Reading List Rock: The Stranglers & Yukio Mishima - A Reader's Guide

[@captainmission]

I love the way they do walk on by, its just so brilliant with that menence only the strangers can do.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Well yes...your typo has a serendipitous point too...as they considered changing the name to 'The Strangers' when Hugh Cornwell left....

[@erikpaterson1404]

Oh, my daughter just handed me a cup of hot chocolate. Lovely. I'm not sure what first drew me to Mishima, but I know I love his writing. Sadly, I've not read enough of him. As his books are on my bookshelves. Your video will definitely give me motivation. My first Mishima was the Sound of Waves. A work of art! (Vintage Classics)

[@herb79]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insight! Mishima was a student working in a navy factory when the war ended. He said in an interview the imperial announcement of surrender was a pivotal moment in his life. In a sense the fact that the world still continued after this (The sun shone brightly and the birds were singing he says) puzzled him and continued to do so ever after.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yep, it really hit him. You get a great sense of personal tragedy from his words in 'Confessions' in particular, I feel. Thanks for your comment and please consider subscribing!

[@slurmcarey3069]

Mishima has a fascination with death. He could not wait to die. I think he even got off on it.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yeah, no doubt about that - bit like Sylvia Plath but more interesting!

[@123pilpil]

Really interesting hearing stories to songs I've heard hundreds of times yet never knew the source of them.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Thanks again mate - more to come, there'll be a Stranglers related video like this every 7-10 days or so

[@erichowell3246]

Great work Stephen - fascinating stuff - wonder if you’ll be covering some of the inspirations fi other early songs - toiler springs to mind - thanks again !!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, I will be covering 'Toiler', it's on my list as I read the novel years ago- I need to reread it first. I'm hoping to get another Strangs clip up in around 10 days, can't film at the moment due to a bad cold. Please subscribe if you can, as that's the only way I can keep an interdisciplinary channel like this going. Thanks also for yr comments!

[@erichowell3246]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thanks Stephen - hope the cold got better fast and you had a good Christmas & new year

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@erichowell3246 -Thanks for the kind message. Well, Christmas isn't my fave time of year (life sentence retailers endure it instead, as we're all working it apart from the odd day), so my 'festive season' starts mid january when I take some time off to recharge and film more vids! Cheers!

[@spiraldaddy]

I'm curious to hear what you think of the Gospels according to the Meninblack - that is a wild album. Would that be considered SF or paranormal? What was the inspiration behind that album - maybe just how strange the phenomena is (I think the TV series Fringe did a great treatment on the subject) I love Mick Karn and Japan, Ryuichi Sakamota and Sylvian - these are my favorites! This was what got me into synth, new romantic, and new wave music when I was a kid -I bought their 1st singles album Album Assemblage when it came out. Sylvian has the ultimate velvet voice. I had no idea Forbidden Colours was based on a novel - I have listened to that song for years. YMO had an interesting lyricist Chris Mosdell (Behind the Mask seems like it was inspired by Mishima). Also there are 2 interesting SF albums by Planet P Project - so many cool New Wave bands - Visage. All the bands reminded me of a Ridley Scott world in Blade Runner - heavy atmosphere and that sense of the strange, dark, but beautiful. This was the music I listened as I came of age from about age 10-14 - that aesthetic never left me. I dreamed of these worlds these musicians created - I just never connected the music with the books that inspired them because I struggled with reading (ADHD) - now I have audible books I can cover more ground reading and make up for the lost literature and flesh out the literary world that I connected to so strongly with the music. Anyways, I am rambling in a bunch of different directions - I just love the music dives you do as well as the literary - the literary was the part that was missing for me. I played synth and bass among other instruments ( later switched to board game development) so you mention these guys and I light up - its so rare to find people who are attuned to the same music, the same frequency.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I love 'TheMeninBlack' - to give it the correct title as on the spine and label. SF, no doubt.

[@teidisands6999]

Mishima is deeply unfashionable right now it's true. He needs to be read in the context of Post War Japan and with at least some knowledge of (or at least willingness to explore) a very particular culture that simply does not have its roots in Judaism or Christianity. He's a great lens into some aspects of Japanese identity following WWII and for that reason alone he's great for understanding the evolution of modern Japan. Apart from anything else 'The sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea' is simply a great read..... with the added benefit that after you've read that you don't really need to read anything by Ian McKewan....... :)

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I think Mishima will get popular again once the current fad for Osamu Dazai dies down.

[@teidisands6999]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Agreed - what goes around often comes back around. It seems to me that so much of what is read depends on a sense of what's fashionable 'du jour'

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@teidisands6999 -Very much so. My 38 years in bookselling has provided me with ample proof of this...

[@huwprofitt8250]

Excellent work again Stephen. I read somewhere recently that a couple of North American colleges are considering 'cancelling' Mishima on the grounds of him being an alleged 'fascist revolutionary,' which is appalling given his range of work and what he contributed to the arts.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

These people who want to rewrite history, so strange. Isn't wiping out the past somewhat Totalitarian? Thanks as ever, Huw, for your comment and support!

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

Symptomatic of the times.we got a 'feminist' rewrite of 1984 .seeing as Orwells' dystopian nightmare is here; slightly late, but almost fully formed,even down to the contraction of language,permanent warfare etc. Eric must be spinning!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@dominicseanmccann6300 - Yep. It amazes me how all these people who think and say 'you can't say that' are Totalitarians of the highest order who think they 'get' Orwell...sad but true, man!

[@dominicseanmccann6300]

Erased from history; another Orwellian trait.