, and performance.
In short, for readers who like Yukio Mishima, or are interested in Yukio Mishima, this book will be of great help to understand his views on literature, art, values, philosophical thoughts, etc., and it is worth a look.