Thirst for Love in mishima

Jan 02, 2010 Sarah Magdalene rated it it was amazing

Really odd coincidence in a way that I picked up this novel last night. I was so stunned by it that I wrote a review straight away. I wasn't going to type it up till later but then I got so annoyed by reading the retarded reviews on Amazon I decided to do it now, while coffeed up. People are such stupid pods, just because they actually read books doesn't seem to make them sensitive or intelligent. Most of them completely missed the subtleties...maybe because most of the reviewers on Amazon are m Really odd coincidence in a way that I picked up this novel last night. I was so stunned by it that I wrote a review straight away. I wasn't going to type it up till later but then I got so annoyed by reading the retarded reviews on Amazon I decided to do it now, while coffeed up. People are such stupid pods, just because they actually read books doesn't seem to make them sensitive or intelligent. Most of them completely missed the subtleties...maybe because most of the reviewers on Amazon are male for some reason. Most reviewers generally are I suppose. Women are trained not to value their own opinions, and men are trained to value theirs too much.

"Beggars show you their wounds to make you sorry for them. They're horrible. Madam is like some kind of proud beggar."

Mishima is a very unusual man in many ways but most of all in his ability to create impressive female characters. It's hard to think of any other male author who can do this. I suppose it's a result of being locked in a room with his grandmother for most of his childhood. She apparently was a fearful and possibly quite insane matriarch, who did not allow him any freedom except in her vast library. No wonder he is also a master of creating oppressive and dysfunctional atmospheres, such as the one that permeates this novel.

Etsuko is not just impressive, but quite complex and frightening, and her psychosis is clearly explicable and understandable, which makes her disturbingly easy to identify with. Her madness is really just an extreme version of the very common romantic delusion that turns love into a kind of twisted spiritual quest to heal one's wounds by inflicting pain on others. Her obsession is almost like vampirism, though that is a crude analogy, this idea of an unquenchable hunger is reflected in the title. It makes you think about the energy dynamics involved in the urge to "own" a lover. And about extreme possessiveness as a kind of mania to control and take over a person, psychically as much as sexually. And also of course as a symptom of the rank betrayal which Etsuko experienced in her marriage. The way Mishima portrays her is in fact very sympathetic. He clearly admires her intensity and her sensitivity.

She is a sophisticated and intelligent woman, who after her disasterous marriage to a philanderer ends in his gruesome death from Typhoid, moves to the country to live on his fathers farm. She and the father have a strange intimate relationship, which at first seems like abuse, but is soon revealed as quite mutually beneficial. She doesn't enjoy his physical attentions but it gives her a power in the household and over him. The old man is in awe of her, and very jealous when she forms an obsession for a young farm labourer. She in turn is furiously jealous of the young mans relationship with one of the maids. In fact jealousy is her vice, her addiction, which might be why she chose to marry the philanderer in the first place.

The younger man himself is without any sentiment. He doesn't understand the concept of Love at all, or even guess that he is beloved, though it is so obvious to everyone else. He is a perfect symbol of youthful callousness. The whole situation is doomed to disaster. From his perspective she is crazy. In fact from any perspective...to fall in love so obsessively is a form of insanity, but even more so when the object is such a vacant and simple character. It's almost as if it is his very blankness, the shining young ignorant emptiness of him that she is so engrossed with. I suppose the blank screen is always best suited for projection.

The whole point of the exercise seems to be to cause herself the maximum possible pain, but the situation also says a lot about class, and about the reality of the hierarchical system. There can be no meaningful communication between them, and that is what she fails to comprehend. This total incomprehension somehow translates into obsession, I think because truly understanding someone makes it impossible to maintain such delusions. Even at the end when the penny finally drops there can be no physical connection between them. She does not want his lust but rather his Love, which of course does not exist, and this fine distinction I think is what makes this novel far more interesting and thought provoking than others with a similar theme.

As usual Mr Mishima has made my head explode. Nice to know someone out there can still do that.
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Jun 06, 2019 Killer of Dreams rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese-literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have read “Confessions of a Mask”, considered one of the greatest works by Yukio Mishima, and I did not expect Mishima to write a second novel that could reach the same heights. I am surprised that the “Thirst for Love” fell greatly from my expectations and I am greatly disappointed.

Before I begin to hark about the novel, I would like to write that the writing style of Mishima is amazing as always. The extensive use of metaphors are beautifully done. For the most part the characterization of ...more

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