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The History of Literature

313 "Spring Snow" (from The Sea of Fertility) by Yukio Mishima

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2021

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After taking a look at the eventful life and dramatic death of Yukio Mishima in our last episode, Jacke turns to a closer look at the works of Mishima, including appraisals by Jay McInerney and Haruki Murakami, before turning to a deep dive into the world of Spring Snow, the first volume in Mishima's four-book masterpiece The Sea of Fertility. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and LitHub Radio.

0:07.0

Hello.

0:14.5

In our last episode, we focused on the eventful life and dramatic death of one of Japan's

0:19.2

greatest 20th century writers.

0:21.7

Today we shift our focus to his works, Yukio Mishima and the Sea of Fertility today on

0:28.4

the History of Literature.

0:45.4

Okay.

0:46.4

Hello.

0:47.4

Here we go.

0:48.4

I'm Jack Wilson.

0:49.4

Glad to be here.

0:50.4

And I'm glad you're here as well.

0:51.4

Mishima, I feel like we needed a bit of a rinse after the last episode.

0:56.4

A cool rain after the fire of him in his life.

1:02.7

That was, as Paul Theroux once put it, a grizzly business.

1:07.6

The suicide, the whole life leading up to it was intense and it could give you a completely

1:12.8

misleading view of what it's like to sit down and read Mishima's works.

1:18.4

That's one of the great mysteries of art and artists and artistry, I suppose.

1:24.2

You can go through his stories and novels and look for clues and they're there in retrospect.

1:29.6

It's easy to piece together a fascination with beauty and art and sex and death and youth

1:36.1

and suicide and noble sacrifice.

1:39.3

It's easy to look at his childhood, the intensity of the experience where he was kept

...

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