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If you like boys love that is weighty and intense, and if you are potentially willing to read a long text with lots of Japanese history, I extremely strongly recommend checking out Mirage of Blaze. (And please do not judge this light novel series by the anime! The series is so much better than that.)
Brief synopsis: Mirage of Blaze is a 40-volume light novel series about five 400-year-old samurai spirit warriors tasked with exorcising vengeful spirits. Two of the five, the leader of the group and his bodyguard, have angsty, epic love across the centuries. (The story itself is mostly set in the “present” of the 1990s.) And, yes, if you wait long enough, it has lots of graphic sex.
So far, so good, but what sets this series apart?
Psychology: Mirage is one of the most psychologically intense and astute works I have read in any genre, so much so that it has, no joke, become a central tool for me in understanding my own life. Now, this is not to say it never does anything psychologically unrealistic. And it is certainly not to say that these crazy people should be one’s role models. But the 400-year journey of the two principals through their own damaged psyches toward eventual healing speaks volumes about how human beings and human relationships work. It is both agonizing and ultimately hopeful—and in that, strange to say, it hits the Les Misérables zone for me, that is, it finds a transcendent hope through surmounting tremendous bleakness.
Buddhism: Mirage is a fascinating exploration of Buddhist teaching, ranging from an intense critique of the project of seeking non-attachment and Enlightenment to a heartfelt enactment of the beauty of this very journey. It is philosophically challenging and insightful. ( Read more... )
Brief synopsis: Mirage of Blaze is a 40-volume light novel series about five 400-year-old samurai spirit warriors tasked with exorcising vengeful spirits. Two of the five, the leader of the group and his bodyguard, have angsty, epic love across the centuries. (The story itself is mostly set in the “present” of the 1990s.) And, yes, if you wait long enough, it has lots of graphic sex.
So far, so good, but what sets this series apart?
Psychology: Mirage is one of the most psychologically intense and astute works I have read in any genre, so much so that it has, no joke, become a central tool for me in understanding my own life. Now, this is not to say it never does anything psychologically unrealistic. And it is certainly not to say that these crazy people should be one’s role models. But the 400-year journey of the two principals through their own damaged psyches toward eventual healing speaks volumes about how human beings and human relationships work. It is both agonizing and ultimately hopeful—and in that, strange to say, it hits the Les Misérables zone for me, that is, it finds a transcendent hope through surmounting tremendous bleakness.
Buddhism: Mirage is a fascinating exploration of Buddhist teaching, ranging from an intense critique of the project of seeking non-attachment and Enlightenment to a heartfelt enactment of the beauty of this very journey. It is philosophically challenging and insightful. ( Read more... )
