Category Archives: Yukio Mishima

Robert Stark talks about Mishima, Taxi Driver, & Aristocratic Individualism

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Robert Stark discusses the films Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Taxi Driver

Topics include:

Paul Schrader, who wrote both films, and directed Mishima
Schrader as a subversive non-conformist who exists within Hollywood culture
The theme of alienation in both films
The Nietzschean theme of a weak man empowering himself
The life and legacy of Yukio Mishima
How both Yukio Mishima and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver are similar archetypes, existing in different environments
How both characters are aristocratic individualists, who envision an ideal world that is at odds with their current situation
An Aristocratic Individualist is someone who follows their own path instead of submitting to societies standards
Aristocratic Individualism is about having a clear vision for an ideal society, rather than individualism in the sense of everyone doing what ever they want
Examples of Aristocratic Individualists include, J. R. R. TolkienAleister CrowleyOscar Wilde, H. L. MenckenDavid LynchRichard WolstencroftSalvador DalíJonathan Bowden,Ernst Jünger, and Friedrich Nietzsche
The theme of romantic rejection, and the corrupting nature that sex plays in both films
Mishima’s story, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
How Aristocratic Individualists resent that they are being denied their rightful place in society, and the normie response that it’s a coping mechanism for losers
How Aristocratic Individualists take actions that can lead to either greatness or alienation
How Yukio Mishima rebelled against Japan’s process of modernization and Americanization
The scene where Yukio Mishima spoke to leftist college students, stating that he is fighting  against the same forces they are, but they dismissed them
The parallels to to how European New Right thinkers such as Alain de Benoist share views with the dissident left( ex. anti globalization, anti-consumerism, anti-imperialism, and pro-environment)
How Yukio Mishima was dismissed in his time, but dissidents are later validated in times of turmoil
Mishima’s Japanese minimalist aesthetic vs. Taxi Driver’s urban grittiness of 70’s New York City
New York Neon: Taxi Driver locales in Time Square, and “porn tourism,” which seeks out the remnants that have survived gentrification
The Neo-noir genre
The Retro-futurist theme in Mishima, combining ancient Japanese culture with the 80’s vision of the future(Vaporwave)
Eiko Ishioka, who was the art director for Mishima
The fantasy dream sequences in Mishima, and the dream like quality to 80’s films which are the essence of art
Bernard Herrmann‘s Jazz score for Taxi Driver, which captures the feeling of alienation and urban grittiness, and  Philip Glass‘s minimalist classical score for Mishima
Aristocratic Individualist Fashion style including designer Comme des Garçons and the director John Waters

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Robert Stark interviews Professor Darrell Hamamoto

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Robert Stark and Co-host Alex von Goldstein talk to Darrell Hamamoto, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis.

Topics include:

How Professor Hamamoto started out in Ethnic Studies and later became disillusioned with it
How Asian Studies, other Ethnic Studies, as well as Women’s Studies are backed by corporate and financial interest
His experiences with censorship at UC Davis
The elite’s support for mass immigration, starting with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965  to the H-1B visa program
His book Servitors of Empire: Studies in the Dark Side of Asian America
His pornographic film Skin on Skin, which starred all Asian American actors, which addressed the exclusion of Asian American males from Porn
Hollywood’s portrayal of Asians and his book Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism
The importance of creating independent media
Yukio Mishima, his life, and legacy, and his opposition to the Americanization of Japan
Whether Asian Americans will become an elite in America or serve as a buffer between the White Elite and White Middle Class
The relationship between Japanese Americans and post 1965 Asian immigration
The 1960’s Counter-Culture
His upcoming panel at UC Berkeley on Asians and Film

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Robert Stark interviews Paul Bingham about Black House Rocked & Cultural Trends

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Topics include:

Paul’s Novel Black House Rocked which Robert interviewed Paul’s co-author Emril Krestle about
How almost everything in the story was based on real life events
How the protagonist’s story was inspired by a friend of Paul’s who was falsely convicted of Child Molestation
Why Paul picked a character who was at the bottom of society
How Paul see’s his characters as willing to pay the price for their qualities
The cultural and political topics covered in the book
The setting the book, an economically decimated community in the Ozarks
The Fabian concept of a commuter town which led to modern lifeless bedroom communities
Why the culture of Flyover country should not be fetishized
How despite regional differences the media sets the culture and values in America
Paul’s view that the Alternative Right tends fosters a critique of society without producing any goals or culture
The Poet & The Cat, how Paul gives Robert credit for it’s inception, and production, and how he wrote the script when he was drunk, broken down, in the middle of the night
James O’meara Reviews The Poet & The Cat
The writer Taylor Caldwell
How the theme of theme of nihilism and viewing society as empty is nothing new(ex. Dostoevsky)
Cicero
The concept of dying with honor
How the bloodshed and violence of the middle east has produced great poetry and literature
Saddam Hussein’s literary work and why Paul want’s to see it translated into English and made widespread
Black humor and finding humor in the worst situations
Paul’s theory of generations; Millennials versus the younger generation who are still in their teens
How the 1980’s was the last decade of cultural innovation in music
How Rap has always been about selling out since it left the streets
The genre of angry rock in the 90’s that died off after the Columbine Massacre
James O’Meara view of acceptable versus unacceptable homosexuality
Paul’s view of the German band Rammstein as an example of unacceptable homosexuality
John Houston’s critique of Tennessee William’s play The Night of the Iguana from his memiors
The “Wiggerfication” of Country Music and Rednecks
How the lack of real life experiences leads to the sterility of the culture
The film  Winter’s Bone which is set in the Ozarks like Paul’s book
How Paul views Robert Stark as one of the few truly independent journalist


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