A Farewell to Arms

Having finished reading a 4th novel by Grazia Deledda , I decided to choose a novel from Dr. Jordan Peterson's list of the Great Novels. On the list are three works by Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. I have a memory of reading the first two - along with The Sun Also Rises - in the late 1970's. Although I can't recall much of those three novels - it has been more than forty years ago, after all - I didn't feel, at first, that those novels should be included in a "Greatest Novels of all times" list.

Still, Hemingway is on Dr. Peterson's list, so I'd pick up there. Just having finished four wonderful novels from an Italian/Sardinian writer, it seemed appropriate to reread Hemingway's World War I novel (which takes place in Italy) A Farewell to Arms.

I immediately concluded that my memory of having read this novel is, perhaps, a false memory. There is absolutely nothing in the novel that I remember. True, it has been more than 40 years ago, but I first read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment during the same time period, and most of that novel is recognizable when I reread it.

As for A Farewell to Arms, I can understand now why it is on Dr. Peterson's list. I did not, however, find anything about the relationship between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley worthy of the rest of the novel. I especially did not care for the ending. According to the wikipedia article on the novel,"Hemingway struggled with the ending. By his count, he wrote 39 of them 'before I was satisfied.' However, a 2012 edition of the book included no less than 47 alternate endings".

Unfortunately, I do not have access to that 2012 edition, so I will remain ignorant of those alternate endings.

I've gone on now to read For Whom the Bell Tolls. It is slightly more memorable to me. From there, I will go on to the third Hemingway work on the list, and finally round it out with one that didn't make the cut - The Sun Also Rises - this will be a continuation of my new habit of reading writers in clusters of "fours" - as I have this year with Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Edith Wharton, and Grazia Deledda.

This could very well lead to my rereading Yukio Mishima's tetralogy of novels, The Sea of Fertility later this year.

Yukio Mishima's Dark Side

 

After writing mostly positive reviews on the work of Yukio Mishima , I want to write of those areas of Mishima's life and actions which I find most disturbing.

I've already mentioned the uncomfortable elements found in his second novel, Confessions of a Mask, concerning homosexuality and sadomasochism. 

I recently watched the 1985 American biographical drama film based on his life and work - Mishima - A Life In Four Chapters - which uses portions of Confessions of a Mask as a description of Mishima's early life, while the novel, Runaway Horses and Mishima's short film, Yûkoku (Patriotism - The Rite of Love and Death) were used for describing his later life and as an explanation, of sorts, for the end drama of his life.

Mishima had formed his own private army, which he planned to use in a coup d'etat. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his army attempted to take over a military base in central Tokyo. They barricaded the office of commandant Kanetoshi Mashita and tied the commandant to his chair. With a written manifesto and a banner listing his demands, Mishima stepped out onto the balcony outside the commandant's office to address the soldiers.

The soldiers were not receptive to Mishima's manifesto.

After finishing his speech, Mishima went back into the office and committed seppuku (harakiri).

Mishima had planned his suicide for at least a year. He had often mentioned that he would die after completing The Decay of the Angel, the final novel in his The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. The novel was completed just before his suicide.

Yukio Mishima

 

When I recently wrote a short blog post on the novel, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea , it had not been my intention to go on to write a series of posts dealing with the Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima, but after having read two additional novels by Mishima following that post, I feel almost driven to do so.

As I mentioned in a post on another blog in late August of last year, I discovered Mishima quite by accident in what I believe is a fine example of serendipity.

I had been watching a number of movies featuring James Cagney. One movie was the 1931 comedy The Millionaire, in which Cagney had a small role. One of the stars of the film was Canadian-American actor, David Manners who is best remembered for his role as John Harker in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, which of course, starred Bela Lugosi.

Learning that Manners was in Dracula led me to hunt for that film on the Internet. It had been ages since I'd watched this classic movie, and luckily I was able to locate it at vimeo.com. Sadly, the film has since been removed from that website, due to a complaint of copyright infringement. In 1999, Lugosi's Dracula was released for home video, with an updated soundtrack composed by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet. I was so impressed by Glass' composition that I had to search for more work by the composer.

One of the works composed by Glass that I found on Spotify, was the film score for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - a film based on the life and work of the Japanese writer. Of course, now I had to learn more about Yukio Mishima.

Again, after a search on the Internet, I was able to download 13 books written by Mishima and available as mobi.

Normally, when approaching a writer new to me, I start at his or her earliest work and proceed to the end. This had been my approach with Elizabeth von Arnim, E. Phillips Oppenheim , Wilkie Collins , and many, many more. However, with the work of Yukio Mishima, I began with his final work - the tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. The four books in this work are Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel.

Each of the novels depicts what the protagonist, Shigekuni Honda comes to believe are successive reincarnations of his school friend Kiyoaki Matsugae.

Although I had downloaded 13 ebooks, I did not start right away on other works by Mishima following The Sea of Fertility. It was only recently that I came back to Mishima with the reading of The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. The two novels which I began immediately after were Confessions of a Mask and After the Banquet.

Confessions of a Mask was Mishima's second novel and launched him to national fame in his early twenties. The novel is very disturbing. The protagonist is homosexual, and much of the novel deals with his fantasies involving homosexuality and sado masochism. Although upsetting, I finished reading the novel. However, I doubt I would have gone on to read Mishima's other novels had I read this work first.

After the Banquet is very different than Confessions of a Mask ( to say the least). It is actually very different in tone from the other works I'd read by the writer. Perhaps it was due to the translation, but the novel seemed to be almost non Mashimaesque, if I may coin a word. On the other hand, the difference I see in After the Banquet may be, that when compared to much of Mishima's writing, this novel has a relatively happy ending.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea - the Film.

In spite of the location and setting being very different, the plot of the 1976 film, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea doesn't stray too terribly far from the novel by Yukio Mishima. Being made in 1976, I can understand why the film's producers may have felt that having the film take place in England - with well known actors - rather than in Japan, may have been a better move from a commercial viewpoint. Personally, I would rather the film adaptation take place in Japan, with Japanese actors.

I could very well cope with English subtitles.

I didn't care for Kris Kristofferson in the film. I never found him to be a credible actor, and his eye makeup in this film was too distracting for me.

The film version wasn't bad  but I don't know if I would have gone on to read the novel had I seen the film first. To me, the novel compares favorably to one of my favorite novels - Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. This film, however, certainly doesn't rate as one of my favorite films.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

In August of 2019 I had serendipitously discovered the work of Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century.

I was so impressed by what I had read about Mishima that I went into his work head-on, beginning with his tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Even before I had finished reading the four novels in the tetralogy, I downloaded every e-book of Mishima's work that I could find.

I have a list of novels that I return to every few years, and The Sea of Fertility is definitely on the list.

I recently finished another of Mishima's novels, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Parts of the novel are quite disturbing, but the novel has become one of my favorites - along side, if not surpassing Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

I'm recommending the novel, however, I'm not inclined to give a synopsis. I'm afraid any description from me would contain "spoilers".

In 1976, the novel was adapted into a film starring Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles. The setting was changed from Japan to England. The film is available on OK.RU.  I've plans to watch the film in a day or so.