Mishima: The Decay of the Angel. The Sea of Fertility finally ends.

On the back cover of the edition of The Decay of the Angel that I have it says:

It is the late 1960s [sic] and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, once more encounters a person he believes to be a reincarnation of his friend Kiyoaki—this time restored to life as a teenage orphan, Toru. Adopting the boy as his heir, Honda quickly finds that Toru is a force to be reckoned with. The final novel of this celebrated tetralogy weaves together the dominant themes of the three previous novels in the series: the decay of Japan's courtly tradition; the essence and value of Buddhist philosophy and aesthetics; and, underlying all, Mishima's apocalyptic vision of the modern era.

It is set in the same period as my experience of Japan, but it is a Japan that I never got to.

Toru seems to me the most likely reincarnation of Kiyoaki. Both are spoiled by some kind of privilege. One dies and one suffers ruination. The court is dissolved.

Meanwhile it is all illusion. Did Honda find out much about maya in his visit to India?

Is there any reason to read Mishima?

Robert

This challenge shall be met, sir.

I have yet to read v. 3; perhaps i will await Sam's declaration and we will read together. and post a bit even.

I have re-evaluated my skills as a leader of reads and decided that I am perhaps the best we have ever seen here, for my readers have learned to go off on their own and are precocious predators.

I for one am glutted with meat.

Freaky metabolism, increasing apace, ill-gotten haiku.

I drifted off this summer and have not finished v. 2. We have had a rambling sort of read appropriate to the series, I think. Haunting in its own way. I would be happy to have a go at 3 and continue to drift with 2.

Let me know when you are ready to start.

I just read chapter one of The Decay of the Angel. Honda does not appear!

Maybe he's dead.

Or it'll turn out Kiyoaki was Honda all along.