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ceiling details of the roskilde cathedral

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to be aware that you must compete [with other women] somehow, yet that wealth and beauty are not in your realm. to learn that a boy will make a careless remark about "your side of town" as he drives you to a road house in his father's latest chromium-plated convertible. to learn that you might-have-been more of an "artist" than you are if you had been born into a family of wealthy intellectuals. [...] to learn that money makes life smooth in some ways, and to feel how tight and threadbare life is if you have too little.

little pieces of wisdom from sylvia plath's journals

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i was an atheist until i saw jesus in zurich.

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"I knew that something in me wanted him, for what I'm not sure: He drinks, he smokes, he's Catholic, he runs around with one girl after another, and yet... I wanted him"

Sylvia Plath, July 11 1950.

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Sylvia Plath feeding blueberries to a deer, 1959

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Lately I've felt a certain primal urge to escape somewhere damp, cold, and perfectly secluded from the sweet man-made horror that is society. Unfortunately, I am broke and don't happen to have a victorian countryside manor at my disposal. More importantly, I cannot afford to miss any of my university classes. Fortunately, I can read! Underneath this cut you'll find some of my favourite reads that transport me, mentally, to better places.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Premise: Young protagonist falls in love with and shortly after marries a wealthy English widower. When he brings her home, she can't help but feel like his dead wife's shadow looms just above her.

Personally, I think this novel is the literary equivalent of Honeymoon by Lana del Rey slowly transitioning to Caroline by Taylor Swift (and similar tracks with equally eerie vibes)

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Premise: Aspiring scientist becomes so obsessed with finding out how to create life that he doesn't stop to ask whether he should create it. Proceeds to anger his 8-feet-tall creature and chase it across Europe so it doesn't kill everyone dear to him.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Premise: Orphaned and broke Sue agrees to help a conman seduce a wealthy heiress (in a "gloomy mansion", according to the back of my edition) and cheat her out of all her money. Problem: Sue and the wealthy heiress develop feelings for each other and must get rid of the men who stand in their way

This story is also well-known in its Korean film adaptation "The Handmaiden" directed by Park Chan-wook (which I have a totally normal obsession with).

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Premise: Near a secluded castle in the Austrian woods a carriage crashes and crawling out comes the beautiful and mysterious Carmilla. To Laura, who has so far lived alone with her father, Carmilla is a much needed companion. However, something about Carmilla seems off.

I went to see an opera adaptation of this novel and at least once a week I wish I was in that theatre building again.

Books I personally didn't really enjoy but still have that same vibe so you might like them:

Horrid by Katrina Leno

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

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I have listened to the new boygenius album an unhealthy amount of times since its release a week ago. I have been on the floor in the middle of the night, just staring into the void, listening to the record. Every time I become obsessed with an album I get this urge to find out what exactly makes it so appealing to me. And to the rest of the world, apparently, since boygenius’ popularity right now is undeniable. In an interview, Lucy Dacus said that her life is defined by her friends and I really think this is the sentiment that just permeates every single song on this record and that give it its popularity.

I think we all miss the time in our lives where it was just us and our closest friends whom we’d share every mundane detail of our life with. We have evolved into a society that places monogamous romantic relationships above all else, to our own detriment and to the general detriment of society. I think the record subverted expectations by not being an album full of sappy heartbreak songs, but instead a celebration of the members’ friendship in all of its beautiful, hideous, and complicated facets. 

This album is dripping in intimate friendship: from the in-jokes the members explained in interviews, to the lyrics, to the very way they chose who sings which parts in the songs. I don’t know how much longer I can let boygenius get away with writing things like “if you rewrite your life, may I still play a part?” and “it feels good to be known so well” and expecting me to not just keel over and start crying. the record gave all of us what felt like a much-needed therapy session with our best friends. 

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Sylvia Plath, born 1932, was an American poet, novelist, and diarist. She was extremely prolific writer and throughout her short life produced over 400 poems, a novel, several short stories, and many journals and letters. A lot of her work, especially her more famous works, deal with mental illness and what it was like to be an ambitious woman in an age where women couldn't even have their own credit cards.

Her biographical background, I think, is one of the things that make her relatable to modern audiences. Sylvia Plath had a complicated childhood. She lost her father at eight years old to illness and was raised by a chronically ill single mother who struggled financially. This pushed Plath to outperform all of her classmates and to start earning her own money by sending her poetry out to magazines from a young age. At the same time she lived a very fulfilled social life with plenty of friends and dates. She was also very upfront about not wanting to be reduced to a mother and housewife in her future, defying expectations for women in her day and age.

By all accounts, Sylvia Plath was an extremely interesting writer. However, with such a large selection of texts to choose from, it can be difficult to pick a place to start. Which is why I've decided to compile all of my Plath knowledge into this (hopefully somewhat complete) post. Below the cut you will find brief summaries of her important works sorted into different categories. Happy reading :)

Disclaimer: I've seen many people on social media be taken aback by some of the themes in Plath's work, especially the racism and the holocaust imagery present throughout her work. I feel like for some people this might be useful to know before they start to read. Plath was a white American writing in the 1950s, so common social attitudes will be reflected in her work. It's important not to internalise her own bigotry as you read. Keeping this in mind, I still think her work is worth your time and attention.

the basics:

Ariel is probably Plath's most famous poetry collection. It centers around the themes of gender, death, and rebirth. The first edition of this collection was published posthumously and edited by Plath's husband. The collection was restored to the order Plath originally intended poems to be in in 2005 and published with a preface written by Plath's daughter, Frieda Hughes.

The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only published novel. It is a semi-autobiographical account of her 1953 New York internship with Mademoiselle, a lady's magazine. The main character, Esther Greenwood, is meant to be having the time of her life working for a fashion magazine in New York until things get too much for Esther to handle. A large chunk of the novel is dedicated to Esther's complicated recovery from depression.

the niche:

Three Women is both a poem and a radio play. It tells the stories of three women in a maternity ward, all handling their motherhood differently. It is included in the poetry collection Winter Trees.

The Colossus is the only poetry collection Plath published in her lifetime (so automatically the only one where she had full artistic control over the content of the book). The poems here discuss topics such as about death, trauma, belonging, and womanhood.

Crossing The Water is a poetry collection that was published posthumously, along with Winter Trees, by Plath's husband Ted Hughes. These collections contain the poetry Plath wrote in her last creative spurt before her death. CTW centers around the themes of womanhood, depression, and endings (do you sense a recurring theme?), whereas WT deals with family dynamics and motherhood.

the extra reading:

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath edited by Karen V. Kukil were published in the year 2000 and provide insight into Plath's inner life and context for a lot of her work, since much of it was inspired by events, be they important or insignificant, of her life. These journals range from 1953 up until 1959. The time between the last surviving journal until her death is covered by fragments, as Plath's very last journal was destroyed.

Red Comet by Heather Clark might be the single most detailed biography of Sylvia Plath on the market right now. It covers everything from her ancestors' immigration to the state, her parents' experiences in school, and the aftermath of Plath's death. It is definitely not a casual read (1000+ pages) but definitely worth it if you find yourself fascinated by Plath's work.

Pain, Parties, Work by Elizabeth Winder is a partial biography of Plath's time spent interning for Mademoiselle 1953. It paints an interesting picture of the writer, portraying her as a motivated young woman with a fulfilled social life who struggled with her mental health nonetheless. It's much shorter than Red Comet (<300 pages) and provides interesting an background for The Bell Jar.

Obviously there will always be more things by and about Sylvia Plath to read. Her letters, for example, have been released in two different editions: a two volume collection of the letters written throughout her life and another collection of letters written from England to America, edited by Plath's own mother, Aurelia Plath. I hope my little selection can help you find your way around Plath's bibliography. Happy reading :)

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Emily Dickinson really wrote

She dealt her pretty words like Blades— How glittering they shone— And every One unbared a Nerve Or wantoned with a Bone—

and expected me to be okay like she didn't perfectly express the urge to be beautiful and angry at the same time.

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“barn owl”

i hold on to everything.

a letter, a wing, the newspaper clipping reading “Saviour’s Day” i found in the grass in virginia.

pinned to the wall, taped in a journal. collecting weapons for a war that’s always coming.

there will always be something else to kill.

did you feel it, when i picked the skin from my lips?

did it hurt you? it always should, and it never will.

it’s not my problem now. i’m perfect, and powder white. i’m the barn owl, awake at night.

i cry only if i want to, just because it feels good.

the sun rises and healthily i close my eyes.

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The human tragedy: to be reactionary, the conservative, and to always choose the certainty of daily bread above the light and airy inconsistencies of foreign pastry.

Sylvia Plath, April 1953