Have the opposite response to Mr Pervert. Barring rare moments of distilled camp I found the podcast unbearable, whereas the book had a peculiar under the surface type of beauty.
As someone who reads a lot of war memoirs/ novels by veterans, and is a particular fan of WWI books, Storm of Steel may be the single worst book I’ve ever read.
War memoirs are a rare glimpse into human experience in extreme conditions, rare because to get one you have to have a] a good writer who ends up in combat, and b] survives.
Junger seems to have also been c] a total psychopath, and his book shows you just how boring that is in real life. There’s some essential core of meaning in his experience that’s completely missing, and in that is both the ghost of feudalism and the germ of fascism. Either he’s lying to the reader or to himself, but does it matter which? The exact thing that I go looking for in a book just isn’t there at all.
Read him in college… he’s not not forbidden! Although now I’m curious about the transcripts of his fascist radio show. I imagine they’re as boring as Céline’s tracts though.
There is this one letter where he explains that he thinks Jews are usurious because circumcision reduces sensation in their penises, and so their libidos have to be redirected into greed.
I think he’s one of those anti-semites where their antisemitism is rooted in their schizophrenia
I put off reading Celine for decades because of the Nazi ick factor. Now I'm reading Journey and honestly it's fairly leftish in its core sentiments so far, and very funny on sham patriotism, militarism and capitalism (although I've only just got to the colonialism bit, and I'm guessing it's downhill from there...)
Not much objectionable politically I don’t think in either novel! He’s pretty rude to everyone equally. His books don’t feel like fascism at all to me, even less than at this point when you listen to Wagner, you wonder if he sounds fascistic.
My memory is that the first two novels, which you reference, were seen as radical in their prose (something no translation can probably render, but it sure would be nice to have a new one try) and their content -- and they predate his public fascism. I'm not sure of the chronology, but maybe he was not actually a right-wing believer at that time. Tracts aside, he also wrote a trilogy of novels about fleeing the Allies to Germany at the end of the war which have enough critical reputation that at one point at least Dalkey kept them in print (Castle to Castle, North, and Rigadoon).
It seems like the radical influence of style was seen as sufficient to permit him to return to France and publish after the war -- he was tried while in exile in Denmark and fined, along with his property being confiscated, but a military tribunal seems to have moderated some of that due to his veteran status (which sounds so very European military between the wars) so he returned to France without any prison time, immediately signed a contract to republish his work, and also opened his medical practice again. It wasn't until Castle to Castle, which traded heavily on the revival of the controversy over his wartime activities, that his books returned to selling well.
Great post! I can’t remember if I posted about it or if you were following me at the time, but it’s hard to describe how underwhelmed I was by Bronze Age Mindset when I finally read it lol
Celine may have always been an unpleasant character but he wasn’t always a rightist. He wasn’t when he wrote Journey or Death. You see the fascism in a book like Castle to Castle which I don’t think is very good.
You might want to check out Drieux la Rochelle’s Fire Within .
Evola is sporadically interesting but basically nuts. Ernst Junger at one point refers to him as the sinister Baron Evola.
I admit this makes me want to read Evola more, what a great description. I’ve heard Castle to Castle is more rightwing and less good… usually you never hear about this one, or some of the other later ones.
My memory from reading the second book in the Sea of Fertility is that it was quite readable and even, compared to his other work, fairly normal. Although it is not exactly normal except on the Mishima continuum, it did not baffle me then. Of course, youth...
Have the opposite response to Mr Pervert. Barring rare moments of distilled camp I found the podcast unbearable, whereas the book had a peculiar under the surface type of beauty.
It’s like drinking Worcestershire sauce… strong stuff
As someone who reads a lot of war memoirs/ novels by veterans, and is a particular fan of WWI books, Storm of Steel may be the single worst book I’ve ever read.
War memoirs are a rare glimpse into human experience in extreme conditions, rare because to get one you have to have a] a good writer who ends up in combat, and b] survives.
Junger seems to have also been c] a total psychopath, and his book shows you just how boring that is in real life. There’s some essential core of meaning in his experience that’s completely missing, and in that is both the ghost of feudalism and the germ of fascism. Either he’s lying to the reader or to himself, but does it matter which? The exact thing that I go looking for in a book just isn’t there at all.
No Pound? :(
Read him in college… he’s not not forbidden! Although now I’m curious about the transcripts of his fascist radio show. I imagine they’re as boring as Céline’s tracts though.
There is this one letter where he explains that he thinks Jews are usurious because circumcision reduces sensation in their penises, and so their libidos have to be redirected into greed.
I think he’s one of those anti-semites where their antisemitism is rooted in their schizophrenia
Interesting essay!
Incidentally, there is a chapter on Mishima in Ben Miller and Huw Lemmey's book "Bad Gays".
Hadn't heard of this book, looks fun
It’’s also a popular podcast
I put off reading Celine for decades because of the Nazi ick factor. Now I'm reading Journey and honestly it's fairly leftish in its core sentiments so far, and very funny on sham patriotism, militarism and capitalism (although I've only just got to the colonialism bit, and I'm guessing it's downhill from there...)
Not much objectionable politically I don’t think in either novel! He’s pretty rude to everyone equally. His books don’t feel like fascism at all to me, even less than at this point when you listen to Wagner, you wonder if he sounds fascistic.
My memory is that the first two novels, which you reference, were seen as radical in their prose (something no translation can probably render, but it sure would be nice to have a new one try) and their content -- and they predate his public fascism. I'm not sure of the chronology, but maybe he was not actually a right-wing believer at that time. Tracts aside, he also wrote a trilogy of novels about fleeing the Allies to Germany at the end of the war which have enough critical reputation that at one point at least Dalkey kept them in print (Castle to Castle, North, and Rigadoon).
It seems like the radical influence of style was seen as sufficient to permit him to return to France and publish after the war -- he was tried while in exile in Denmark and fined, along with his property being confiscated, but a military tribunal seems to have moderated some of that due to his veteran status (which sounds so very European military between the wars) so he returned to France without any prison time, immediately signed a contract to republish his work, and also opened his medical practice again. It wasn't until Castle to Castle, which traded heavily on the revival of the controversy over his wartime activities, that his books returned to selling well.
Interesting. I don't know much about his life, especially after the war. Kundera has a good essay on him and his later years in his book Encounters.
Great post! I can’t remember if I posted about it or if you were following me at the time, but it’s hard to describe how underwhelmed I was by Bronze Age Mindset when I finally read it lol
Thanks! Yes, I think I remember you saying that. The book has its moments but I think the full… personality… is only expressed in the show
Celine may have always been an unpleasant character but he wasn’t always a rightist. He wasn’t when he wrote Journey or Death. You see the fascism in a book like Castle to Castle which I don’t think is very good.
You might want to check out Drieux la Rochelle’s Fire Within .
Evola is sporadically interesting but basically nuts. Ernst Junger at one point refers to him as the sinister Baron Evola.
I admit this makes me want to read Evola more, what a great description. I’ve heard Castle to Castle is more rightwing and less good… usually you never hear about this one, or some of the other later ones.
I found Mishima unreadable. His movie The Black Lizard is a riot!
My memory from reading the second book in the Sea of Fertility is that it was quite readable and even, compared to his other work, fairly normal. Although it is not exactly normal except on the Mishima continuum, it did not baffle me then. Of course, youth...