Yukio Mishima on Why Modern Authors Are Weaklings

[@WriteConscious]

🚀 Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious 📚 Book club, daily podcasts, and my writing: writeconscious.substack.com 📖 Read my guide to Yukio Mishima here (free): writeconscious.ck.page/da5560dc29 Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious 📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619345e 🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com 🤔My Favorite Mishima Book: amzn.to/4836aXG

[@jasonuerkvitz3756]

I'm only a couple of minutes into the video but had to pause because I wanted to clarify what Mishima may have meant when referring to the Sun and the Moon. Japan has long referred to itself as the Empire of the Sun, culminating in their failed attempt at world domination during WWII. With the Emperor stripped of his power and the military might of Japan neutered, the Sun had literally set on all of the ambitions of the nation. He seems to be, and his later acts in 1970, an Imperialist, and a staunch advocate for Japanese Imperialism, militarism, and its place in the Eastern world if not the world's entirety. Certainly you can look at his writing in the context in which you are laying it out here, but we cannot forget who he was as a person and what he was using his art to promote. He attempted a coup d'etat to reinstate the Emperor's power and thus aid the Sun's rising once again. He then committed seppuku. So I think it's important to understand what the notion of the Sun and the Moon meant to him specifically when regarding his beliefs of nationalism and how he used his art to promote said nationalism by referencing Samurai, and their militarism during the Meiji period which saw the dismantling of the ancient Japanese caste system, and the last of the Samurai.

[@HeyMykee]

Thank you.

[@yogeybogeybear3542]

Tbh I think he is referencing Evolas ideas, it would be silly to think that he wasn’t familiar with him.

[@KittSpiken]

World domination is a bit hyperbolic, their aim was to dominate Asia.

[@jasonuerkvitz3756]

@@KittSpiken I'm pretty certain they had intended to split North America in half with Germany and Italy, as well as parts of South America. The Japanese certainly had eyes on Indonesia and Australia, and I'm pretty sure the Germans would need help taking all of Africa. But sure, world domination is hyperbolic. ;p

[@KittSpiken]

@@jasonuerkvitz3756 some of that sure, but most of what you listed was allied prop 😵‍💫

[@CINEMARTYR]

Next year I’m releasing an album and book that will at the very least have some thematic threads or motivations from The Literary Renaissance. The aim in general, is on par with what the Infrarealists said: “To Blow the brains out of the cultural establishment" Let’s see how well my aim takes shape. Thanks for all the inspiration.

[@ewfvds8036]

Please share when the time comes 😊

[@hammerdureason8926]

the janitor is the poetry which words will never be

[@mmurmurjohnson2368]

You sir are a writer

[@HeyMykee]

Solar/Lunar to me sound a lot like The Enlightenment/Romanticism, Extroverted/Introverted, Yang/Yin, wich are all really expressions of Conscious/Unconscious. I don't see them so much as enemies, but as complements to each other, like Masculine/Feminine, that people often separate artificially and oppose to each other, but really it requires both to be complete. Wherever one recedes, the other advances. They're literally like Light/Dark.

[@Quartodovangogh]

My man, telling real true. I always loved art in all their forms, paintings, books, movies, etc, but i live on the slumbs of brazil, daddy was a drunk guy who qas really violent with me, my sisters and my mother. I have to be strong bcause all the violence surrounding me, even if i was naturally introvert, i had to overcome that and go out, have my job to leave this place, litterature always bring me faith in my darkest moments

[@MrUndersolo]

Thank you for sharing this. And you should be heard by more of us who take books for granted!

[@Easttowest45]

A perfect contemporary example: In his latest blog post George RR Martin pointed to "the rise of fascism" as being a reason why he can't write Winds of Winter. Meanwhile, Tolkien was writing during THE BLITZ with literal Nazis dropping bombs overhead.

[@chimqanzee3761]

Tolkien served in WW1… but I get your point.

[@Easttowest45]

@@chimqanzee3761 Yes, and then he was in England during WW2, when much of the country was subjected to "the blitz" bombing campaign, and he wrote during that time.

[@mitchumrobert8732]

@@chimqanzee3761 you are also a problem

[@chimqanzee3761]

@@mitchumrobert8732 what I do?

[@chimqanzee3761]

@@Easttowest45 I apologize I misinterpreted did not know nearly as much as I thought.

[@Snarflelocker]

Amazing, just ferocious. Love and regards from Saigon, sir. Thank you so much.

[@maxwindom1200]

I agree man. Literature is obsessed with what we should avoid and says nothing of what we should chase. That’s why modern man is stagnated and indecisive

[@maxwindom1200]

@JWlloski-d8r exactly u can still love nerds lol

[@briancomforti3890]

Would be why if anyone still read books

[@MrUndersolo]

I went to a Catholic school up until high school. I was told what not to read. That was how I ended up reading the people the authorities at my school wanted me to avoid. That was how I read writers that my professors and TAs would question me about and praise my papers for... eventually. 📚 📖 As soon as you are told what not to enjoy in the arts, head in the other direction. And I love Mishima's thoughts here!

[@Szkieletor1234]

So are you reading de sade now??

[@zacnewford]

The cry of the nocturnal sad boy: mew mew. LOL!

[@EricKay_Scifi]

I remember listening to a podcast about meditation, and about someone who really did live in a cave and meditated, and claimed to have seen the Dali Llama, and how hard it was to reintegrate that person's thoughts/ideas back into society. The same is for writers. You have been in this cave, your book, and a little self-promotion is simply trying to integrate your learnings into society.

[@mikesmithz]

This is the best book channel.

[@MichaelRSchultheiss]

This video is a tremendous breath of fresh air. I'm a vitalist as well as an indie fantasy author, and I find my old-school sword and sorcery fantasy stories about barbarian horsemen and sultry slave-girls are greatly out of step with today's culture of trigger warnings

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

Yes, and this hyper-fixation with not causing offence is ruining literature.

[@111Benzie]

Vitalist? What is that?

[@MichaelRSchultheiss]

@@111Benzie I'd summarize vitalism as a philosophy and praxis of strength and well-being through fitness and clean diet

[@edthewave]

SOLAR BOYS UNITE!!!

[@jeffreysalem2735]

I got really excited when I saw the thumbnail. Great video as always.

[@ttt-wv1or]

Does gooning count as nocturnal or is it more a solar thing since I'm actively doing something?

[@mmyr8ado.360]

Definitely nocturnal. Just because you're doing something actively doesn't mean it leads to being or transcending beyond yourself.

[@bluelagoon5235]

I clicked on this video because I've been watching your videos for a few weeks now and have enjoyed them. I am also a fan of Ocean Vuong, the author you have included on the right side of the thumbnail for this video. I was actually looking forward to seeing what your criticisms of Vuong's work are, especially because I am a fan of the author and his work. I fund you videos to be interesting even if I do not always agree with the points that you make within each video. However, I was pretty disappointed to see nothing specifically directed towards Vuong or any of his work. I have read his novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and found it to be an incredibly beautiful, brutal, and haunting work. May I ask why you included Vuong on the thumbnail if you did not include him in your contrast with Mishima's solar/lunar theory of literature? Additionally, I am also curious as to why you think Vuong is an industry plant.

[@111Benzie]

I like this video and person. He makes very good observations about authors today.

[@WriteConscious]

WE NEED YOU FOR THE LITERARY RENAISSANCE!

[@chelseyummali]

Love your videos haha 😂 when I get extra $$ I will definitely be supporting the channel.

[@AdamGeorge777]

As an accountant I can testify that there is the transcendent peace and grace of Christ in reconciling then debiting and crediting away the chaos of a disordered business. Leaving in my wake a purely balanced and ordered garden of Eden balance sheet. Deloitte recent grads surely wept with joy at my selections for AUD ‘21, ‘22, ‘23. The pale king really slapped for me. I’m a moonlight musician and this sludge of accounting manures and feeds the trees in the garden of a reconciled and ordered mind. The boring drudgery has the function if I don’t avoid it and don’t grow into despair. Unrelatedly, Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson is objectively and unfun read but totally worth it in this vein.

[@TheRealSteveMay]

Awesome message. I want to start leaning into the solar aspects of my life more.

[@ortoprax]

I am happy to hear your words. Please drop some list of solar literature if you did not yet

[@CINEMARTYR]

Most fire video yet

[@p00yan]

Inspiring speech, thanks. Would you please mention the source of Mishima quotations in this video. I'd like to read the whole thing.

[@moss.neobisid]

Sun & Steel. You are right though this channel should cite

[@GoldenPendulum88]

Bro was spitting absolute fire today! Damn, you sound like one of those orchestra composers losing their minds from passion.😂 😂 I LOVE IT!!

[@ewfvds8036]

Insane energy

[@Theoreme.de.Gudule]

Hem... Probably I don't have the same temper as Mishima. I don't feel an urge to show my muscles to other men, or larp in retro uniforms in public. And I would not entice my country to embark on radical reforms which would be unrealistic and hugely detrimental.

[@osoisko1933]

Mishima was a weak man cosplaying as a strong one. I don’t care how pretty his prose was, the dude was a victim of the death cult that lead Japan into war and ruin.

[@EricKay_Scifi]

You should look up Mercedes Lackey, a well know fantasy writer who wrote about LGBT characters in positive light who was removed from a conference for one single slip up.

[@filipkolasny908]

What was the slip up may I ask?

[@EricKay_Scifi]

@@filipkolasny908 using the word 'colored' once. She's an older lady, and grew up when it was the nicer of terms to use.

[@tzirufim]

I was always wondering what you think about Charles Bukowski? He did go through the rough life and had a lot to tell about that.

[@watcherofthewest8597]

Light and solar have always been an apology for the enlightened path....but I do love the night, moon and stars. Owls and movement in the trees.

[@krunkle5136]

He was bookish when he was young and knew first hand the danger of being a literature nerd who thinks they can laugh at the world.

[@toddjacksonpoetry]

Ada Limon is the current US Poet Laureate. I saw her reading a couple months ago.

[@waelian]

So I wasn't wrong about Gorman.

[@JOEBOWERY]

good stuff brother. it is Ah bow ed = abode = dwelling, Because you are so smart I don't want you to sound dumb, I have speech impediment and had the fortune of hearing those words out-loud at school, I love the adobe read, once i said chorizo at a picture of sausage , supposed to identify S objects and didn't think sausage

[@zakwerdegar3754]

listening to this while drunk. plotting to take over the world

[@curtisgeist6122]

Who’s the industry plant in the thumbnail?

[@iammraat3059]

Ocean Vuyong

[@Snarflelocker]

You're not Jesus, you're John the Baptist out here baptizing us into the faith in our future.

[@jeffrey3498]

Yup, group think, which goes against everything an artist should stand for.

[@yogeybogeybear3542]

It sounds like u are trying to reference evola without being familiar with evola

[@Fran-mr3yo]

awesome

[@mikescott4195]

No dude has ever projected there insecruities about there supposed 'manliness' than Mishima. The dude was 5'4" and deep in the closet...

[@Szkieletor1234]

Muh ameritard

[@BucketOfMarbles]

Hell yeah buddy

[@theeternalgus9119]

Would love to hear about what things you disagree with and/or see differently to Mishima.

[@kentjensen4504]

He has spoken about that before.

[@theeternalgus9119]

@@kentjensen4504 thanks!

[@gordiemarshall1336]

I'd love to hear your take on some of the works of Ayn Rand

[@matthewmichaelcrown3643]

its not authors, its everyone. Modern life, schooling, diet, inside life etc. - they all make Mankind weak in every way.

[@swordguy1243]

Bro is cooking

[@ZenSickness]

Lamenting your audience for not being driven and never leaving the house has to do with your sample cohort. The internet and literature are both know to suck in people who can't handle the brutality of natural life. Tell me, how many Jiu-Jitsu or Boxing coaches have you heard quote Jordan Peterson like they were dropping wisdom? The active isn't greater than the passive when mired in ignorance, it's just more destructive so people are forced to take it seriously.

[@RainbowKid0Hakuzo]

I was wondering what opinion you have about Michel Houellebecq.

[@RainbowKid0Hakuzo]

@JWlloski-d8r Goblinus Parisiens

[@sunshine-q8t]

Best video I've seen on youtube

[@RJGilman1967]

A duty

[@oddlyjules]

it's giving superiority complex. like what's even the point of that? it will just leave you alone and bitter.

[@WriteConscious]

Or liberated and connected to something better than consensual reality and the idiots who maintain it.

[@Quartodovangogh]

Literally, the guy has a pic of a cat on the profile. Mew mew ​@@WriteConscious

[@DanielBurtonDidYourWife]

@@WriteConscious A bit odd to insist on that when the man in question quite literally took his own life because he was unable to cope the reality of his failure. Not exactly a pilar of stability or strength.

[@mangledtapes]

LFG

[@milkmandoug]

You are like if Andrew WK was obsessed with writing and literature instead of partying and rock music

[@iammraat3059]

🦍🦍

[@NiteOwl2000]

Uhhhh, Mishima was a total weirdo, kinda disappointed you’re glazing him when there are so many better writers. Guess that’s on me for not noticing this sooner.

[@KittSpiken]

It really is on you, it's like every video.

[@KittSpiken]

I'm 30 seconds into the video and he's said the mission statement; how long did it take you pick up on that?

[@NiteOwl2000]

@@KittSpiken I knew what the video was about from the thumbnail and title. I don’t think we need to celebrate people like him to use his ideas. I’m a new subscriber and I’ve only watched a recent Murakami video to completion. I started his video on Cormac McCarthy’s new writing, but just stopped midway through for some reason. I don’t recall hearing Mishima’s name in either video, but this one is all about Mishima so it caught my eye 🤷‍♂️

[@RiteWordsRoteOrder]

Gingers and albinos? Tropic of Cancer.