(DDLC calming and cute music)
👏 👏
Book Review
That's right.
For some reason, you guys still want me to make these.
First of all, I am an idiot. (Aren't we all)
Last month. I said we were gonna read Runaway Horses and Spring Snow.
I had no idea; they are connected.
They are part of a tetralogy.
Luckily, these are the two first ones.
But if follow me on this month of
👏 Book 👏 Review,
then hopefully (Laughs)
You read them at the right.. in the right order.
I usually don't like knowing anything at all about the books that I read.
But I realized that if I am gonna recommend books,
then maybe, just maybe
I should do a little bit of research.
So, I am sorry.
Gomen'nasai ごめんなさい (Sorry in Japanese)
The thing is that when I discovered Yukio Mishima,
I did it by pure coincidence.
I didn't know anything about him.
And I just fell in love with his writing,
and I fell in love with finding out about
his ideas,
but also his life.
just as the joy of discovering him was so great
that I wanted to honor that
and keep that going
with what I read from him.
So that's why
Anyway let's get to the review Felix
jeez
[Book one] Spring Snow, let's start with Spring Snow
*in the right order*
Hooray for me, everybody
A little bit of background: I feel like it might help you understand it a bit better.
The author, Yukio Mishima, believed in the code of ethic of bushido (武士道)
which is the samurai code of ethic
He wanted to restore that and also restore the power to the emperor
That's over-simplifying things, but
because of it, you see a lot of common themes throughout his novels
which is around the Westernisation of Japan
and that major cultural shift that happened during that period
so Spring Snow takes place right after that
right after the end of Meiji period
Now if you don't know what Meiji period is
Just Google it,
it's hilarious (laughs)
'Cause it's the least Japanese thing you've ever seen
it's just... people talk about cultural appropriation
just Google Meiji period (laughs)
Now, I think it's important to understand at least that
despite Yukio Mishima being against, like many other Japanese people,
the Westernisation of Japan,
a lot of people still recognise, Yukio Mishima himself,
that for Japan to prosper as a modern nation,
they needed to borrow technology from the West
and they did this in a sort of mindset of
"well Japanese ideology is better"
"but we'll still take this Western technology" (laughs)
and Mishima himself did take a lot of inspiration from Western literature
and so on and so forth.
Most notably, Spring Snow itself
it's purposefully written in a Western style
It feels very familiar as supposed to his other works
👏now let's 👏get into the 👏story (finally end of history class)
I'm not gonna spoiler everything because that has been requested to me before
I just assume that since I said I was gonna read the book
I could just got say in its fullest
but I realise now... I don't wanna ruin it for people
but a brief explanation: it follows the story of
Kui...
Kiyoa...
Kiyoaki?
Kiyoaki.
Matsugae,
who is described as this young, beautiful, handsome man (just like pewds)
he has a good future ahead of him
He's born into this previously samurai family
that became nouveau-riche because of
embracing the change... the cultural changes in the Meiji period
and the benefits from that
but Kiyoaki is very childish (like all of us, the 9-year-olds)
he falls in love with Satoko,
who is part of this more aristocratic family,
with higher stature and the sort of type of family that Kiyoaki's family, the Matsugae,
looks up to and wants to be.
BUT,
Kiyoaki doesn't really know how to deal with his emotions for Satoko.
He acts like a very spoiled teenage brat about it
At one point he loves her, another point he despises her
and it sort of goes back and forth.
But it's very fun to follow this
around Kiyoaki, despite being very childish and so changing,
I remember he writes his letter to Satoko because he has given up on her
He's lost all faith in her, and he writes that in a letter to her
and then later on, he meets up with some friends and they ask him
"Hey do you have someone that you love?"
and he describes Satoko, realising
*S*
I made a big mistake,
I need to stop this letter,
so he phones Satoko and he says "whatever you do"
"do not read the letter that I sent you"
"promise me that you will burn the letter and not read it"
So later on, he meets up with Satoko, she invites him to a rickshaw ride,
a bit unexpectedly,
you follow his internal thoughts of
- "Did she read the letter?"
- "Did she not read the letter?"
- "Is she playing with me?"
- "What is going on here?"
and it sounds so stupid, it sounds so uninteresting,
but I really really enjoyed this bit.
It focuses a lot of these type of events that just seems uninteresting and trivial and unimportant,
but, it adds a charm to it :)
that I really enjoy :)
It's not until Satoko is completely out of Kiyoaki's reach that he realises this finally
his full love for Satoko.
But thanks to his friend, Honda,
who is very loyal and trustworthy, and will do anything for Kiyoaki.
He helps him so that he can sneak out with Satoko
and so that they can be together at least for a little bit.
That's it for the story, I think that's all you need to know to understand the theme around the story
Much like many other works from Mishima, they (the characters) reflect certain themes, each character,
I think, okay, I THINK, this is just me speculating,
but Kiyoaki represents...
I dunno, it sounds stupid, but
the "new" Japan 🇯🇵
trying to find its foot in this cultural shift
The reason why he doesn't really know for sure his feelings for Satoko
is because Satoko represents sort of in between old and new 🇯🇵
So sometimes he loves Satoko, sometimes he doesn't... he despises her
Because I think Satoko's family
represents "new" Japan.
New Japan from the Meiji period.
Kiyoaki himself sees his family later on in a bad light
because they let go of their roots, their samurai roots in a sense.
I think it's really interesting to have a novel around these themes and ideas,
but the main reason that I really love this book was because of
its poetic style.
It sounds so pretentious for me to say, but
the way it reads, you really cherish the pages.
It has so many interesting personalities,
most importantly, getting the insight of this very fascinating period of time
through the eyes of Kiyoaki.
I really enjoyed it.
Very nice.
4 out of 5.
Did you read it? Did you like it? What did you think?
[Book Two] Runaway Horses.
Where do I begin ?
This book.
(kisses 💋)
I know it's a bit annoying, but I'm gonna preface this novel as well
with some *history*. (history class again, everybody)
Because just like Spring Snow,
that started... that... the novel Spring Snow takes place right at the end of the Meiji period.
Runaway Horses takes off right after a historical event in Japan,
which is called the May 15 Incident.
*which really happened*
A cooler name for the May 15 Incident is the
*Blood League Incident*.
DAMN.
That's itchy.
Sorry... *League of Blood Incident*.
Mishima often takes real historical events in Japan,
for example, he wrote The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, which is about a monk
that burnt down the Temple of the... the Golden Pavilion (laughs)
and he sort of fictionalises the story of what that was like for the monk
and what went through his head.
And in a similar sense,
Mishima did this with the Runaway Horses.
But in this time, he echoes the event instead.
*Which will make sense later on*
To put it briefly, the League of Blood Incident was a group of samurai that tried to restore power to the Emperor
by killing a bunch of political people,
(laughs)
I'm just trying... I'm just trying to keep it quick
and...
it FAILED
They got captured.
But so many people of Japan
didn't agree with their sentencing,
so they signed with blood,
350,000 people signed with blood and send it in to lessen
the sentence for the capture.
That's just a little bit of back story, ok let's get into it. (history class over)
Let's just jump into it!
Runaway Horses follow the story of Isao,
he's 17 years old,
he was brought up in the code of bushido
Bushido is the samurai code of ethics.
He is level 3 in Kendo ⚔️🥋
I dunno what that means, but I think it means he's a badass ⚔️⚔️.
(laughs)
Isao is the reincarnation of Kiyoaki,
so this takes place 17 years after Spring Snow.
DID I JUST SPOILED SPRING SNOW
OOPSIE. (YES YOU DID)
(laughs)
So the character Honda, if you remember, he makes a reappearance.
He's now a judge, and he
meets up with Isao by chance.
And he realises that he is the reincarnation of his old friend, Kiyoaki.
Isao me... Isao wants to give Honda his favourite book
which is The League of the Divine Wind, which is inspired by
another rebellion, another coup d'état that actually happened.
During the Meiji period, it was a group of people, a group of samurai, same thing again.
Revolts against the Meiji government,
restore power to the emperor,
they were a smaller group of samurai, but they were very tactical,
and used surprise to their advantage,
they managed to actually make a large impact,
despite eventually failing and committing seppuku (committing suicide by cutting your abdomen).
I think the important thing to take away is that
the Shinpūren rebellion, as it's called,
despite it being a failure and despite them committing seppuku,
it's seen as a success in the way that it inspired other rebellions and more afterwards.
It's seen as a way for a small group of dedicated people having a larger impact,
and Isao, the character in the book,
(sorry, it keeps mixing fiction and history)
(which I think is what makes it so interesting)
Isao was so inspired by this book and the people and their...
and their intentions, giving their life to their cause,
that he wants to start his own group in the essence of The League of the Divine Wind,
recruits a bunch of younger students by showing them the book,
and asking "how do you feel about this book"
"does this inspire you", and he gets a very loyal group of 20 people
and he plans to do an attack very similar to the May 15 Incident.
It's planned out in the intention of inspiring other people
and having as much effect as you can as a small group, and then to commit seppuku.
So they plot to kill the country's capitalists,
but before they're able to go forth with their plan,
Isao gets betrayed and that's all I need to say with the story.
Runaway Horses is vastly different from Spring Snow,
but it still shares common themes
around the purity of youth versus
the corruption of the adult.
It's about the willingness to sacrifice yourself for the greater good and what you believe in.
And also the envy and jealousy of that glory,
of having something worth dying for.
But I think most importantly, the major theme of this novel is...
I don't know exactly...
to know and not to act is not to truly know.
Yukio Mishima himself, the author, a well acclaimed, well-regarded,
rich, famous author, created his own... military,
the Tatenokai.
On the same day as he finished his tetralogy, he left the last page in his office open.
He left with four members of his Tatenokai, his military group.
He went to the military Tokyo headquarters,
he kidnapped the commander,
barricaded themselves in the headquarters,
told the media to come and...
and see what he had to say.
And in the hopes of inspiring the soldiers out in the courtyard,
he gave his speech for the same reason as Isao and all these other rebellions against the Meiji period:
to restore glory to the Emperor.
Yukio Mishima knew this would fail,
but as we know, failure doesn't necessarily mean the ending.
Despite him wanting to inspire these soldiers and despite him knowing that they probably wouldn't listen to him,
he knew that to know and not to act is not to truly know,
and he lived and died by those words.
So after delivering his speech, he went inside,
he wrote his death, poem and he went down on his knees
and committed seppuku.
His death poem and the event of his death very much reflect Runaway Horses.
His poem reads,
"A small night storm blows"
"Saying 'falling is the essence of a flower'"
"Preceding those who hesitate"
The last words that was left in his final book on his desk said,
"Human life is limited but I want to live forever."
I will give this book 5 out of 5!
10 out of 10!
100 out of 100.
[Book Three] Next up, I read Sapiens. It was recommended by my parents. Thank you parents.
Sapiens i...
(Windows XP shut down music)
is the telling of... the story of humankind.
(laughs)
I put all the effort into the Mishima... (laughs)
I dunno what I'm gonna say
It tells the... the major revolutions of human history.
The Cognitive, the Agriculture, the Empire and the Scientific Revolution.
It tells the story of mankind in a third-person perspective,
as if aliens talked about us, which is so weird and bizarre,
but still very gripping and interesting.
I... it's a super easy read.
It starts off by telling historical facts
about how mankind changed throughout history.
But then as we get to closer to current time, the author...
it's clear that the author is putting a lot of his own assertions in there
and it becomes a bit blurred I would say.
A lot of times without any evidence as well.
Reading it, you kina go
HMMMMM (where are the effects Brad)
I'm not sure if I'm buying this.
I don't know.
Have you read it? Would you agree with me on that?
It seems that the author has his own ideas about certain things like capitalism and socialism and these.
I guess they're complex things to describe anyway.
The bias of the author to me is clear in there, at least.
And that sort of mudded the waters.
But regardless, I really really enjoyed this book.
It's super fascinating for anyone to reflect what it's like to be a *Sapiens*
It's pretty fun. The chapters that I enjoy the most was about morals
because I never thought about how morals have shifted so much throughout our time.
I thought I had it pretty clear what I think is right and wrong,
but put me in any other time in history,
and it doesn't really match anymore, what other people think.
And same thing in the future, our morals will probably be completely different as well.
And it almost gives you a sort of nihilistic view and hopelessness.
It's all this constant shift of mankind.
But what I thought was the most interesting was talking about Buddhism,
because I didn't know how aligned the morals of Buddhism is with today's society,
despite being written 2,000 years ago, I think.
So after reading Sapiens, I knew 👏👏
I wanted to read more Buddhism, about Buddhism.
I previously just brushed it away because I thought well, Buddhism, that's for unmarried women
who's going through a midlife crisis.
I'll this book 3 out of 5 by the way.
[Book Four] But 👏👏 afterwards I read
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon.
This book is amazing. Buddha never wrote down these words.
They were just retold, and a lot of times, ideas get shifted and spread out too much
that it's hard to understand how to study Buddhism.
So this book gives a more defined frame of the Buddhist teachings.
A lot of the ideas already aligned with how I perceive things,
especially how you should recede your emotions.
You should still feel happy, you should still feel anger, but you should feel it disconnected.
A lot of ideas I also realised was resemble to Dr. Frankl's logotherapy,
from the book we've read in the past, remember?
Man's Search For Meaning
I draw the resemblance on how you should live your life
because I remember Frankl talked about you should perceive life
as if you've already lived it once and made all the mistakes,
because that prevents you from falling into destructive behaviour.
In the Buddha's karma system, in a lot of ways, it's similar.
You live your life correctly once, and that's all you need.
The goal is not to relive your life. The goal is to cease to exist and reach enlightenment and reach nirvana.
Now you do this in many different ways, but one of the main things is to remove all cravings from your life,
because craving leads to suffering, and suffering leads to rebirth, and to be born is to suffer,
and to live is to suffer... I know I'm explaining this very poorly by the way (laughs)
and the Buddhist ideology around removing craving is to uproot it completely.
Because otherwise it will always be there.
And only if you do that is when you can reach enlightenment.
And there's something really interesting about that.
When is enough enough?
I was super fascinated by this book. This is just a very selected part of it.
I don't want to get into all of it.
If you're interested in Buddhist teaching, this is a great book to start off with,
and if your life is
*SUGAR*
Give it a go.
Can't hurt. (laughs)
[Book Five] Next up, I wanted to get into Greek philosophy.
I'm not gonna just jump into it this time. This time I'm gonna search.
Okay. What should I know before I... I read philosophy... Greek philosophy.
A lot of people say, okay well, you should start reading the myths.
Mythos with Stephen Fry. I thought he was just a stand-up comedian, but apparently he's an author as well.
This is probably not the book I wanted to read, but I enjoyed it very much, regardless.
Stephen Fry being a comedian, you can tell he does an excellent job at retelling the ancient Greek myths.
You probably are familiar with so many of them already, and so was I.
But it was still very very interesting. It's almost like reading fairy tales.
In a lot of ways I would love to, if I had a kid. I know it sounds so weird (laughs)
I would love to read them Greek mythology because they're... they really feel like bedtime stories,
and obviously a lot of them are inappropriate,
a lot of them are based on sexual endeavours,
but still I really enjoy them because
not only you realise a lot of our language derives from the ancient Greek mythologies,
like words like chaos, cronus, thanos...
Thanos, yeah that's right, he means death!
I can't believe (laughs)
ancient Greek copied Fortnite! (can we copystrike Greek?)
A lot of the stories describe how phenomenon exists that they couldn't explain,
such as how did the universe come to be about?
Well it's Cronus. Before it was Chaos.
And oh, how did the first spider come about?
And these really clever interesting stories about these things.
I really... it's really fun. Definitely fun book to read.
3.5 out of 5. I don't know, I don't have much to say about it.
It's not the book I wanted to read, but I had fun anyway.
Okay.
[Book Six] Last but not least, the Inferno
by August Strindberg, or [August Strindberg].
Again, this is not a good introduction to August Strindberg.
I don't know why... I picked it just because it's the only one I had,
and did you read it? I did say I was gonna read it for next month.
It follows the inter... the mental struggle of August Strindberg at his later years.
It was never really confirmed what was wrong with August,
but you read what he's writing, I think it's taken from his diary,
and there's clearly some form of paranoid, schizophrenia going on.
He's trying to experiment on how to create gold and
people are paranoid about people stealing his ideas.
It's very fascinating but very bizarre to read, like reading the notes of a madman almost.
Obviously he wasn't fully crazy.
Something was definitely going on. He was inspired by the work of Swedenborg,
I assume that's how it's pronounced,
who described that hell is real and you can relive it on earth.
And August Strindberg draw a lot of resemblances himself to his own life
to what Swedenborg described that this would happen.
And August realises that he lived through hell on Earth, hence the title the Inferno.
The real reason I wanted to read August Strindberg and I want to read more of August Strindberg,
it's 'cause my granddad, when I was young I used to read a lot.
I sort of refound this love for reading after being obsessed with gaming for ten years (laughs)
When I was younger I loved reading and I loved sharing, discussing books with my granddad.
Obviously I was really young, I was like 10 or 12, so I don't know how much of a discussion it was.
But he was so happy and fascinated that I was.. I liked reading
and we read Sherlock Holmes because he loves Sherlock Holmes.
He tried to get me into this private Sherlock Holmes group but I was too young to really understand.
I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes when I was a kid.
Sadly he passed away a few years ago, 😢
so now, you know, I would have loved to discuss books with him
or it would have been amazing.
And that's why I wanted to read August Strindberg because August Strindberg is one of the most famous author in Sweden.
And my granddad really looked up to him as well, so I wanted to find out more about why.
This is the wrong book to read that, but it's sad that I can't discuss novels with my granddad,
but I'm very happy at least that I can do it here, on this channel, with you guys. ❤️
I really appreciate all the support.
👏👏 That was it for book review!
Thank you for watching. Next month I'm just gonna pick one novel.
Tt's gonna be light, it's gonna be easy, it's gonna be a sci-fi.
It was recommended by you guys, so you better pick this one up, okay?
It's called The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman.
All the books I'll link them in the description if you wanted to check them out on Amazon,
I'll get a referral as well from that, so very nice.
And that's it, thank you guys for leaving a like, showing all support as always.
Love you guys so much!
And as always,
[POP]
Good bye.