Blazing the Trail: An Interview with Peter Owen (Part Two)
I thought Mishima was terrifically nice, I really liked him. He spoke English, which amazed me… I met him several times in Tokyo and in London. I had one of the last letters from him before he committed suicide… I was very surprised, because it was a side to him I had never seen, but in a way it made sense because he was very vain. He’d go the gym every day, even in London… He was worried about his looks. I think, too, he had written himself out. He’d written everything he’d wanted to write, and he though he was descending into middle age and then old age. Also he had these rather odd nationalist or fascist tendencies. He was a very complicated man.
Steven Fowler discusses the Japanese greats with the publisher Peter Owen.
ampere’s and
Today’s quick lit [& alt.cult] links from around the web: Dennis Cooper on Derek Raymond‘s The Crust on its Uppers & Aleksandar Hemon talks Best European Fiction 2010 (via @Dalkey_Archive) & Sean O’Hagan on Robert Frank‘s photography, The Americans, 50 years on & Andy Kaufman’s hate mail & Terry Gilliam, dissected film by film (via […]