hmmmmmmmm.

i think a lot about sylvia plath...

her work and how it is routinely overshadowed and discredited by her suicide. nullified.

it's a normal thing to judge her sanity based on the fact she took her own life... and then, i suppose, it's not a very far leap to wanting to rule out her writing as an expression of insanity as well. but it's an angry instinct. a very childish instinct, actually.

have we done the same thing to nietzsche? no, he didn't kill himself, he died of syphilis... which means he hit the crazy stage of the disease long before it took his life. he lost his mind. and yet we still look to him as an authority. we view his thoughts with reverence and respect whether we agree with his thoughts or not. we continue to respect his work and give credit where credit is due in spite of the very logical assumption that his later writings were born inside an insane mind. and he was writing philosophy- the thing people use to govern their lives! codes of conduct based on deep introspection and thought. ideas encouraged to become action.

and poetry does all these things too but doesn't stop there. it doesn't have to deal with rationality and deduction and specifics.

if we can except insanity in philosophy... why not poetry?

why do we not accord sylvia plath with the same respect? why is it that this nullification of her work persists in spite of the fact that a very large quantity of contemporary poets, writers, and visual artists site her work as a major influence? why is enjoying her work still viewed as juvenile, ridiculously teenage, stupidly goth, blah blah blah all because she killed herself. what does that have to do with THE WORK?

the fact that so many people respond so forcefully, so emotionally to her poetry and novel and journals is a testament to her skill AS A WRITER. the impact of her work, the deep level of intimacy, the courage it took to expose such fragility, to speak about levels of love, anger, confusion, rage, and resentment took guts. let's not forget the era in which this work was written. let's not forget what society was like for women at that time. it is minimizing and brutal to do so. give credit where credit is due. reducing her work to an act of hysteria is a slap in the face to the female gender. have we already forgotten how many women were strapped down to hospital beds because they were angry about being beaten or raped? the history of women (well... the history that's been recorded anyhow) isn't a fun one. it isn't nice and i get pissed all over again each time i notice that the degree to which the female gender is marginalized and discredited is still pretty effing deep. and that not even a dead woman who made powerful, exceptional, poignant work is offered due course.

diane arbus gets discredited too. so does anne sexton. maybe not to such a deep degree as sylvia plath, but nevertheless, yes.

shall we now begin the game of discrediting kurt cobain's contribution to music? he killed himself too. why is it that we are able to view his death with so much more compassion? why is it that we all agree what a huge tragedy his death is. none of us rob him of his work, his talent, his skill by reducing it to the ravings of a crazy person. but, as a culture, we allow this to be done to sylvia plath. there is a very discompassionate double standard in effect and it makes me sick. fathers are just as important as mothers. it is no more horrific for a mother to take her own life than it is for a father to leave behind small children. the tragedy of these events is a perfect equal. the value judgements we have made based on gender are disgusting, idiotic, and hateful... to put it mildly. would kurt cobain's child say she suffers less because the gender of the parent who killed them self was male? no, i don't think she would.

whether or not the artist who makes advancements within their field is a bad parent should not enter in to a discussion of said contributions. what does it have to do with THE WORK? what does it have to do with the innumerable lives they saved through the art they made? my life has been made better because of her work. in fact, for however trite and dramatic it sounds, i'll go ahead and make the statement that her work has saved my life in the same manner that music or painting has. art saves lives.

the tragedy is that the art these people made didn't save their own lives.

sylvia plath suffered from an unchecked and undiagnosed illness. same thing with nietzsche. undiagnosed. and illness is illness and shouldn't have a value judgement placed on it either.


i'm getting fed up with the persistant perception that sylvia plath was a mad-woman whom we can't take seriously.


kinda deep thoughts so early in the morning! ha! it's just been on my mind a lot. what are your thoughts?