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A review by hades9stages
The Decay of the Angel by Yukio Mishima
5.0
i literally can’t read this it’s extremely difficult, on par with (probably) books like clockwork orange, i have no idea really what’s going on at all or what i just read but the bits i did understand were very pretty. don’t ask me what it’s about. it’s also incredibly gay. like i can’t describe why, it just had me giggling, the way these men described each other. see the last quote in this review for my favourite gay quote. EDIT: UPDATE 20.3.23: JUST FOUND OUT MISHIMA WAS IN FACT GAY. THAT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE NOW. OKAY. I can’t believe I didn’t just Google why Mishima writes so beautifully about men. As a Gay™ I thought I was being silly looking at his works from a slightly queer lens, but well, no, I was actually correct. Am I… smart?
”If I had spoken or moved from the smallest subconscious impulse, then the world would’ve been promptly destroyed. The world should be grateful for my awareness of myself. Awareness has nothing to be proud of but control.”
“He sometimes thought he was a hydrogen bomb equipped with consciousness. It was clear in any case that he was not a human being.”
“The newly tiled roofs were a violent blue. The voices of children were like splinters of glass. Tōru liked to look at people as at animals in a zoo. The bath was ready.”
“It was a body of firm coolness about it, and no suggestion of softness. The profile, aristocratic eyebrows and nose and lips; was well formed, as on a some-what worn silver coin; and their eyes with long lashes were beautiful. Honda could see what the boy was thinking... the insides of the boy were wholly and utterly those of Honda himself.”
”If I had spoken or moved from the smallest subconscious impulse, then the world would’ve been promptly destroyed. The world should be grateful for my awareness of myself. Awareness has nothing to be proud of but control.”
“He sometimes thought he was a hydrogen bomb equipped with consciousness. It was clear in any case that he was not a human being.”
“The newly tiled roofs were a violent blue. The voices of children were like splinters of glass. Tōru liked to look at people as at animals in a zoo. The bath was ready.”
“It was a body of firm coolness about it, and no suggestion of softness. The profile, aristocratic eyebrows and nose and lips; was well formed, as on a some-what worn silver coin; and their eyes with long lashes were beautiful. Honda could see what the boy was thinking... the insides of the boy were wholly and utterly those of Honda himself.”