Today, we are tackling Yukio Mishima’s novel Confessions of a Mask, which is a fictionalized confession of his early life up until he was 21.
The book is wild, and includes his homoerotic fantasies, where his conception of beauty, death, and suicide manifested, and a bunch of other crazy stuff.
However, my goal in this presentation is to show that many of these things weren’t uncommon for young men in Japan during that time. Mishima is an enigma who was a generational talent as a writer, yet he also didn’t heal many of the weirder aspects of his personality by participating in the war.
That’s what makes him different, and in today’s presentation, I break down his
Psychotic grandmother that didn’t let him hang out with other boys (very similar to Hemingway and Rilke)
His familial Samurai background and how it radicalized him
The erotic culture for young men before and during WW2
Mishima’s early writing
Where Mishima’s conception of beauty manifested (that he carried with him until his death)
Mishima’s early love life
Mishima’s writing style and talent
plus, a ton more!
Below are the quotes I used during the presentation!
See you soon in the next course video! Make sure to subscribe if you're interested in supporting me and gaining access to our book club, courses, live streams, and my writing.
Quotes:
