I recently read The Bell Jar and loved it. I found an excellent bio and background for Sylvia Plath produced by The Wing, media company for women, as part of their podcast No Man's Land: Stories for women with something to say and nothing to prove.
The episode is professionally produced and edited with interviews by Plath experts, a close friend, and original interviews with Plath. The episode is pasted below.
A couple videos worth watching.
I loved this extra content to preview the run of Plath. I have been listening to it throughout this past week- here are some notes:
ReplyDeletePodcast- just downloaded, will listen to tonight and update post!
Ted Talk= nice Plath overview
I liked the last video a lot. I kept wanting him to slow down so I could think about some of the ideas he brought up- I think he could do an awesome longer episode podcast. Maybe he has?
-the creative genius that we see in contrast to depression
-inspiration from Dickinson and influence on preoccupation with death
-Plath as part of the "Confessional School of Poetry"- poetry of the eye- autobiographical, remaking the self/Lady Lazarus
-"her writing all feels true"..."by keeping her eyes open for as long as she did, she helped us to keep ours open"
Podcast Notes:
DeleteVERY WELL DONE!!!! I would listen to this again and will be a solid reference to review at a later point. The interviews with Plath in her voice as well as the recordings of her reading her own poetry just make this podcast come alive. I learned so many things about her that I didn't know. A few of my favorite ideas:
-"her poems did feel like weapons...and they still do..."
-Plath speaking, "I find myself absolutely fulfilled when I have written a poem, when I am writing one. Having written one, well, then you fall away very rapidly from having been a poem becoming a sort of poet in rest which isn't the same thing at all."
-We often miss the best of Plath's work by being so focused on her true life. We need to focus more on her work. "She wasn't a confessionist, she was a realist."
-The reordering of the first and last poem that Ted Hughes chose for Ariel versus the ones that Plath had laid out for Ariel- she had multiple layers of meaning with the seasons winter/spring. I've actually never truly thought about the ordering of poetry compilations as important, until now.
-The mention of Plath rating her sexual partners' performances in her journal- I now wonder more about her sexual life.
I wonder if we can get ahold of any of the longer interviews that these excerpts were taken from. Jimbo, this is such an awesome format for the blog- to collect some of these backstories for the poets that we have read really brings perspective and even more LOVE to the experience of reading. I would love to continue adding to this post when we come across other forms of media for Plath that we find!
Yeah, the podcast episode is so good.
DeleteI love your suggestion about more poet's bios and background.
Should we add the Hughes and Plath interview you emailed me?
Have you read any of Ted Hughes' poems? I don't think I have, or don't remember.
For Ted Hughes: https://youtu.be/XbAGbjXPCP8
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