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120th out of 348 books
—
1,239 voters
Sun and Steel (Paperback)
In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known-and controversial-writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end fits into none of them.
At one level, it may be read as an account of how a puny, bookish boy discovered the importance of his own physical being; the "su...more
At one level, it may be read as an account of how a puny, bookish boy discovered the importance of his own physical being; the "su...more
Paperback, Paper Dust Jacket, 108 pages
Published
April 11th 2003
by Kodansha International
(first published 1968)
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Sep 22, 2011
Patrick McCoy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
biography-autobiography,
japanese-literature
Sun and Steel a nonfiction work by Yukio Mishima is a difficult work to categorize. I was compelled to read it in connection with research I am doing related to Paul Schrader’s film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Schrader used excerpts from the long essay (manifesto?) that is a mediation on the fusing of life and art. I think it provides a lot of insight into the mind and philosophy of Mishima at the end of his life when he was obsessed with body building, training with his private army, and...more
There is a canon of authors who are Metal.
H.P. Lovecraft is one of 'em. Tolkein, another. (To name but a couple.)
I would include Mishima in that almighty canon. Mishima was that kid growing up, but instead of being born in a place and time where Metal existed, he was born and raised in 20's Japan. Same impulse, though.
Mishima would be from one of the more ecstatic genres of extreme Metal. He'd be Black Metal.
H.P. Lovecraft is one of 'em. Tolkein, another. (To name but a couple.)
I would include Mishima in that almighty canon. Mishima was that kid growing up, but instead of being born in a place and time where Metal existed, he was born and raised in 20's Japan. Same impulse, though.
Mishima would be from one of the more ecstatic genres of extreme Metal. He'd be Black Metal.
I really like this short book. But then I also think Mishima is a true master. This is Mishima's testament to his art and his aims in life. I still think of the dialectic he describes between the language of the body and the language of words. This book is essential to any who want to understand what the man stood for in life and tried to say with his death.
Yukio Mishima's advice in having a healthy body, living by the sword, love of nature - including the four seasons, as well as a touch of politics - done as an aesthetic of course. Mishima writes about the sword as if it was an erotic sex toy. Essential book to get into the head of one of Japan's great 'performer' as well as writer.
The cover of this book is absurd. The chop suey font, Great Wave, what is presumably a photograph of a startlingly built Yukio Mishima ... it's almost disrespectful.
Interesting, though kind of talky. It's in a very, hm, WW2 Nietzschean roar powerful nationalistic style. Mishima has a worldview with which I have absolutely no sympathy; we are on completely different wavelengths. But he is a compelling writer and the difference makes reading him interesting. It does sort of explain why he killed h...more
Interesting, though kind of talky. It's in a very, hm, WW2 Nietzschean roar powerful nationalistic style. Mishima has a worldview with which I have absolutely no sympathy; we are on completely different wavelengths. But he is a compelling writer and the difference makes reading him interesting. It does sort of explain why he killed h...more
Mar 06, 2013
Ángel Gilberto
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Ángel Gilberto by:
Edmee Pardo
Mishima fue un provocador y, a la vez, un hombre distinto a su tiempo. Al abordar la lectura de este libro, no debe olvidarse que estamos frente a un ensayo, lo que implica entender las ideas que se proponen y, en su caso, estar de acuerdo o no. En ese contexto, la idea de separación del cuerpo me parece un tanto descabellada y quizá superada. Lo que está claro es que Mishima fue un hombre de acción y palabra: vivió y murió como él lo deseó.
El sol y el acero es un libro iluminador, pero también...more
El sol y el acero es un libro iluminador, pero también...more
a peek inside the head of the finest japanese writer of the 20th century- hint: he is fucking nuts.
Apr 02, 2013
Pliyo Senpai
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
top-novela,
novela
Esta novela corta más bien parece un diario sincero donde descubrir las motivaciones de Mishima.
Vemos aquí su búsqueda de la unidad cuerpo y mente, su insistencia en encontrar el equilibrio por imposible que parezca, así como su forma de acercarse a la felicidad o a la idea de belleza.
Para mí ha sido una dosis de reflexiones brutal, una novela que bien parece un tratado filosófico influido por las artes marciales. Me siento tan identificado con sus palabras, y me inspira tanto su forma de enten...more
Vemos aquí su búsqueda de la unidad cuerpo y mente, su insistencia en encontrar el equilibrio por imposible que parezca, así como su forma de acercarse a la felicidad o a la idea de belleza.
Para mí ha sido una dosis de reflexiones brutal, una novela que bien parece un tratado filosófico influido por las artes marciales. Me siento tan identificado con sus palabras, y me inspira tanto su forma de enten...more
Yukio Mishima, in his enigmatic work Sun and Steel, reveals his inner most contemplations of life, death, and beyond. This work, the elucidations of a literary genius and modern day samurai, is not easy to comprehend, especially if one has not read some of his previous novels, short stories, or plays. He uses the motif of the sun and steel as metaphors to represent enlightenment and body in a particularly personal way. This writing, by throwing light into the recesses of his mind and soul, helps...more
Il corpo come traduzione dello spirito
Fu ossessionante il modo in cui Mishima cercò di tradurre l’animo e la mente in un corpo esteriore, puramente fisico.
Al crescere della consapevolezza forgiò il corpo fino al raggiungimento dell’equilibrio cercato, esso divenne traduzione fisica dello spirito.
"Ho sempre considerato estremamente ripugnanti sia i ventri prominenti, segno di pigrizia spirituale, sia i toraci scheletrici con le costole sporgenti, sintomo di un eccessivo sviluppo dello spirito […]...more
Fu ossessionante il modo in cui Mishima cercò di tradurre l’animo e la mente in un corpo esteriore, puramente fisico.
Al crescere della consapevolezza forgiò il corpo fino al raggiungimento dell’equilibrio cercato, esso divenne traduzione fisica dello spirito.
"Ho sempre considerato estremamente ripugnanti sia i ventri prominenti, segno di pigrizia spirituale, sia i toraci scheletrici con le costole sporgenti, sintomo di un eccessivo sviluppo dello spirito […]...more
He's never going to get over that he wasn't the biggest, most popular boy in middle school, is he? But then, who does?
I enjoyed the epilogue much more than the rest. I loved the Mishima / semen bit:
"Erect-angled, the F104, a sharp silver phallus, pointed into the sky. Solitary, spermatozoon-like, I was installed within. Soon, I should know how the spermatozoon felt at the instant of ejaculation."
I enjoyed the epilogue much more than the rest. I loved the Mishima / semen bit:
"Erect-angled, the F104, a sharp silver phallus, pointed into the sky. Solitary, spermatozoon-like, I was installed within. Soon, I should know how the spermatozoon felt at the instant of ejaculation."
A weird homo-erotic hyper-masculinity marks this book. I taught this in Philospohy & Literture because it does a nice job of articulating the relationship between the hero/man of action and the poet/memorializer that gets laid out in the Odyssey and the Iliad. I would recommend the latter books over this one.
Jul 28, 2011
Zenu
added it
A point in life when Mishima was totally confused. The Body Wisdom is something that makes sense, especially in training or running or just travelling, but, you know, getting to understand Death as a bodily experience? You can't write after that - that's for sure.
Read this book during my graduate years at college. Not sure what year, maybe 1988 or '89. Immensely interesting philosophy in its contrast to Western thought. In Yukimo Mishima's memoir, the body/mind connection is described in exquisite detail.
Please, people, PLEASE!: So Mishima finds out through exercise that he's been wasting his time with the writing. He writes all about that. Attention liberal: this review is helpful.
He's a bit...yeah...he's interesting.
If you're into it it's good...
If you're into it it's good...
An interesting philosophy of mind and body. Useful as an insight into his writing, and for understanding the mental and physical's effects on the spirit.
Although the personal journey that the author narrates here is a great change, the book itself was not particularly interesting, nor did it reveal new or profound information to me. As a disclosure of my own biases, I am somewhat of an intellectual and I have been involved in fitness and martial arts for many years, so it is possible that someone without my background could gain more from this book.
Began really well and fizzled after a few pages, became repetitive, not so clear, and then just died off.
A quarter of the time, the writing was superb. The remainder was kind of rambling. I also don't think I have the historical knowledge to fully appreciate what he's saying (a previous reader of my copy had made many notes interpreting the text through the lens of nationalism, which wouldn't have occurred to me at all).
I really struggled to finish this book. I found it far too abstract and metaphysical for my liking. The only thing that I got out of this book was the fascinating glimpse that it gave of the mind of Yukio Mishima. It also has the virtue of being brief.
Mishima's testament on his shortcomings, victories and realizations. This will appeal to the sensitive and the intellectual who have grown tired of the written word as life's focal point.
Jun 10, 2009
Lauren
added it
I wasn't expecting anything less than brilliance from this slim work by Mishima. What I got out of it: a strong mind needs a strong body to house it. Right on.
Nov 10, 2010
David Bulgarelli
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
biography
Love the guy's writing and he's a fascinating personality, but he takes himself a little too seriously for my liking.
Knowing this was the last thing Mishima wrote before he committed hari-kiri certainly gives it more import.
Wow, I feel sorry for whoever had to translate this very odd piece of work. Also: craaaazy cover!
I liked it.
May 19, 2013
Fritz Dembo
marked it as to-read
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Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author, poet and playwright, famous for both his highly notable post-war writings and the circumstances of his ritual suicide by seppuku.
Mishima wrote 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film. A large portion of this oeuvre comprises books written quickly for profit, but even if these are disregard...more
More about Yukio Mishima...
Mishima wrote 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film. A large portion of this oeuvre comprises books written quickly for profit, but even if these are disregard...more
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“Was I ignorant, then, when I was seventeen? I think not. I knew everything. A quarter-century's experience of life since then has added nothing to what I knew. The one difference is that at seventeen I had no 'realism'.”
—
20 people liked it
“However, as words become particularized, and as men begin - in however small a way - to use them in personal, arbitrary ways, so their transformation into art begins. It was words of this kind that, descending on me like a swarm of winged insects, seized on my individuality and sought to shut me up within it. Nevertheless, despite the enemy's depredations upon my person, I turned their universality - at once a weapon and a weakness - back on them, and to some extent succeeded in using words to universalize to my own individuality.”
—
8 people liked it
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Feb 08, 2013 07:31pm