emperor_norton

"He never cried, not even in his dreams, for hard-heartedness was a point of pride. A large iron anchor withstanding the corrosion of the sea and scornful of the barnacles and oysters that harass the hulls of ships, sinking polished and indifferent through heaps of broken glass, toothless combs, bottle caps, and prophylactics into the mud at harbor bottom- that was how he liked to imagine his heart. Someday he would have an anchor tattooed on his chest."
-Yukio Mishima, "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea"

I started and finished my first Mishima novel today. First impressions: god dammmmnnnn. It's a short novel, and there isn't a wasted sentence in it. The moody imagery of the book is what hooked me: its constant references to deep waters, ocean storms, pits, watchful shadows, far-off tropical paradises, a boy hiding inside a narrow dresser drawer... the book doesn't cast a spell on the reader as much as it casts a long shadow. Its a dark book, but it is a very pleasant, coercive kind of darkness, like a perverse lullaby. And that last line:

"Glory, as anyone knows, is bitter stuff".

Robbed of its context in the story, the line reads as a tight, simple phrase. Light on the profundity, but it looks nice on a page. When one reads it in context... oh man, it jabs in deep like a scalpel. Now that is how one ends a book.


And Now For Something Else Entirely...

A forewarning to my SG peeps: my account will be going gray for a couple of days this week. Ye Olde Bank Account has seen better days, and I can't run the risk of being slammed with an insufficient funds fee when my monthly SG renewal fee comes up. I get paid on Friday, so I'll be sure to refresh my account then. So never fear, ladies, gentlemen, and lowlifes, you haven't read the last of me just yet.