Mishima in the 21st Century | Hacker News Reader

Mishima in the 21st Century

asia.nikkei.com

46 pointskeiferski18 comments

Previous conversation under different link:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25232488

> Fifty years on, the last man is here, placidly enjoying his lockdown thanks to Zoom, Netflix and Uber Eats, totally comfortable with the prospect of a future controlled by artificial intelligence and big data. Perhaps we need a modern day Mishima to shock us out of our complacency.

Is this a real person? I don’t think I know anyone unconcerned by the future, no matter how much they may distract themselves with modern convenience, as the author describes. But maybe there are people who think everything is going just fine, and I don’t know them.

the use of the phrase 'the last man' is a nod to Nietzsche's concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_man . we see similar sentiments echoed elsewhere in culture, for example: the masses placated by soma in Huxley's 'Brave New World', the blue pill in the matrix, or the public medicated by cheap conveniences in Idiocracy.

the author is pointing towards a decadent and impotent cultural milieu -- "Nietzsche warned that the society of the last man could be too barren and decadent to support the growth of healthy human life or great individuals."

Search for the text "blink" on this page https://praxeology.net/zara.htm for a fuller picture. "We have discovered happiness," -- say the Last Men, and they blink.

Kind of funny, as the author is an investment banker, and therefore probably a lot more like Nietsche's Last Man than any Ubermensch, however much those self-proclaimed alphas love to see themselves as such.

It's an appropriate perspective for Japan. The country is slowly dying off as the population shrinks. Outside of Tokyo and Osaka, cities and towns are emptying out. On the way down, life is good.

I don't think we're remotely at that point yet. Anyone who has paid attention to US news at all last year can see that we've still got some ways to go before the society of the last man is realized. That said, the conditions for another Mishima to arise just aren't there despite the rise in right-wing rhetoric and violence in the past few years.

Yeah, he's a very well regarded novelist. So is Knut Hamsun. Ezra Pound is a well regarded poet. Marinetti is quite important w/r/t the modern art movements of the early 20thC. Pirandello is pretty brilliant. Henry William Williamson wrote some lovely books: Tarka the Otter is still widely read. And so on. But it would be a bit strange if there were an article linked on the front page of HN that implied their personal political ideals were something that was needed in these times, no?

H.P. Lovecraft is probably the best analogue. In both cases it's pretty difficult to separate the man's regressive worldview with the art. Of course it doesn't mean you should ignore, much less censor the art, but it doesn't exactly mean you should elevate the worldview without criticism and re-contexutalization either.

Yes, I was trying to think of a US example that wasn't Ezra Pound.

I find the article a little off. It feels a bit fetishistic. It's got an appeal to a fictional past where people discussed weighty moral issues (compared to nowadays when people don't bother!). Bemoans that he died to soon, but that his [nationalist and militaristic] ideals are becoming more acceptable. Uses Bowie as an example -- someone who played explicitly with fascist imagery (and who had to excuse the worst of it as being due to too much coke). Implies that people nowadays are weak.

I get the fascination with Mishima -- he's a fascinating character. But the article left a really bad taste in my mouth

http://archive.is/NZJH5

East Asia and beyond is in for hell if Mishima’s explicit fascism is being mainstreamed in Japan

I hadn't heard of Mishima before this, but I did get the distinct impression from reading that article that they were lionizing a fascist.

Well, he's a good writer, but he was definitely a fascist. There's probably a bit of wiggle room in the difference between japanese and european fascism, but he's pretty solidly in the japanese fascist tradition.

I have to admit that this "last man" stuff rings of the "soyboy" rhetoric you hear in some corners of the web.

I don't think he's mainstreamed there, but he definitely has a growing fanbase on the Anglophone internet.

I hadn't heard of Mishima or the coup attempt. After reading the article I didn't get much of an idea of what motivated him to be part of this coup attempt other than there was some right wing motivation that's not completely spelled out.

> "The cinema audience was agog at the huge moral issues that were being argued in a way that could never happen in today's world."

I guess I need to watch the documentary of figure out what issues could never be argued in today's world in that way.

For what it’s worth. The documentary features some of Philip Glass’s best work. It’s a wonderful biopic and the soundtrack also stands on its own.

The Mishima soundtrack was my introduction to Philip Glass

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishima:_A_Life_in_Four_Chap...

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