What is 'lucid writing'?/ Yukio Mishima (1959)

It is said that when asked about the secret of writing, Mori Ogai replied, "First, clarity, second, and third". This is one of the definitive attitudes of a writer toward writing. It is well known that Stendhal modeled his writing on the "Napoleonic Code" and created a style of rare clarity. In fact, it is this kind of lucid writing that is the most difficult for the layman to imitate and the most subtle to taste with the tongue. This is because it is the opposite of tastelessness, and yet it is the opposite of tastelessness.Here is what Herbert Read said about Hawthorne's writing style. It seems to me that this is a very lucid definition of what "lucid writing" is all about. Herbert Read says the following:

"It is sometimes said that the secret of a good style is clear thinking. It is true that a logical mind inevitably avoids many of the pitfalls of bad writing, but other qualities are necessary for the art of prose: a keen eye, for example, which is quicker even than thought, and a sensuous feeling for the individuality of words-their sound and size and history. And there is something more still-something which implies a perception of the wholeness and integrity of a situation, so that not only words and sentences, but the orchestration of these into a greater and more sustained unity becomes possible".

This is the secret of Ogai's style and Stendhal's style. If a person who does not have this kind of perception aspires to a lucid style of writing, he or she will surely fall into a style that is tasteless, dry, and bulky. The poems that are hidden in a lucid style, a logical style, a style that does not have any modifications to indicate things, a style that looks just like water, are like the chemical formula H2O itself, which looks tasteless but actually contains the ultimate element of poetry. It is not glittering poetry that can be seen, but poetry that has been compressed and extracted down to the elements. The true charm of this style is actually poetry, or as Herbert Read put it, "a perception of the wholeness and integrity." It is also what poets often refer to as "le sans universaire" (cosmic sense).

The above quotations are from Yukio Mishima, Writing Readers? New Edition, Chuko Bunko, revised 3 Mar 2020, pp. 54-6.

Literature reader, first published/revised edition, history.
　Women's Public Opinion, January 1959 issue, separate supplement, published by Chuō Kōronsha.
　Monograph, Chuokoronsha, June 1959
　Bunko Chūōkō Bunko, August 1973
　Bunko Chūōkō Bunko, revised edition, December 1995.

Note:
1) A Japanese version of this article was published on this blog at the same time. Those interested in the original Japanese text of Yukio Mishima are referred to that.

2) Herbert Read, A coat of many colours : occasional essays, G. Routledge & Sons,1945, p.159

3) See below for the connection between Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and others, between the 'unity of image' in imagism and Herbert Read's 'a perception of wholeness and integrity'.
梅若実、エズラ・パウンド、三島由紀夫／ Umewaka Minoru, Ezra Pound and Mishima Yukio: 本に溺れたい
‘Unity of Image’ 、「能」から「Imagism」へ ／ 'Unity of Image' : from 'Noh' to 'Imagism': 本に溺れたい