I know nothing about art. Well, that isn’t strictly true. I know naught about the theoretical side of art, the learned side of art, so to speak. Movements, periods, academic theories - they are all beyond me.
Mostly because I have not taken the time to study them. Partly because of our age, where all before us merges and re-emerges from a seemingly singular entity. Nevertheless, art has always appealed to me on an emotional level. And when I say ‘emotional’, I probably mean spiritual. Such intensity is not to be scoffed at. After all, civilisation would be nothing without the art that created for it, created as an expression of the divine, heroic, or beautiful.
As far as I understand art, it can be divided within those three categories. Either action within and for it, or action without and against it. “Ugly” art acts without and against beautiful art, for example. I acknowledge that this isn’t a particularly academic way to view art, or discuss it, but I think that it is a great folly to restrict one’s innate passion behind academic gatekeeping
In time, I am sure, I will come to understand art in a more sophisticated way. I think this post is part of that process, in a small way. So in a small way, let us consider art in the most straightforward way possible. What art do I like, and why? Who is my favourite artist, currently, above all others.
Currently, that title is held by a novelist. The name of that novelist is Yukio Mishima (born Kimitake Hiraoka), one of the best Japanese authors of the 20th century. Despite not winning a Nobel Prize during his lifetime, Mishima possessed an uncanny ability to read into the most intimate emotions of the characters and people he wrote about. His ‘Sea of Fertility’ tetralogy in particular, in my humble opinion, is a sublime composition. Both as one continuous story, or as individual stories, the Sea of Fertility is elegant and sharply pertinent - like a sword. Fitting for one of Samurai heritage, I suppose.
My personal favourite of the novels is Spring Snow, the first novel in the series. Spring Snow charts the life of Kiyosaki Matsuagae, the son of wealthy “new rich” aristocrats living in Tokyo, and his romantic (in the idealistic sense of the word) entanglement with Satoko Ayakura - all in the presence of sensible Shigekuni Honda, Kiyosaki’s close friend. It sounds as if this could be the basis for a trite romance, or cringey love triangle. Thankfully, this is far from the case. This novel, by itself, is (in my view) a delicate and honest expression of love between a young man and young woman.
The confusion. The clumsiness. The silence between explosions of passion. Ultimately, the love that is shared between them. Many of those who study Mishima often attest that he was fascinated and occupied by ideas of beauty. This is true. To some extent. As is the case with every writer worth reading, I consider the truth to be more complex than a first reading. Mishima indeed does value beauty, but that does not appear to be his end goal. The romance between Kiyosaki and Satoko dominate the backdrop of Taishō Japan, and Mishima does not withhold the intimacy between the two, emotionally or physically.
I will save the details of the novel proper, but suffice to say I believe that Mishima integrates the candour of his initial setting - Taishō Tokyo (for the most part) - and the secrecy, quietness, and intimate thoughts of the characters under examination. Mishima, in my estimation at least, is a skilled weaver of emotions, character, and conflict.
This may all be true, you might say, but why does this matter? What use of it is it to us?
Well, I will put forward just a few arguments. Let’s begin at the general, with art and namely literature in this case. To begin, I will argue that literature enables us to communicate ideas, ideals, and emotions that otherwise would not normally be so easily explained or justified. This is not my original idea, and no doubt that you may have come across it beforehand in some other form, yet this refrain to the spiritual element of man is an important one.
It becomes important when brought to my second point - the union of logic and emotion, of reason and dreaming, numbers and words is the only worthy approach. How will we achieve this lofty goal? That is far beyond me, at this moment at least. Yet it seems to me that only by combining all that is good, noble, worthy, true, and worthwhile will the ‘dissident’ right come to form a formidable block of spirit and determination to overcome the challenges we face today.
After all, how are we to understand the world by observing only roses? How can we reckon the forces aligned against us, at every level, if we exclude all the tools and avenues open to our being? I am sure I am not the first to emphasise this point; indeed, there are several notable figures taking on the responsibility of proliferating artistic critique and examination, and well worthy of your time.
(There are many worth sharing, but for the sake of this article here are a few worth investigating: #1 #2 #3. This is not an exhaustive list, and I encourage you to scope out more artistically minded folks to balance thinkers and scholars in our field. Raw Egg Nationalist’s new Man’s World also looks extremely promising, although I have not yet read any of it substantially. Can be found here.)
To sum up, read Mishima. Read the Sea of Fertility. Let us all begin to fuse all our strengths, all our approaches.
Avanti!