the way out of the mind*: a case against sylvia plath in three parts

[easilyabused]

This is mainly for my own perverse satisfaction, but it has been a long time coming. A very, very long time coming.

Hello, flist. Allow me to introduce to you the veritable bane of my literary existence.

Sylvia Plath Hughes.

Comments

[tomiko_the_muse]

Now I'm interested in Slyvia Plath from a psychological viewpoint. What a basket case. She reminds me of a less inspirational Anne Frank who was not in fact in the Holocaust, but in an oven, which is how she got published.

It is my professional opinion that you must look at this advice column especially the one addressed to Blake. I made a joke about this in Advanced Composition, but everyone got very angry and serious.

[easilyabused]

Hahaha. Oh lord. Knock yourself out. The woman is a certified, grade-A lunatic. She has no value of her own, only what others have assigned to her for who knows what reason.

Oh I weep for the fate of poetry. Watch me weep openly and bitterly.

[tomiko_the_muse]

Oh, let's just hope that somebody has some sense in this new age of literature. I will watch you as long as I can bring the popcorn.

[easilyabused]

We can only hope. x.x

My dear you can bring all the popcorn you like. With butter and the salt in the yellow box thingy they have at the movie theatre and even nacho cheese, if you want.

[virginia_bell]

A question because I enjoy poetry very much but don't quite know how to approach it from a more critical standpoint:

How exactly does one distinguish complex, more dense language for the sake of "preposterous word salad" (in what must be the best phrase ever, seriously), from the employment of that same language to reveal something more? Or is this question silly because there's actually a fundamental difference between the language used in both situations?

Also, it took you this long to make this post? xDDDD

[easilyabused]

Hm. The simple answer would be that it's up to interpretation, because fundamentally I think poetry is what you make of it. It means whatever you take away from it, since there are people who adore and revere Plath, and then there's me. *g* However I do consider Plath to be a habitual abuser of word salad because I honestly don't believe her to be clever enough to employ the complex language she plays with to any effective end. Unusual sentence structures, arcane words, and all but inaccessible metaphors don't automatically make valuable literature, but I guess no one ever told her that. My main issue with Plath is that I don't believe that she's trying to talk to us. She's trying to convince us that we're all too stupid to understand her in an attempt to inflate her own ego.Omg I know, right? I've probably been bitching about Plath off and on for years. x)

[easilyabused]

*g* Yay, I'm glad you like it, and that you're subscribing to the Plath-Is-Such-a-Crazy-Whiny-and-Generally-Intolerable-Bitch school of thought. :D

I hate her abuse of the Holocaust too. She obviously has no sense of scale, but that's typical Plath. Anything that ever happened to her is clearly the worst thing evarz! D:

[easilyabused]

Lol she'd fit right in on myspace, don't you think? She'd contribute just herself at least half of the unfounded drama to be found there, which is certainly a formidable amount. xDDD

[spessartine]

I love you.

[easilyabused]

♥!