Talk:Sylvia Plath/Archive 1

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Contents

Copyright?

Has anyone been to http://www.biblio.com/authors/559/Sylvia_Plath_Biography.html where both the Wikipedia article and Biblio one are very similar word for word?

I had noticed that, yeah...Luceo 18:04, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Self portrait

Is the self portrait the best picture avaliable? Surely there are some better images in the public domain that can be used? DustinG 13:38, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

No, please leave it. The self portrait is intriguing, i thought. -- srk 20:14, 17 January 2006

intriguing is not informative. the article deserves better. Joeyramoney 02:13, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
agreed, there has to be an actual picture we could use Oreo man 20:33, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
I'm for keeping the picture and I see these comments are about a year old now... Snecklifter 21:40, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Movie

I was wondering if this article was true to the fact, or to the movie, because I feel that some contents came exactly frome the scene of the movie 'sylvia'.

^Of course the article is correct! And of course there are going to be similarities between her life and the movie --- what do you think the movie was based on? =| Redundant question. Shaybear♥

Birth place

I don't know for sure, but everywhere else I've looked on the web has said that Sylvia Plath was born in Jamacia Heights, Pennsylvanina, and not Boston. Can someone check this and somehow get the info to the webmaster? I can't figure out how to contact him/her. -K.E.

I think you might've missed the point a little bit here... this is a wiki. This means that anyone can edit any page. There is no webmaster to contact. Just click the "edit this page" link at the top of the page, and there you go. Hbackman 00:28, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

She was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. - CagedRage

Plath was born in Boston. Jamaica Plain, MA is a section of Boston; this is made clear already in the article.Jhlong12648 01:21, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

She was born In Boston not Jamica and that's a hard stone fact.

Manic depression?

The term 'manic depression' gets abused quite a bit. This is the first time I have seen it used in relation to Syl Plath. Can you provide a cite for this please? sjc

http://www.google.com/search?q=sylvia+plath+bipolar&hl=en&sa=N&tab=dw

Thanks, I think this looks like a sensible attribution. sjc

Well, I guess that I'm more pleased that the recent wash of biographical entries (and by the way, are you entering them in the Biographical Listings pages?) which concentrate on 'mental illness' are stub biographies rather than a list of "Famous Manic Depressives" to go along with "Famous Gay / Lesbian / Bisexuals" or "Famous French People." I prefer biographies to lists. However, it does seem similar - this remote diagnosis - to declaring Aristotle a Famous Gay or Bisexual. --MichaelTinkler

Poor?

Both Hughes and Aurelia, her mother, deny that she was short of money at the time of her death. Is there any evidence that she was? Ought some mention be made of the controversy surrounding the fact that Hughes destroyed a few of her last poems? And that he 'controlled' her output after her death? It is certainly noteworthy, in my opinion. And all that stuff about defacing her gravestone? Monk Bretton 00:16, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Hughes admitted destroying Plath's final journal (because, he said, he didn't want her children to ever have to read it), but NOT any of her poems. What is the evidence for this? Several of her poems that he did eventually publish are quite critical of him.
--Scribbler 15:08, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Fair point, about the poems. I was typing that from memory and didn't check. (Only typing it here on the discussion page, as something to think about, not in the article as fact). It would be more accurate to say he 'suppressed' or 'did not publish' some of her later poems, ones that he describes as "Personally agressive". They have, as you say, since come to light. Monk Bretton 18:15, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Letters Home

  • Letters Home (1975)

removing above text as it appears to be repeated; reinstate if there is any significance to the repetition that i am not aware of.

Boston link

The Boston link could do with updating to point to the appropriate Boston article, but I'm not sure which it is. --John 23:24, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Cut

I've removed what looks like a school or college essay on the poem "Cut", which was inserted today. It doesn't fit into the article, as it stands. Something more encyclopaedic about images of depression in Plath's poetry might be appropriate, but remember Wikipedia:No original research - this isn't the place for individuals to put forward their own response to the poetry or theories about it. --  ajn (talk) 12:40, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Bipolar disorder

How can this article not mention Sylvia Plath's bipolar disorder? It's a bit like writing an article about Malcolm X without mentioning that he was black. Plath's poems document her bipolar disorder in the clearest possible way, and The Bell Jar is a clear roman à clef. -- Karada 02:46, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

I would be interested to see the sources pointing to such a definitive statement. The last I heard, her mental condition was still under speculation. -AMS

I'm with AMS on this one. Her poems definitely suggest a struggle with some form of psychological depression, but there's ongoing debate as to its nature; i.e. its exogenous/endogenous origins, whether she had bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc. Similarly, The Bell Jar doesn't irrefutably point toward the conclusion that Plath had bipolar disorder.Luceo 17:59, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I would be wary of saying Plath had bipolar disorder, given that the condition involves extreme highs as well as lows. Did Plath have these highs? - NMO

confusing sentence

"Her father, Otto, a college professor and noted authority on the subject of bees, died of an embolism following surgery(complications from undiagnosed diabetes) Wagner-Martin around the same time, on October 5, 1940." This sentence makes no sense as written. I don't know what it's actually supposed to say, so I can't edit it in good conscience. Who was Wagner-Martin? Would someone with more knowledge on the subject fix this? --Andrew 02:34, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Linda Wagner-Martin wrote an excellent 1987 biography of Plath entitled Sylvia Plath: a biography. This doesn't seem to be a quote from her book, since she gives the correct date, Nov. 5, 1940, in her book (pg.28)

Date of father's death?

An anon recently changed the date of Plath's father's death to November 5, 1940 from October 5, 1940. I'm going to assume that the change was incorrect since that was the only edit from that IP and revert it, but if I'm wrong someone please change it back. Thanks. Hbackman 22:52, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

I just checked my copy of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. It is indeed November 5. I'll change it back. Hbdragon88 03:59, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Funny Stuff from Ted Hughes' Talk Page

wow, this guy sure did fucking suck compared to sylvia.

Anyone that has taken the time to actually read some of Hughes' poetry will find that it is quite 'superior' to Plath's work; she should have realized and accepted that spouses cheat and marriages routinely break-up instead of prematurely offing herself. That being said, if she had lived to old age like Hughes, she may have had the chance to write some poetry that even remotely stands up to Hughes' -- otherwise it is clear that Hughes' poetry is far better (obviously he had MUCH more time to MATURE as a poet; thus his work is naturally better). Plath has ALWAYS been overrated (especially by angsty teenage girls and angry female academics) and has joined that peculiar band of artists that are (over)loved and VASTLY overrated because they eventually committed suicide and lived so-called 'tragic' lives. "Boo-hoo I will kill myself and that will prove that I am a creative and tortured artist-type with much inner-pain." What bunk. Actually, suicide seems to be a twisted and bizarre prerequisite whereby said artist is then unfairly catapulted into a sort-of 'mythic superstatus' that is sometimes undeserved, i.e. Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Sylvia Plath, TONS of other writers/poets/various artists, etc. etc. The literary community is mighty morbid; sometimes it seems that they'll only take your work seriously if you eventually take your own life. How pathetic is that? Doesn't it "fucking suck" to be an emotionally unstable and immature poet that killed herself at the height of her creativity? --205.188.117.69 03:22, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
P.S. -- she routinely used a thesaurus to write her poems. This was to try and find odd, infrequently used words that would make her appear more cryptic and intelligent. Enough said.
somebody has issues :) I actually kept reading until he/she got to the part where Cobain and Morrison were overrated. Until then he/she was an amusing idiot. Then it wasn't amusing anymore. Oreo man 20:43, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
Discussing Plath and Hughes together seems to bring out the worst in readers. I'm not sure why even after 40 years (and both of them dead), people still end up taking "sides" with either Plath or Hughes. I find both of their poetry to be very good, though for the most part also very different. The poetry of Plath is largely introspective and Hughes's poetry is largely external description or (as in Crow) mythological, so who you like more probably depends on which kind of poetry you like. Both poets are terribly violent and bleak, which might have something to do with what kind of readers they attract (myself included). I was surprised about the "maturity" comments above, however, since I find Hughes's later poetry to be a bit flatfooted and flabby compared to his earlier work in the '60s and '70s. I always prefer reading something from Hawk in the Rain or Crow to anything he did in the last decade of his life. Bavius 21:33, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
With regard to Plath or Hughes, I won't venture into whether they are overrated, as I'm not an authority on poetry, but when someone starts to mention Jim Morrison, or Kurt Cobain as artists, I start to look for the exit. I can understand a debate on whether Philip Roth or Saul Bellow is a fine writer, but if someone starts to discuss Sidney Sheldon, it's time to leave. 66.108.105.21 21:40, 26 September 2006 (UTC) Allen Roth