I can't tell where it's beautiful, but what was conceived in the dream, once corrected by reality, returns to stimulate the dream even more.

Therefore, all this is not so much the beauty of the Golden Temple itself, but the beauty of the Golden Temple that I have imagined with all my heart and soul.

The consistent "self-love" radiates to the external real objects to complete the endowment of beauty, the enhancement of beauty, and the in-depth cognition of self-transformation, thus gaining beauty. The Golden Pavilion, this idea almost makes me intoxicated", and he also hates the beauty of the Golden Pavilion, the beauty that hinders his life, the beauty that is the "golden rule of life", so he wants to destroy it. Beauty, just as Mishima wrote about Mizoguchi’s childhood—a teenager with two diametrically opposed wills to power. He had to destroy the beauty of the Golden Temple, destroy the old beauty he added to the Golden Temple, and fall in love with beauty again, the beauty of disillusionment that was violently destroyed, a beauty that destroyed beauty. Such as the following text:
"However, the forces of darkness woke up and pulled me back. I still want to burn the Golden Pavilion. At that time, a life that has been pre-planned, specially made by me, and never heard of before will begin."

Incredibly detailed description of what it is like to have a neurotic personality, and how it manifests in your social life. Also just a wonderful depiction of life in a Buddhist temple at the end of WW2 in Japan, something I knew absolutely nothing going into this. ( )

Incredibly detailed description of what it is like to have a neurotic personality, and how it manifests in your social life. Also just a wonderful depiction of life in a Buddhist temple at the end of WW2 in Japan, something I knew absolutely nothing going into this. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Japanese monks and a big fire that destroyed their temple in Kyoto. Fictionalized account of actual historical events. Consider reading other books by author." At this point in time (Sept, 2022) I have zero memory of this book. ( )

Mishima inspires to describe his writing as something other than words. It's rich and clean and kind of uncomfortable, like freezing water that is deeper than it looks. There is relatively little plot to this book, with Mishima spending most of his time inside the mind of the main character, whose name is only mentioned twice. I enjoyed the expose of a troubled psyche, but it does make for a rather slow moving novel. The story was enhanced for me as I visited the Golden Pavilion the week I was reading this. I think if you're interested in Mishima, maybe start with the only other book of his I've read -- The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. It has similar themes. ( )