Sublime

Soon after the war, Japan’s most assertive novelist, Yukio Mishima, published a book whose title—Confessions of a Mask—was pure Wilde, as were its sentiments: “It is precisely what people regard as my true self that is a masquerade.”

It must have been after reading these that he had hit on the idea of suicide, as if he were planning a picnic.

“Thank goodness for that! Saving someone’s life always puts a spring in your step for the rest of the day.”