Yet it was on just such a day as this, an ordinary Wednesday or Thursday, that he felt the deepest foreboding. And when his doctor, seeking to reassure him, suggested that in these perilous times a man might well be entitled to such a feeling, that only the insensitive did not, etc., it made him…
November 25th marks the date of Mishima’s death fifty years ago. See these articles: The Importance of Being Mishima Yukio — Yukio Mishima’s enduring, unexpected influence — Yukio Mishima’s dark fantasies of imperial Japan — Mishima in the World: 50 Years Later — Mishima: Historical Visionary aestheticsDamian FlanagandeathembodimentHosoe EikōIrmela Hijiya-KirschnereitJapanjohn grayKishin ShinoyamaMishimaphilosophical literaturephotographysuicide
Regarding suicide, in his very thoughtful review of After Life Philip Martin writes: I can’t be the only person who wonders if Gervais has read Walker Percy. after lifelost in the cosmosphilip martinricky gervaissuicideWalker Percy
Recently published. DostoyevskyJohn DesmondsuicideWalker Percy
In popular culture, and especially in music, the days of the week of particular significance are Mondays and Fridays. The former has downbeat, dread-like connotations, as in “Blue Monday” (Dave Bartholomew, performed by Fats Domino) and “I Don’t Like Mondays” (Bob Geldof, performed by The Boomtown Rats). In contrast, Friday has an air of promise and…
My Cousin, Ludwig Wittgenstein — a lovely memoir (see family tree below). The first extract below (The New Yorker) reminded me of the Percy legacy (second extract). Wittgenstein, once asked a pupil if he had ever had any tragedies in his life. The pupil, evidently well trained, inquired what he meant by “tragedy.” “I mean suicides,…
