27 October, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I just got back from Oxford, where I’ve been for the past few days attending The Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium. Today would have been Sylvia’s 75th birthday. The conference continues tomorrow and Monday, but three days in Oxford was all I could manage.
It was certainly an interesting experience. For those who don’t know, I’m a major Sylvia fan. I haven’t yet processed the past few days, but the conference has changed the way I think about Sylvia Plath and also the celebrity that surrounds her and other writers. I’ll write more on this soon, once I’ve had a chance to think about it. Today I met Sylvia Plath’s college roommate, who remained friends with her until she died. I also met another woman who was friends with Sylvia in the last months of her life and who was with her just hours before she killed herself. These women are both 75 years old, the age Sylvia would be today, yet Sylvia is frozen in time; she’ll be young forever. Meeting her contemporaries and friends, now women in their mid-seventies, suddenly made Sylvia Plath seem much more real to me. I still haven’t gotten over the feeling.
Here’s an excerpt of a poem I came across this weekend that I really loved and thought I’d share:
I used to think we’d make a go of it together –
After all, it was a kind of marriage, being so close.
Now I see it must be one or the other of us.
She may be a saint, and I may be ugly and hairy,
But she’ll soon find out that that doesn’t matter a bit.
I’m collecting my strength; one day I shall manage without her,
And she’ll perish with emptiness then, and begin to miss me.
-Sylvia Plath, “In Plaster”
Anglofille said @ 9:54 pm | literary |
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Rebecca Says:
October 27th, 2007 at 11:44 pmHow funny, I was in Oxford today for a day trip. Where is the convention being held?
I’m sure it must have been weird to meet people who knew her intimately. Sometimes it’s easy to view writers and artists as these superheroes that exist in their works but didn’t exist in the mortal world, as it were. Finding evidence of these people is always a bit strange.
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Daniela Says:
October 28th, 2007 at 8:57 amif i just knew… i love her work too, and could only imagine what is to meet these people who were close to her, the same age. i have an ambivalent image of her - although it is very difficult do disassociate the poems from her personal drama, i see her and her work somehow separate. guess this happened after reading the journals. anyway, looking forward to further writing on things you’ve experienced at the symposium.
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I wa big Plath fan too but I’m not sure that was a healthy thing to be. I once had to persuade a student to get psychological help because of a suicidal obsession brought on by reading The Bell Jar. But I do agree — everything she wrote was unforgettable.
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Somehow my comment got published too soon — I do know the first sentence should be “I was a big…”
Cheers from a fellow American expat and London-lover…
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Rebecca: I hope your train journey back wasn’t as hellish as mine. I got one of the last seats. The aisles were crammed with people who had to stand up for the whole trip back to London. Screaming babies, people with b.o. Ugh! As for the conference, it was held mostly at Rhodes House. I don’t know which specific college this place is associated with.
Daniela: Too bad you didn’t know about the conference. I can’t remember how I found out about it. I didn’t mention it on my blog before I went because I don’t usually say where I’m going before I actually go. Not because of any of my readers, but just because I don’t think it’s a good idea to broadcast things like that on the internet.
I try to separate Plath’s work from her life, but it’s hard. For me, I discovered her as a teenager when I was first starting to write. I was very interested in the sordid details of her life at that time. I’ve sort of drifted away from Plath over the years, though she is still special to me. I think perhaps this conference will give me a better perspective on her life and work so I can appreciate her more now as an adult.
Betty: People can certainly develop unhealthy relationships with Plath. Some people I met at the conference fall into this category. It’s a strange power she has over people.
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Rebecca Says:
October 30th, 2007 at 2:42 amAh, I went by coach so it wasn’t that bad, but the first time I went out to Oxford, I was stuck on a train just like that. I almost wish they’d allow deodorant companies to hand our free samples on train platforms. Sigh.
