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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
An interesting, quite academic look at the Sylvia Plath biography industry.
Janet Malcolm is my newest favorite provocative journalist. What Jessica Mitford did for the prison and funeral industries, Janet Malcolm is doing for biography and journalist. I started out with [b:The Journalist and the Murderer|55563|The Journalist and the Murderer|Janet Malcolm|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1170450551s/55563.jpg|791731] and moved on from there.
This is Malcolm's general philosophy and she applies it in this case to the literary legacy of Sylvia Plath, who famously committed suicide and left behind and ex-husband and a mother both with claims on her letters, journals, and unpublished work. How these two people controlled her literary image (for example, Plath's mother was reluctant to have Plath's name on [b:The Bell Jar|6514|The Bell Jar|Sylvia Plath|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1379098702s/6514.jpg|1385044] because it contained too many possibly offensive passages) ultimately becomes the issue at the heart of the book, as well as how biographers interact with the living relatives of their subjects (Ted Hughes' sister does not particularly come off well, but nonetheless as a concerned relative).
Overall, very solid and thought provoking analysis of the demands of biography and subjects upon biographer.
The transgressive nature of biography is rarely acknowledged, but it is the only explanation for biography’s status as a popular genre. The reader’s amazing tolerance (which he would extend to no novel written half as badly as most biographies) makes sense only when seen as a kind of collusion between him and the biographer in an excitingly forbidden undertaking: tiptoeing down the corridor together, to stand in front of the bedroom and try to peep through the keyhole.
This is Malcolm's general philosophy and she applies it in this case to the literary legacy of Sylvia Plath, who famously committed suicide and left behind and ex-husband and a mother both with claims on her letters, journals, and unpublished work. How these two people controlled her literary image (for example, Plath's mother was reluctant to have Plath's name on [b:The Bell Jar|6514|The Bell Jar|Sylvia Plath|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1379098702s/6514.jpg|1385044] because it contained too many possibly offensive passages) ultimately becomes the issue at the heart of the book, as well as how biographers interact with the living relatives of their subjects (Ted Hughes' sister does not particularly come off well, but nonetheless as a concerned relative).
Overall, very solid and thought provoking analysis of the demands of biography and subjects upon biographer.
A look at all other biographical work of Sylvia Plath, the demonizing of the Hughes family by biographers and critics, and her legacy as a writer and brilliant woman living with mental illness. This book is a bit brutal, but it made me reconsider by own biases against the Hughes (which I've come to conclude are a bit unfounded) and think critically about how I read biographies. A very good read.
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
is it okay to say a book is annoying? reading this was a frustrating experience. for one thing, its not about either sylvia plath or ted hughes, its about the the ways they have been perceived and written about by others. which is interesting, but not really what I was looking for.
it seemed to be compelling me to form an opinion on the issue that I had no inclination of deciding on. I like sylvia plath's poetry, and I like ted hughes poetry much much more. I find the dimensions of their relationship fascinating. I don't feel I have the authority or the inclination to make a moral judgement on either of them, but reading this book felt like I was at fault for not doing so, and specifically, not siding with hughes.
Malcolm also takes the whole concept of biographies to task, as if they're the literary equivalent of OK magazine (which they are in a sense, but not all biographies are so predatory or pandering as the ones she appears to have read). it's annoying, if you really like biographies, to be told, i>in a biography, that the genre is a voyeuristic cesspool. It purports to be a sort of meditation on the art of writing about someone else's life, but there was this thread of disdain that I just couldn't get past. it didn't feel honest.
But then I felt conflicted; did I dislike this book because I disagreed with it? that doesn't seem to be enough of a reason. I felt talked down to; was that actually a fault of the book, or my own defensiveness and insecurities? it was provocative, pretentious, infuriating, and occasionally, illuminating. I think I'll just leave it as little muddle at the start of my reading year and get back it its issues later. there are too many other things to read.
it seemed to be compelling me to form an opinion on the issue that I had no inclination of deciding on. I like sylvia plath's poetry, and I like ted hughes poetry much much more. I find the dimensions of their relationship fascinating. I don't feel I have the authority or the inclination to make a moral judgement on either of them, but reading this book felt like I was at fault for not doing so, and specifically, not siding with hughes.
Malcolm also takes the whole concept of biographies to task, as if they're the literary equivalent of OK magazine (which they are in a sense, but not all biographies are so predatory or pandering as the ones she appears to have read). it's annoying, if you really like biographies, to be told, i>in a biography, that the genre is a voyeuristic cesspool. It purports to be a sort of meditation on the art of writing about someone else's life, but there was this thread of disdain that I just couldn't get past. it didn't feel honest.
But then I felt conflicted; did I dislike this book because I disagreed with it? that doesn't seem to be enough of a reason. I felt talked down to; was that actually a fault of the book, or my own defensiveness and insecurities? it was provocative, pretentious, infuriating, and occasionally, illuminating. I think I'll just leave it as little muddle at the start of my reading year and get back it its issues later. there are too many other things to read.
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
I really enjoyed this, a lot more than I thought I would. I've never read anything about Sylvia Plath before so it was interesting to learn a little more about her life. I also liked reading about Janet's life in writing this biography, particularly the parts about who she interviewed and how she met them. It was interesting to me how all of these lives seemed to be intertwined and to see exactly how she got her information.
There were parts that frustrated me; there were a few times where a character was mentioned out of the blue and it was assumed I was supposed to know who that person was, but I didn't. There were also times where I was reading and I had no idea how Malcolm had gotten to the topic of what I was reading about. But altogether I really enjoyed it and the topics and questions it raised, and I'd like to read more about Sylvia Plath and check out some of the authors and books Malcolm mentioned in this book.
There were parts that frustrated me; there were a few times where a character was mentioned out of the blue and it was assumed I was supposed to know who that person was, but I didn't. There were also times where I was reading and I had no idea how Malcolm had gotten to the topic of what I was reading about. But altogether I really enjoyed it and the topics and questions it raised, and I'd like to read more about Sylvia Plath and check out some of the authors and books Malcolm mentioned in this book.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced