Articles
The Nuclear Beautiful: The Ethics and Aesthetics of the Bomb in the Writings of Mishima Yukio
Abstract
Following seminal critical work by Frances Ferguson (1984) and Peter B. Hales (1991), many writers have invoked the aesthetic category of the sublime when describing artists' and observers' responses to nuclear weapons; the technical term has thus been the nuclear sublime. This article argues for the viability of a related but different aesthetic category: the nuclear beautiful. Twentieth-century creators working in various media represented a seemingly improbable aesthetic response to nuclear explosions: under certain circumstances, a spectator might find beauty in a nuclear detonation and its effects. Mishima Yukio's novel Utsukushii hoshi (Beautiful Star, 1962) and other writings explore the ethical implications of finding beauty in the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Because of certain aspects of the narrative construction of Beautiful Star, however, the question of the ethicality of the nuclear beautiful is left unresolved, as the novel incisively probes a variety of responses to the threat of global nuclear annihilation. Following seminal critical work by Frances Ferguson (1984) and Peter B. Hales (1991), many writers have invoked the aesthetic category of the sublime when describing artists' and observers' responses to nuclear weapons; the technical term has thus been the nuclear sublime. This article argues for the viability of a related but different aesthetic category: the nuclear beautiful. Twentieth-century creators working in various media represented a seemingly improbable aesthetic response to nuclear explosions: under certain circumstances, a spectator might find beauty in a nuclear detonation and its effects. Mishima Yukio's novel Utsukushii hoshi (Beautiful Star, 1962) and other writings explore the ethical implications of finding beauty in the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Because of certain aspects of the narrative construction of Beautiful Star, however, the question of the ethicality of the nuclear beautiful is left unresolved, as the novel incisively probes a variety of responses to the threat of global nuclear annihilation.