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A review by wolfdan9
Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima
4.5
"The law is an accumulation of tireless attempts to block a man's desire to change life into an instant of poetry."
Runaway Horses is a sequel to Spring Snow, another outstanding Mishima novel that contemplated the connectivity among all of our individual souls in the fabric of the world and across time. Mishima seemed to be scratching the surface of this larger theme in that novel -- in which romantic love is at the center -- and this novel -- which instead focuses on obssessive love of country. Here, it evolves beyond that and actualizes some of the larger ideas the Mishima seemed to want to tackle. Isao is a reincarnation of Kiyoaki (the protagonist of the first novel), or at least that is what Honda (Kioyaki's former best friend) believes, and this becomes his obsession. Honda's portions of the novel are focused primarily on digging deeper into this intuition in pursuit of some truth. It's clear as the plot unfolds that Honda's search for Kiyoaki's reborn soul will span the course of all four books in the tetralogy, but it's interesting that he is a constant throughout this multipronged saga that Mishima has concocted.
The narrative alternates between Honda and Isao although their plots are often intertwined and play off of each other more than they diverge. I'll digress here to mention that there is an outstanding, drama filled, courtroom chapter in this book that features both characters as well. Isao's story is central to the novel and depicts his own obsession: a deep loyalty toward the Emperor and the spirit of Japan. Isao develops a small cult that intends to assassinate wealthy Japanese capitalists whom Isao claims exemplify the evil global influence that has destroyed Japan in the 1930s. Then he will commit seppuku. Isao's solution, while seemingly extreme, is a reflection of old Japanese honor and loyalty to the Emperor. He is influenced by a Shintoist manual (replicated in its entirety within this novel) in which a group of similar cultists conduct a failed rebellion. What I find extremely interesting is how Mishima seemed to represent himself through Isao as, only a year after this novel's publication, Mishima attempted his own coup and committed seppuku. The novel is punctuated by a beautifully haunting sentence in which Isao kills himself -- I wonder if this character's fate is truly meant to represent Mishima's intentions/dreams.
There are various layers to what makes this novel fascinating:
1. The aforementioned autobiographical allusions.
2. The cultural-historical context of the novel's events, which highlight how the stark transitions Japan has made through its recent history has inevitably caused frictive elements within its framework.
3. The underlying, everpresent thread that connects Isao to Kiyoaki; the vague allusions between them; their beauty and strength and determination and their inevitable demise.
4. Isao's stance, which Mishima seems to suggestively support, that there is a justification for assassinating people and committing suicide.
I found the 4th point the most compelling, although all of these themes are so beautifully and organically intertwined that I could probably expound upon them for a while (if only time permitted -- "ehh!" says my half-sleeping one-month-old child). Isao wishes to "scorn... the futile, laborious human process in which otogeny was eternally recapitulating phylogeny, in which man forever tried to draw a bit closer to truth only to be frustrated by death..." The case Mishima makes here, that a species' evolutionary history is futile precisely because it is composed of and represented by short-lived (and pointlessly lived) individual lives, suggests a need for certain individuals to break free of a conventional life by sacrificing it in pursuit of some deadly (to the self and others) rebellion. Isao ends his life as the novel ends and, while it is left a little bit vague, is seemingly rewarded for it.
Runaway Horses is a sequel to Spring Snow, another outstanding Mishima novel that contemplated the connectivity among all of our individual souls in the fabric of the world and across time. Mishima seemed to be scratching the surface of this larger theme in that novel -- in which romantic love is at the center -- and this novel -- which instead focuses on obssessive love of country. Here, it evolves beyond that and actualizes some of the larger ideas the Mishima seemed to want to tackle. Isao is a reincarnation of Kiyoaki (the protagonist of the first novel), or at least that is what Honda (Kioyaki's former best friend) believes, and this becomes his obsession. Honda's portions of the novel are focused primarily on digging deeper into this intuition in pursuit of some truth. It's clear as the plot unfolds that Honda's search for Kiyoaki's reborn soul will span the course of all four books in the tetralogy, but it's interesting that he is a constant throughout this multipronged saga that Mishima has concocted.
The narrative alternates between Honda and Isao although their plots are often intertwined and play off of each other more than they diverge. I'll digress here to mention that there is an outstanding, drama filled, courtroom chapter in this book that features both characters as well. Isao's story is central to the novel and depicts his own obsession: a deep loyalty toward the Emperor and the spirit of Japan. Isao develops a small cult that intends to assassinate wealthy Japanese capitalists whom Isao claims exemplify the evil global influence that has destroyed Japan in the 1930s. Then he will commit seppuku. Isao's solution, while seemingly extreme, is a reflection of old Japanese honor and loyalty to the Emperor. He is influenced by a Shintoist manual (replicated in its entirety within this novel) in which a group of similar cultists conduct a failed rebellion. What I find extremely interesting is how Mishima seemed to represent himself through Isao as, only a year after this novel's publication, Mishima attempted his own coup and committed seppuku. The novel is punctuated by a beautifully haunting sentence in which Isao kills himself -- I wonder if this character's fate is truly meant to represent Mishima's intentions/dreams.
There are various layers to what makes this novel fascinating:
1. The aforementioned autobiographical allusions.
2. The cultural-historical context of the novel's events, which highlight how the stark transitions Japan has made through its recent history has inevitably caused frictive elements within its framework.
3. The underlying, everpresent thread that connects Isao to Kiyoaki; the vague allusions between them; their beauty and strength and determination and their inevitable demise.
4. Isao's stance, which Mishima seems to suggestively support, that there is a justification for assassinating people and committing suicide.
I found the 4th point the most compelling, although all of these themes are so beautifully and organically intertwined that I could probably expound upon them for a while (if only time permitted -- "ehh!" says my half-sleeping one-month-old child). Isao wishes to "scorn... the futile, laborious human process in which otogeny was eternally recapitulating phylogeny, in which man forever tried to draw a bit closer to truth only to be frustrated by death..." The case Mishima makes here, that a species' evolutionary history is futile precisely because it is composed of and represented by short-lived (and pointlessly lived) individual lives, suggests a need for certain individuals to break free of a conventional life by sacrificing it in pursuit of some deadly (to the self and others) rebellion. Isao ends his life as the novel ends and, while it is left a little bit vague, is seemingly rewarded for it.