Sylvia Plath Forum

Contributions from 1st- May - 4th June 1998

Welcome to the Sylvia Plath Forum which began on 20th January 1998 following the surprise publication of Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters. The forum is moderated and administered by Elaine Connell.
Books and Links Poems Poem Analysis/Discussion

With regards to Julie Meadows' comments and queries on Plath's children, Nicholas and Frieda, all I can shed light on is what I have read and I'm sure have many others. Apparently Nicholas is some kind of scientist in America and Frieda followed somewhat in her mother's footsteps and became a writer. As far as the effect their mother had on them I believe they have yet to talk publically about her.

Gemma Turner
 Upminster, England
4th June 1998

How ironic, Judy! What did you end up doing with the blades??

Dena Tooma
 Toronto, Canada
4th June 1998

I apologize in advance that this comment has nothing to do with the content of Plath's poetry, but some of you might find this an interesting anecdote. I purchased "Birthday Letters" one evening weeks ago, and went directly home in eager anticipation of curling up in bed with the book and finding out what Hughes might reveal. I had read only a few poems when I turned the page, and something tucked between the pages slid into my lap. It was a slender package of razor blades. No doubt they belonged to the bookstore and were to be employed in opening book boxes, but the incident really startled me and gave me pause!

Judy Matthews
 Okemos , USA
2nd June 1998

Well, howdy there... =) I read The Bell Jar a couple months back and I suppose that was when I fell in love with Sylvia Plath's works. I am trying to interpret her poetry now and I think I may have fallen in love with "I am Vertical," as well. I am of the tender age of 15 (soon to be in my 3rd year of high school) and I was guided to Plath by a trusted mentor. If someone will email me and tell me what their interpretation of "I am Vertical" is, I would be very grateful. Thanks, ya'll. =)

Tres N.
 San Antonio, Texas , USA
30th May 1998

Everything I have read by and about SP fills me with sadness for the suffering she and I'm sure her family endured. She seems to have been a passionately talented and brilliant young woman. Her mental illness of whatever particulars struck her with the torments of hell. One rues the fact that she could have been treated probably today with medications for her mental disturbance and her migraines. One is struck with great pity and admiration for one of such courage to live as long as she did under the suffering that she lived in so much of the time. I'm not expert enough to speak of her literary genius except to say that her words strike one to the core of being and open up new possibilities of reality so I guess that's genius. But I would like to express my admiration for her courage in her suffering and her distillation of her agony into the beauty of her poems to share with a grateful world for evermore.

Donna Hobgood
 Chattanooga , USA
30th May 1998

The reason why everyone is concerned about who plays Sylvia Plath in the film version: Sylvia Plath unknowingly started a revolution in women's writing, and Meg Ryan represents everything that opposes that: Bouncy, carefree, childlike whimsy. This worries people because they believe that this movie (if it is truly going to be written by Ryan) will be a huge bomb, both critically and at the box office. This gives the average person ideas about who Plath was. The best idea is not to have anyone play Plath at all, and keep her life her life, and seen not from the wy it is interpreted by Meg Ryan.

Susanna
 Columbus OH , USA
28th May 1998

There is a new edition for Bitter Fame out, with an updated introduciton by Anne Stevenson herself, so recent it had lots of references to Birthday Letters. I haven't read it in full, and can't tell if there are any significant changes to the study. I saw it in a tiny independent book store in Providence, Rhode Island, but I imagine most bigger chains will be stocking it as well.

Peter Steinberg
 Alexandria, Virginia, USA
25th May 1998

I am curious regarding what has become of Plath's children, especially Freida. Does anyone have any information about them? I am quite curious to know how they were affected by having a mom whose psychosis has been so widely discussed. I was "obsessed" with Plath when I was in high school and still, 10 years later, I'm still surfing the web for information on her. Thanks for a great site.

Julie Meadows
 Tallahassee , USA
23rd May 1998

If anyone is interested I recently included the lyrics to a song by the Manic Street Preachers in my Plath project, tell me what you think of it:

The Girl Who Wanted To Be God

'There are no sunsets just silence
You could see that she was true and faithless
But see through the future and forget all the lies
Black out the words for the blind have eyes.

I am the girl who wanted to be God x2

There are times when you feel hopeless
Just for once for no one else we are blameless
The dawn is still breaking it's heaven is so high
She told the truth, told the truth and then she lied.

I am the girl who wanted to be god x2

Hold me she said, love me to death.

From the album 'A Design For Life'
Lyrics by Nicky Wire & Richey James
1996

I think the last line is quite poignant, and although Nicky Wire had a hand in writing this, I believe it was Richey who mastered the piece. If you have the opportunity check the song out.

Gemma Turner
 Upminster, England
22nd May 1998

Dear Forum readers and contributors, You're probably sick and tired of students asking you for information on this site, but I'll try anyway. I'm writing a paper on the reception of Birthday Letters by the media and by the public. Some of you I have already sent a personal e-mail, but I would really like to hear as many reactions as possible. What are your opinions on the book, has it changed anything in the way you see Hughes and Plath, etc.Basically anything you wish to say on the book and on the emotions it provoked in you are very welcome and will definately be used for my research. Thanks in advance!

Floor Buschenhenke
 Groningen, The Netherlands
20th May 1998

Re the Mademoiselle issue...this is something I've seen. But as the song goes I can't remember where or when...But I've narrowed it down to 2 possibilities...In the stacks at my alma mater, Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, or at the downtown library in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I feel fortunate that I was able to read the actual magazine (bound into a hardcover book with the rest of the ishes from that year) rather than on microfilm or fiche. There's something about being able to hold the mag itself in your hands... Sylvia DID contribute quite a bit to that particular issue. Good luck. I shouldn't think you'd have too much trouble tracking it down.

Susan Rossbach
 Sedalia MO , USA
19th May 1998

This is sort of a "done" topic, but I thought I'd throw it out anyway ... Recently, I saw a fairly new (published in the mid-1990s) quality-paperback edition of "The Bell Jar" in Borders Books. In the few moments I had to skim it, I noticed it contained a new foreword by Frances McCullough that shed some light on how the book came to be published in the United States, despite Mrs. Plath's objections. I think it had something to do with a quirk in English copyright law about American citizens publishing originally in Britain.

Could anyone who has seen or owns this edition could share the facts of the matter with the forum? The latest edition of "BJ" I own is from the mid-`80s (the obligatory college-bookstore copy!).

Nancy
 Falls Church, Virginia, USA
18th May 1998

I am currently writing a paper on Ted Hughes for my English class. I Does anyone know how one might find an original copy of the 1953 August issue of Mademoiselle magazine, the time at which Sylvia was doing her "guest editorship"? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Steve
 Urbana, IL, USA
18th May 1998

I am currently writing a paper on Ted Hughes for my English class. I am trying to base the paper on different time periods of his life (pre-Plath, during their relationship, post Plath, etc.) If anyone has interpretations or comments on any of his work or ANYTHING that you think would be helpful, it would be excellent. Thank you.

S. Lee
 USA
18th May 1998

My suggestion about checking grammar and spelling was not intended to start an international incident, and I never said a word about contributors from non- English-speaking countries -- who if anything are more careful in their writing than many native speakers.

If you (or anyone else) would like to complain about my posting, e-mail me directly instead of taking up space on the forum that should rightly be dedicated to Sylvia Plath. As others have said before me, there is far too much infighting going on among fans of Plath, and too many people taking general comments as personal attacks. With that said, I defy anyone who claims to be a lover of literature to disagree with me on either the spelling/grammar issue or my plea for a cease-fire.

After all, aren't we all here because of what we have in common?

Nola Bradley
 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
18th May 1998

I'm sorry to hear that grammar mistakes and mispellings have irritated you. Maybe, if you read the addresses of the writers, you notice that we are writing in a language that is foreign to us. I'm very conscious that my English if far from perfect, but I'll try my best. But if this forum is only for English and American people, so please let me know.

That would be a shame...in Finland there isn't certainly any forum to Sylvia Plath admirers!

Tuija Nummi
 Tampere, Finland
18th May 1998

As a longtime admirer of Sylvia Plath's work, I've been enjoying visiting this marvelous forum and reading the daily postings. I even find the speculation about the Meg Ryan project interesting -- sorry, purists. I must send thanks to the creators of the site and to many of the regular contributors whose comments are so thought-provoking.

As an editor, however, some of the postings make me cringe. It's difficult to read messages riddled with misspellings and grammar mistakes in the intellectual spirit in which they were created. Sylvia Plath herself was an intellectual and a perfectionist. I can think of no better tribute to her memory than honoring it in well-written and thoughtfully edited messages on this fine forum.

Nola Bradley
 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
15th May 1998

I agree with Peter that we should be fully focussing on the work of Sylvia Plath not who is going to play her in this film. Lets face it, whoever it is none of us true fans are going to be satisfied because we know that they won't get it right. So, chill out about it and just imagine what the great lady herself would think of it all, and I doubt that she would ever be satisfied even if the best actress in the world was playing her.

No matter what it will be interesting, but what good is it going to do?, one can only hope it will inspire people to read her poetry as all too often I find that when I mention her to people they don't know who she is!!

Can anyone give the precise location of the grave in Heptonstall, as I am hoping to go. There have been reports that it is very hard to locate due to the gravestone being destroyed and vandalised over and over. If anyone can give the exact row e.t.c, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if anyone has any ideas on wher to get hold of a signed book or article by Sylvia please let me know.

Gemma Turner
 Upminster, England
15th May 1998

Stewart, while I agree that "Daddy" came to be written for mainly for personal, not political reasons, a poem exists as a text outside of its author's intentions. Here in Germany we have a whole literature from the Sixties written by SP's contemporaries dealing with their fathers with the political and the personal hopelessly mixed up, for obvious reasons. When I first read "Daddy", not knowing anything about Sylvia,I felt that this poem expresses the whole mess more horrifyingly beautiful than most of the above mentioned volumes put together. Mind you, now that I've read all the biographies, I read it on a biographical level as well, and you're right re TH and Otto Plath. But my original thought holds true for me as well.

Tanja Kinkel
 Munich, Germany
12th May 1998

I am in the process of writing my MA dissertation on Ted Hughes' 'Birthday Letters' and would be very interested in any comments anyone has on the collection. I am particularly interested in any strong reactions you may have had to the poetry. Do you feel that poems answer Plath's? Do they put forward a convincing picture?

Katie Holland
 York, England
12th May 1998

Gemma---This is Peter Steinberg here, I can mail you a copy of the tape (email me and let me know if you want it), or go to the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank. There is a Poetry Library there, Fifth floor, West side. They have an'in house' recording (one you can't record) and also one they loan out to members, it costs nothing to become a member (just know there's a mile long que for that tape). All you need to join is proof of UK Residency. Simple. Please let me know one way or the other if you'd like a copy. Costs nothing.

Peter Steinberg
 Alexandria, Virginia, USA
12th May 1998

I was very excited when I found this group. I've been a great Sylvia Plath fan from the age of 15, when I read the Bell Jar for the first time. I haven't yet read the Birthday Letters - it's not yet available here even in English, that's how it is to live in periphery...I'd like to hear from other SP fans what they think about the biographies written about her? I have read all - or at least all I know. They all give a little different perspective on her.

It would be fantastic to see a film about SP! I have in my video library a very old (and very bad, I think) film called the Bell Jar, but a new film about her life would be fantastic.

Tuija Nummi
 Tampere, Finland
12th May 1998

I just want to say if anyone has the opportunity to visit the house where Sylvia lived and died please do so, also if you want to take pictures, be nice and ask the people living there if they don't mind, they're all pretty nice, and they're used to it as we all know Yeats lived there. If anyone reading this has been there, tell me if you experienced what I did. Hours of my days recently have been disturbingly consumed with the Sylvia Plath project I've been doing, I couldn't sleep for nights and when I walked down the road I approached the house from the opposite side of the street I'm not sure why, also I'm not sure why when I saw the house I felt physically sick, the fact that I had stood on those steps where she must have many times before was really strange, and kind of cool. Has anyone else felt as strongly as I do about the tragic end to this amazing person's life.

Also, does anyone feel when doing any work on Sylvia that she's there watching you!

One last thing , does anyone know where I can get a copy of the BBC recording of 'Daddy'? As I've wanted it for ages. Please respond using the forum. The address in case anyone doesn't know is 23 Fitzroy Road, NW1, London, England.

If you do go though, be prepared for it to piss you off that there is no acknowledgement that Sylvia was ever there.

Gemma Turner
 Upminster, England
11th May 1998

Hello,everyone - I'm new here but I'm a big fan of Sylvia Plath. To Monica (Philadelphia) In the Bell Jar, Esther suffered a vaginal tear. This also happened to Sylvia in real life - if you read the biography by Anne Stephenson it is explained more clearly.I'm trying to write a short essay on her for my coursework, basing it upon criticism of particular poetry and/or short stories. I've definitely decided on Electra on Azalea Path, and I've been reading the greek tragedies for backround, but I need a title and a short story and another poem - I'm torn because there is very little of her work that I don't love. I've borrowed or bought nearly every biography on her I can, and I've ordered her letters home - can anyone help me?

I think Lesbos is about her and her husband. They had astormy relationship and I think a lot of it caused her to hate herself which is what comes across in this poem. Some of it refers to her suicide attempt and her time in the hopital but mostly I think it is about herself.

Tell me that there's not really going to be a film about her starring Meg Ryan???!!! Nothing against the woman but she's too sugar sweet to play Sylvia Plath. In fact, I don't know if I can think of anyone who could. Meryl Streep, possibly, but she's a little old. Julia Ormond, if she was American, but she's not dark enough. I think that no film could do her justice and will only commercialise her work.

Lindsey
 Bexley, England
10th May 1998

I am looking for some one's interpretation of the poem "Lesbos." If anybody has one they would like to share then I would appreciate it greatly. Please, e-mail me! I read it through a few time but each time I changed my mind on who is actually was about or who certian things were directed to. Is it a poem about herself and possibly the different faces of her self, or is it about her father? Or maybe a close friend she had? Any way, your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Martha Dodd
 Kokomo, IN, USA
10th May 1998

Greetings everybody... my name is Heidi, and I am a university student [arts honours degree] and have been a great admirer of Sylvia's writing since I was 12 years old. I was wondering whether anybody had any information on the re-publication of Sylvia's diaries, in their entirety? I had read sometime ago that they were due to be re-published with excerpts that had previously been omitted for various reasons [mostly stipulations laid down by Ted]. If anyone knows anything I'd love to hear! Thank you!

Heidi Maier
 Queensland, Australia
9th May 1998

That new quality paper of Plath's Journals are now in some stores. I am not sure which stores will carry it, but it's more attractive than the ugly yellow mass market. This is grey and purple and has that typical paisley pattern on one half, and the other half is Plath. The photo of her staring intensely at the camera, taken I think in 1957 at Cambridge, long hair framing her thin face.

nothing appears different though with the Foreward, Hughes still tells us that he destroyed one copy and misplaced another. It's really really attractive though, and only $11.95. Did I mention how attractive it is...

Peter Steinberg
 Alexandria, Virginia, USA
8th May 1998

If anyone is interested in purchasing copies of first edition books by Plath or Hughes (some signed copies, too), you can do a search on Acorn Books. Their address is: http://www.abebooks.com/

Some of Plath's books go into the thousands of dollars, like her first "Colosus", but most are pretty reasonable.

Steve Gorrell
 Urbana, IL, USA
5th May 1998

Hi, I have just found this incredible forum! I was looking for some ideas about a theme for these presentation I have to make about Birthday Letters. The Poems, Ted Hughes, Their Relationship, all these themes have been taken and I still don't know what to talk about. I would appreciate any ideas.

Denise
 San Juan, Puerto Rico
7th May 1998

I recommend this website for those of us who will read about anything about our subject. There are several relevant links at the address below.

http://acker.cwrl.utexas.edu/slatin/sexton/sylviasdeath.html

Miriam Korshak
 Houston, TX, USA
7th May 1998

I guess Peter Steinberg is right....so I'll try to refrain from contributing anymore insignificant comments about the impending Plath film.

So, back to poetry! Question: Which Sylvia was the better poet....the blonde or the brunette? Long hair...short hair? Curly/straight? (Sorry for asking all of this...but, it's for my school paper.....very complicated dissertation on follicles, politics and syntax.)

Nancy Howell
 San Francisco, USA
6th May 1998

Ok..question...please excuse my medical ignorance BUT..in 'the bell jar', when Esther loses her virginity, what happened to her? I know her hymen broke but why did she bleed so much? The doctor said she was 1/1000, and i never really understood what happened.

Monica
 Philadelphia, USA
5th May 1998

Shan: I understand there are some Plath materials at the University of Texas at Austin if you can get there; the Harry Ransom Center.

You might ask if they have copies of the Seventeen magazines with the short stories; I tried to Interlibrary-Loan them but was told they were unavailable.

Kenneth Jones
 San Francisco, USA
5th May 1998

I've read Nancy Hunter-Steiner's "A Closer Look At Ariel" and found it a useful book, very evocative of Sylvia as a young woman in her student environment. From the point of view of my own pet theory on Plath which sees her as a victim of 1950's notions of femininity I found this a rich biographical source full of examples of the way in which the intellectual elite of American womanhood was merely being groomed for being WAMS (Wives and Mohers).

Elaine Connell
 Hebden Bridge, UK
5th May 1998

First, please let me say thank you to all those involved with the Forum. I have found the discussions helpful in my dissertation work. I am currently writing a Philosophy PhD dissertation on Heidegger's philosophy of art/religion and Plath's poetry. I was wondering if anyone has thoughts/comments on a line from Plath's poem, "Mystic?"

Here I think the speaker envisions meaning as something that arises from the work itself. The creator is more a medium than a source to probe for ultimate meanings and intentions.

I'm not satisfied with my use of "medium" here. This notion of the poet as someone who does not possess knowledge but merely has knowledge pass through her troubles me. Mystics face similar obstacles: they are messengers, not creators.

Ellen Miller
 Toronto, Canada
4th May 1998

Peter, I agree that Plath had intense political opinions (many of which were apparently excised from the original published journals but which will reappear in an unedited edition of the journals to be published, according to one of your earlier postings, in 1999). However, I believe she was deluding herself when she ascribed any political relevance to her poetry. In her poems, the appearance of "politics" is not used for "consciousness raising," but for effect, because it provides jolting, electric metaphors (particularly in 1962). What possible political statement could she be making, for instance, in using Nazi imagery? Surely, if that was her intent, she was preaching to the converted. I doubt any of her readers are stimulated by "Daddy," for instance, to examine their political position on the Holocaust. Plath knows that these metaphors will "work" to communicate her uniquely personal feelings of victimization, persecution, and horror. And we must never underestimate her use of "political" imagery for petty reasons as well. For instance, she uses Fascist imagery in "Daddy" out of revenge and spite, to damage the reputation of her famous husband (one cannot deny the fact that by the end of that poem, Daddy and Hughes have been synthesized together into one entity - "the man in black with a Mein Kampf look and a love of the rack and the screw who drained my blood . . for seven years"). It is crucial that we not forget the fact that the first people who would see these poems would be editors, not the reading public --- editors who either knew Sylvia and Ted Hughes or certainly knew of them, and the poems' private meanings would be immediately apparent, very direct, very shocking, to them. She wished to cause a scandal among the literati. When she reads the poems on the BBC, one can hear the gloating, the sneer in her voice. For those listening who were "in the know,"almost every poem she chose to read in that broadcast ! was a specific indictment of Hughes and a vindication of herself. Certainly, Plath's use of "political" topics such as the death camps, thalidomide, torture, etc. was shocking, but in my opinion, it was their use in POETRY that was the truly shocking thing. And, more important, it was their use as personal metaphor that was shocking; this unprecedented choice lent itself to the "ugly legend" that Eavan Boland refers to in her NPR interview about "Ariel," the first criticism of Plath's work as "therapy, self-expression, hysteria." I am of two minds on this issue, which forms the crux of the debate over Plath's poetic achievement.

That Plath's work was politicized after her death by the feminist movement is unquestionable. Her work became talismanic - suddenly, Plath was seen as a poetic Betty Friedan. Her violent, Fascist-ridden imagery helped foster feminist militancy at a time when it was needed. However, I can't agree with this politicization as a serious approach to her work. To adopt Plath's rage for political purposes is to adopt the rage of an extremely disturbed poet in the midst of, among other things, a frenzy of sexual jealousy. In her poetry, which (with apologies to Bloom) I consider a work of genius, Plath is charting her own daemonic inner turmoil, not creating a political manifesto.

Regarding your exasperation over the Meg-o-mania currently fixating the Forum, I think (I hope) what lies at the bottom of it is our instinctive knowledge that, whatever our view of Plath, a) they won't get it "right" and b) their version will somehow stand, in the public imagination, as THE Sylvia Plath, cut and print. This is certainly my own concern. I think in many ways the making of this movie is extremely unethical, certainly while Hughes is alive. Let our literary lions at least die before we turn them into film fodder. Even to the dead, these films can wreak significant damage. Witness the travesty "Wilde," which opened in Manhattan this weekend. There is nothing in this film to inspire the uninitiated to approach his work. Oscar Wilde, the first modern "celebrity," a master of self-promotion, whose arrogance, effeminacy and genius as a raconteur made him "famous for being famous" long before his great canonical works "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" were ever written, is here reduced to a kindly, soft-spoken little matron who, like Harvey Fierstein, "just wants to be loved. Is that so wrong?" Like Addison DeWitt (a Wildean prototype) in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's classic film "All About Eve," I acknowledge that what fascinates the public about its great geniuses, its "gods and goddesses," is their "complete lack of resemblance to ordinary human beings." The current artistic and political agenda, however, dictates that all great artists must be reduced to the ordinary, shown to be "just like you and me." Thus, the film conveniently fails to portray Wilde's snobbishness, his aggression, his artificiality, his scathing wit, his hubris - all the things, in fact, that make him interesting in the first place. Instead, we are awash in bathos and boredom. Can we doubt that the same thing will happen when "Sylvia Plath" hits the screen?

Stewart Clarke
 New York, USA
4th May 1998

Hello all -- have discovered the forum and have been skimming the back issues while looking through SP's work; much of interest, especially the Pieta comment made awhile back regarding the grotesque inversion of Mother and Child in SP's final work.

I've been studying Plath for a seminar here with a professor one might term a "New Critic", although she herself would not take the label kindly, I suppose. In any case, much of what I've been investigating are the formal aspects of her work; an earlier paper this term tried to deal with some of the devices SP uses in her longer works -- Birthday Poem and Lesbos in particular. (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sdedeo/recent/plath.html)

I suppose what is interesting to me is Plath's utter inscrutability in some of her work -- layers of symbols, internal references, and so on -- that seem to sharply distinguish her from a lot of the folk writing at the time. It sometimes seems almost (almost) self-consciously hermetic. Does anybody have any thoughts on how to deal with (or even, simply, how to read) her "flights"? Part of it, I suppose, is leg work and muddling through a few times -- but when she pulls in so much, so quickly, and proceeds to change the referrents of her poems midline, almost (see, e.g., Birthday Poems) it almost seems as if she's creating a new aesthetic of the obscure.

Thanks to all who have contributed to the forum's discussion of the poetry. I suppose the gossip, were it not so invasive of the unspeakable, would be interesting.

Simon DeDeo
 Cambridge, Mass., USA
4th May 1998

I find it extraordinary how this forum is being used by people to lash out against others. I think it is time we step back and remember the purpose of it all.

I spent this weekend it Wellesley, Mass. looking at the trees and landmarks Sylvia must have seen as an adolescent. In fact, I was fortunate enough to have been invited into her old house on Elmwood Road. While inside, I was able to get a glimpse of the crawl space where she "hid" those three terrible and horrific days. My point is, let us not forget the woman, the lady who ached and sobbed. Sivvy, who voiced her agony through the written word. Let us not ruin this too.

I consider myself fortunate to have a site such as this in which to refer and voice and learn. Let us not gossip or insult. Let us read and appreciate the voices on this forum.

To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.

Asher
 4th May 1998

I didn't 'request' a review of the book by Steiner. I was trying to facilitate a discussion. I don't care at all if you resent me or not, but I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Hmm, maybe I was trying to.

Dena Tooma
 Toronto, Canada
4th May 1998

You know it's almost embarrassing that many Forums contributors spend there time putting in their insignificant five cents on who's going to play Plath. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO HER POETRY? AND WHY AREN'T WE FOCUSING ON THAT?

Peter Steinberg
 Alexandria, Virginia, USA
3rd May 1998

Dena, I resent your comment about students being lazy. One might say the same for your request for a review of the book. I have done extensive research on Plath, but was interested to hear what other Plath lovers would consider a good source of information.

Jessica of New York, USA
2nd May 1998

In response to the posting by Dena Tooma in which she berates "schoolchildren" for begging others to do their work for them in this forum: I am a student in a small rural area of Texas, and I was finding it difficult to find enough information on SP to write the paper that I felt her work deserved. I found this forum like a Godsend and simply posted a message requesting ideas for a thesis that I had chosen to do about Sylvia Plath. I did not ask anyone to do my work for me, and I have seen little of this on the forum by others. Several of the regular forum contributors were kind enough to help me, and it was all I needed to get started on a paper that my English teacher is thoroughly impressed with. So, thank you so much to all of those true Plath devotees out there who are not so snobbish as to keep their knowledge of her to themselves. You helped me immensely, and it is people like you who truly expand the base of scholars (young and old alike) who appreciate the sheer genius and complexity of SP's work. Without you, I feel sure I could not have given a true and accurate representation of the complexities and depth of Plath. And no, I will not remove my "oily fingers" from the keyboard anytime soon because these intelligent people have made me aware that there is much knowledge to be shared, whether it is in the library or on the web.

Shan
 Texas, USA
2nd May 1998

'Birthday Letters' reveals much about Ted and Sylvia's troubled courtship and subsequent marriage. The English version that we have access to here has a fantastic cover with a painting of Frieda Hughes who now lives in this fine country of mine. Just a thought though, if Meg 'sunshine screaming orgasm' Ryan were to play our beloved, sacred Sylvia, like Ted Hughes, I also think that it may retract from her genius and chameleon like image to this happy, ditsy, blonde moron who cannot act. I do not know who should perform her role, but I do agree that Ryan is not the right actress to portray Sylvia in an honest light. It needs candour, with the whole world seeing who Sylvia was and still is. We don't need the movie going universe to only see Ryan as Ryan and not Sylvia. It wouldn't be an honest interpretation. I cannot wait until her Journals are published in Australia - access to Plath material, both poetic and biographic is sometimes hard to acquire.

Dyanna
 Brisbane, Australia
2nd May 1998

I was listening to this cd, and realized this one song was semi-about Plath..The band is Bikini Kill (I like em) and the song is called "Bloody Ice Cream" - I think it might be a few years old but out of boredom I shall share the lyrics with you all:

"The Sylvia Plath story is told to girls who write They want us to think that to be a girl poet means you have to die Who is it that told me all the girls who write must suicide? I've another good one for you, we are turning cursive letters into knives."

Monica
 Philadelphia, USA
Ist May 1998

I'm more than tired of seeing school children begging for others to do their work for them in this forum. Here's a piece of advice: take your oily finger off of the mouse button and go down to your local library. Reading is the life-blood of writing.

Dena Tooma
 Toronto, Canada
1st May 1998

As for the movie on Sivvy, I think Meg Ryan is an excellent choice. Since Meg Ryan wants this particular part so bad I think you should let her play it. She even wrote the screenplay. I think she will give the best performance of her life. Give her a chance. As far as Ted Hughes goes I think Bill Pullman is the perfect candidate. I think the movie is a good idea. Sylvia Plath rules.

Dyanna
 Glenmoore, USA
1st May 1998

Has anyone read "A Closer Look at Ariel" by Nancy Hunter Steiner? If so, any comments?

Dena Tooma
 Toronto, Canada
1st May 1998

Plath herself, in the famous interview with Peter Orr, 30 October 1962, says herself that she is sort of a political person. I agree Stewart that she is extremely personal, but I think she flirts with the political. Actually I feel that for her, being so personal was political. I can't sight anything particular, as I don't have the poems with me now.

In response to the Bloom interview. I had read, in either Butscher's The Woman and the Work or Alexander's Ariel Ascending, his stance on Plath and the confessionals.. I didn't think he felt the same about Hughes. But it's all a matter of opinion and as celebrated as he is, in my opinion, the man's over-rated. I read several of his essay's over the years and find them in want for energy. He's critical, but boring. Please lead me in the direction of something decent so that my view my waver and change...

Peter Steinberg
 Alexandria, Virginia, USA
1st May 1998


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This forum is administered by Elaine Connell, author of Sylvia Plath: Killing The Angel In The House - second edition with new preface just out, December 1998. Elaine lives in Hebden Bridge, near where Sylvia Plath is buried and where Ted Hughes was born. Web Design by Pennine Pens. This forum is moderated - contributions which are inappropriate, anonymous or likely to offend may be edited or omitted.