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Lucy Dacus's Reviews > Ariel: The Restored Edition

Ariel by Sylvia Plath
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No rating. Some of the poems were very good. The world and fandom around Sylvia Plath makes me uneasy, and sad. The parts I most connected to were her daughters words at the beginning and end.
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Reading Progress

January 23, 2021 – Started Reading
January 23, 2021 – Shelved
January 23, 2021 –
page 24
9.38% "... What would the dark
Do without fevers to eat?
What would the light
Do without eyes to knife, what would he
Do, do, do without me?"
January 31, 2021 –
page 38
14.84% "from Lesbos:

I should sit on a rock in Cornwall and comb my hair.
I should wear tiger pants, I should have an affair.
We should meet in another life, we should meet in air,
Me and you."
March 12, 2021 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)

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Ciara What do you mean by the fandom around her? I think I kind of understand but I'm just curious


message 2: by Lucy (new) - added it

Lucy Dacus For better or worse, I think some people use her work as an outlet for their own fascination with suicide or death. And even on a wider scale, I think it’s dangerous to lump her story into the evidence behind the cultural understanding that “tortured souls� make good art, rather than seeing her loss as a personal tragedy. Romanticizing suicide and its history in creative fields has real repercussions, especially without discussing how untreated mental illness is involved in many cases. I knew girls in high school who saw Plath as a roll model, who would rather die in a poetic way than seek help or grow old.


message 3: by Adam (new)

Adam Carrico I highly recommend her collected journals. I always view her through a lens of a person in love with the world and fighting for that hope within her. I abhor the romanticized view of her suicide and wish she’d survived her mental illness and lived to be 100. She certainly tried as hard as she could and didn’t embrace the darkness. She had so much to say and explained relatable internal struggles in ways I don’t find in other authors. The new bio about her, Red Comet, also fights against the “dead girls� view as well.


message 4: by AnnaLee (new)

AnnaLee Barclay ^ second Adam’s comment and also recommend “Letters Home�, which is a collection of Sylvia’s letters to her mother & brother during college and post-grad. Her mother edited the collection and her forward is a beautiful testament to and overview of Sylvia’s personhood.


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