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The temple of Golden Pavillion - Tsurukawa's death

I'm now still reading The Temple of Golden Pavillion by Yukio Mishima - one of the more interesting and strange books I encountered this summer (I have an odd habit of reading odd books, but it remains true that odd things tend to attract attention than others, as it feels more of something you've never seen/experienced and thus curious about, rather than something conventional and sort of well, can be a little bit boring?). I'm still in my Jap lit phase, which doesn't stop me from reading other lit but I'm just more drawn to Jap than others at the moment.

Well enough talk on this, I want to dive straight into this book. It was a book that I saw by chance and was immediately drawn by it. Unlike my previous trials with Yukio Mishima, with the very popular 'the sailor who fell from sea with grace' which struck me as something too foreign and nihilistic for my liking and the much anticipated 'confessions of a mask' which turned out to be some 'click-bait' that disappointed me, 'The Temple of Golden Pavillion' was an intriguing book on obsession and self-destruction with beauty. And I just want to have some quick thoughts on the main character's polar opposite, Tsurukawa, which is almost my favourite character if he didn't die so soon and was a little bit less, bright? So far, Mizoguchi had had 2 companions in his life, the first one is the bright, pure and naive Tsurukawa who had interpreted the dark thoughts into his own optimistic POV, and the second is the toxic Kashiwagi who probably gave rise to Mizoguchi's sinister plan and helped develop his self-destruction. And the death of the former, which I can't help thinking was one of the few things that could stop Mizoguchi had it not happened, had made the story take a much darker turn unstoppably. His death, which serves as the metaphor of the disappearance of any good deed left in Mizoguchi and in turn the birth/the unstoppable breeding of the sociopathic tendency, was unfortunately not reviewed/looked into enough, which prompted me to write something down on the spur of the moment.

The sudden death did for a moment led to a good change in the story that distanced Mizoguchi from his toxic companion, but ultimately also gave rise to the sinister need to destroy the beauty of the temple in the form of self-destruction and suicide as when Mizoguchi started seeing himself as the temple, and wished to commit suicide as he destroyed it. The death also helped confirm Mizoguchi's belief in Kashiwagi's words of death and destruction, as well as any brightness left in his life would all be put out like that. But I am still much confused by the connection of Zen and his death, like on one hand I do get the very existence of Tsurukawa is a very clear brightness and beauty with very defined appearance which should be somehow related with the idea of Zen that is absence of any particularities in formal appearance, as what I translated to is an appreciation of all creatures despite its physical form, and to master such act one has to acknowledge the particularities between different beings without being drawn to them? Then what would make of the very clear existence of Tsurukawa? His death, while tragic, seemingly (until now) went in harmony with his very existence, as in pure and sudden death that was not anyhow sinister and deliberately evil. But then, why did Mizoguchi refer to it as a metaphor of unclear existence? And if, it's only my thinking, if the reason he died was because of his bright and outstanding appearance, is it in a way against Zen? That such appearance was the very cause of discrimination against him? Or is it actually the opposite, that even such bright and beautiful being couldn't escape death, like every single other beings?

I would need to read more of the book to answer my own questions, but so far, it had been a very unique and intriguing read. 5/5 (so far)

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Grotsque, and its many women

So I took like a week or so to finish my 2nd Kirino novel, Grotsque. It was a very interesting read, discussing some very dark/hidden sides of society and at the same time a revolutionary and feminist in a way novel. The main themes of it, from how I view, are prostitution, society hierarchy system, and female monsters created by society.

The novel revolves around some women who were all in the same high school (actually there's also another man who was involved but there were not many things said about him, other than that he's gay and people are deeply disturbed about it. Again, Japanese society, which is disappointing but not surprising nevertheless). All the said women, including the main narrator, a very unreliable one if I have to say (who is so engrossed in her own jealousy and hatred for her monstrously beautiful sister and the world), who is the sister of Yuriko and friend (?) of Kazue (the 2 prostitutes who got killed); Yuriko the monstrous beauty but isn't all that bright, but still is a sensitive woman and at least doesn't seem to be half as dumb as how the narrator made it to be, who died 1st in a quite tragic way that she herself anticipated; Kazue, the naive girl in high school who was bullied by the narrator and the people in her school, was a model student, smart, successful, but just happened to be born a woman in Japanese society, where women who are too ambitious would get crushed one way or another. There's also Mitsuru, the brilliant girl who worked hard at everything and worked her way through to Tokyo Medical school, but unfortunately lost her way and ended up in prison for killing people. And there's Zhang, the criminal who killed Kazue and Yuriko, and probably his own sister too, but he's just through and through a monster (and can be said to represent all the men in the world who were just liars who sought after women's bodies and fed them lies after lies), and I find him too stereotypical and too boring (much same as how the narrator felt) so I won't discuss much about him.

The first character, the one that made a very deep impression on me is the narrator. Shadowed by her sister's monstrous beauty, she was swallowed by her jealousy and malice that made her an incredibly biased narrator, and in turns caused us to believe only like half of what she said (about other people's stories or what's not involved with her feelings I must say). She was said to be a drab girl, who was forever compared to her sister, who is almost destined to be overshadowed by other people and just lived depending on others' validation and opinions. After all, though it's hinted at the end that she was also destined to live the same fate as Kazue and Yuriko (which is ending up in prostitution), she couldn't bring herself to admit she's also just another monster, filled with malice, jealousy and hatred, and accepted the women who were better looking than her, and thus luckier (somehow) than her like Yuriko; who was passionate, pure but perhaps naive like Kazue; and any forms of love in the world. She lived her life depending on others, and refusing them of happiness for fear of being abandoned, from her mom, her grandpa, and in the end there's Yurio. A deeply flawed character, who is so evil and jealous yet so pathetic, who in the end remained alive just to 'tell a story', who was just left nameless even when many other insignificant characters are given names to. Perhaps she herself also believed that her identity would forever be Yuriko's sister, or Kazue's friend, or just anything but her real name. Perhaps she could be anyone of us, any woman who may just forever remain unknown and oppressed by society. Depsite her ugly flaws, I feel myself sympathize with her, for my own personal experience (which was almost close to how she and Yuriko were, but I am luckier than her that I was not so engrossed in it and could find a way out), and for the fact that her upbringing is so unfortunate and surrounded by comparisons, by malice and most of all jealousy and hatred. All sorts of unfair things did happen, but she also contributed to a fair of the mishappenings, so she would end up a monster herself, a monster that was bred and nurtured by society.

The next important character, is Yuriko, who is the infamous montrous beauty with insatiable lust. While I find it hard to like her, it's certainly understandable to me how she was always treated like a sexual object, how she was bullied and treated wrongly by her own family, and the men surrounded around her. A beauty beyond human was envied by her sister, was isolated by her schoolmates and boys her age, and sexualised by older men. Though I don't support incestuous relationship, the sexual relationship she shared with some men didn't surprise or disgust me. She didn't have a father figure, her own mom was scared of her, her sister was jealous and hated her, she grew up with no friends, all because of her non-human beauty. She was not particularly bright, but she was not dumb and was very sensitive, thus her ultimate loneliness and indulgence in sex that made her miserable. Again, a monster born by mistreatments and societal judgements.

And much later, we came to meet Kazue, someone seemingly different from Yuriko, but ended up in prostitution and suffered the same fate. I was not particularly intrigued by this character, but couldn't help sympathise with her by the end. Perhaps as the story was told by another character, I couldn't find a way to look at her objectively until I read her journal. A woman wronged by her dream school, by her own family, by her supposed to be friends, by her workplace and in general by society. In the end, she did become a successful businesswoman, but at what cost? Instead of paying attention to her achievements, they are only interested in 'how', not 'why', not what she had to go through her life. She was scorned by her coworkers for engaging in prostitution, by men for not knowing her place. Despite her ambitions and her talents, she was forever trapped in society judgement, or as the narrator said, by society with forever changing opinions. In the end, she reached her end tragically like Yuriko, in loneliness and regret.

I was very much interested in Mitsuru, the smartest character of all of them, who managed to escape the fate of death and prostitution, but was also ultimately ruined by society. The smartest girl in school, who was strong and gifted, Mitsuru unfortunately lost her way and ended up in prison for acts of terrorism. Not much was said about her, but I could tell the brilliant girl was also let down by the disappointing reality of life. In this novel, her opinions acted as a somewhat reliable description of the characters, and she also was a guiding light somehow to the main narrator (even though the narrator ended up in the same tragic fate). Sadly though she was not the main focus, and I couldn't find any other things to talk about her other than she's smart, and she figured out more things than the main ones.

The book did very well in discussing the dark reality for Japanese women, for the much hated hierarchy system in the country, and subtly calls for a revolution to this ridiculously tragic fate of those wronged in Japan. Though I would normally prefer this type of books, sadly this book didn't appeal to me (perhaps because the translation is too rough, or if the ending is cut suddenly, or if it is simply too dark and hopeless for my liking). But I did indeed learn a lot of things, and I do recommend this book if you want some hidden realistic representation of Japanese society, or just want to learn something for a change of mind.

Probably a 3/5, worth reading but not likely read again.