Confessions of a Mask
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.39 (683 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 081120118X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-11-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
‘Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.’” ” (Wired) . ““Yukio Mishima was one of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century.”” (Judith Thurman - New Yorker)““We read the bloody details with wonder…such is the power of his writing.”” (Gore Vidal - The New York Review of Books)““Confessions of a Mask follows in the spirit of Oscar Wilde’s dictum that ‘man is least himself when he talks in his own person
Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was many people. Influenced by European literature, in which he was exceptionally well read, he was an interpreter to his own people of Japan's ancient virtues, to which he urged a return. The best known in Japan of the writers to emerge there after World War II, he was by far the most published abroad. He had sung on the stage, starred in and directed
Ideas concerning human existence I waded carefully into this book, not knowing what the writing would be like. From the opening of the book the imagery and use of language were fantastic and captivating (some credit/blame may go to the translator).The story itself - specifically the main voice, a young man (Mishima himself?) - never progresses. The same lack of form and function persists in the telling of the story, start to finish. Mishima muses and postulates about love and sexuality. The voice explores its secrets and thoughts carefull. Good starting point into the world of Mishima Reading other reviews of Confessions of a Mask, I see that many readers are looking at it from a perspective of "gay literature" and seem disappointed that Mishima is not really a supporter of the cause. But from my perspective, as someone interested in Mishima as a giant in Japanese literature, Confessions of a Mask is a great introduction into the literary world of Mishima Yukio.Without giving away too much, the main forces that propel the protagonist in this semi-autobiographical work, are a secret lust. Shrinking Violet said Fascinating inner journey. Mishima's sadomasochistic homosexuality asserted itself early. While still a tiny child he responded instantly to certain kinds of masculine beauty and found a mysterious fascination in images and narratives of heroic men being tortured and, ideally, killed. The supreme example was a picture of the martyred St. Sebastian, bound and riddled with arrows, which the child Mishima experienced as the world's heaviest turn-on. Naive as he was, the young author still knew somehow that his interests were unusual an
The story of a man coming to terms with his homosexuality in traditional Japanese society has become a modern classic.Confessions of a Mask tells the story of Kochan, an adolescent boy tormented by his burgeoning attraction to men: he wants to be “normal.” Kochan is meek-bodied, and unable to participate in the more athletic activities of his classmates. Confessions of a Mask reflects Mishima’s own coming of age in post-war Japan. Its publication in Englishpraised by Gore Vidal, J