Archive for July 5th, 2008
In Memoriam Jesse Helms 1921-2008
Jesse Helms and Ronald Reagan
Yesterday Senator No, as he was known for his hard-line conservative political stances and harsh opposition to liberal agenda, died at the age of 86 in North Carolina, USA. From this blog we remember one of the greatest conservative minds of the American XXth century. Requiescat in pace.
”I fight for what I believe. If you are not willing to stand up for what you believe, your beliefs are not strong enough.”- 1984
”Atheism and socialism — or liberalism, which tends in the same direction — are inseparable entities. When you have men who no longer believe that God is in charge of human affairs, you have men attempting to take the place of God by means of the Superstate.” – 1973
”Compromise, hell! That’s what happened to us all down the line — and that’s the very cause of our woes. If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bolgona to be bartered a slice at a time?” — 1959
”Americans need to stop protesting, marching, looting, burning, destroying, threatening, posturing and loafing. They need to start minding their own business again, go back to work, regain respect for decency and personal responsibility, and to pray for God’s forgiveness for what they have deliberately tried to do to America.”– 1966
In search of desperate beauty (Review of “Confessions of a Mask” by Yukio Mishima)
From this point on, there will be an english version of this blog. I open this space with the review of Yukio Mishimas’s novel “Confessions of a Mask”.
It is a commonplace, among those interested to classify Mishima as sensualist author, to review this story from pansexual perspective. However, Mishima goes far beyond this materialistic and reductionist interpretation of his early chef d’oeuvre by creating a complex narration about a troubled young lad searching for beauty through the spiritual vein of art that accentuated his synesthetic experiences toward human body and masculine virtue, as masterfully related by the author, in his amazing discovery of San Sebastian depiction made by Guido Reni. To sum up, this a memorable short novel written in elegant style composed by delightful prose, where Mishima paid great homage to the strange and mysterious nature of beauty.
Yasunari Kawabata (Mishima’s former mentor), 1968 Noble Prize, once said that he did not deserve to be awarded with the aforementioned prize if Mishima was still alive, by reading this book anyone can agree with his honorable judgment.
