Friday, August 17, 2007

The Sylvia Plath Effect


I have nothing against Sylvia Plath, but I'd much rather see an interesting biopic about Anne Sexton or Assia Wevill than yet another take on The Bell Jar. I suppose there's room for everything -- but who then will have the courage to take on Anne Sexton? Even a documentary would be worthwhile. It's how I feel about Shakespeare -- how many godforsaken new versions do we need of that dude's works? No joke, though -- a new movie version of The Bell Jar is in the works.

Plath, Wevill and Sexton all took their own lives, or "checked out early" as Alan Arkin might say a la Little Miss Sunshine. Wevill replicated Plath and both did it in response to Ted Hughes, whose birthday is today. As for me, I'm staying out of it in the department of blame games. It's just that as with Shakespeare's Ophelia, I've read or heard enough versions of Plath; show me something new about Assia Wevill, about Anne Sexton; do a new version of Anne Kaufman's Diary of a Mad Housewife or at least re-release the old version in digital format; or someone try a straight-up take on Diane Arbus without it being too weird for words -- something with a new slant on things with people that resemble the real deal.

Korean actress-singer-etc. Uhm Jung-hwa.

Today's Rune: Inititiation.

Birthdays: Davy Crockett, Samuel Goldwyn (b. Schmuel Gelbfisz), Marcus Garvey, Mae West, Maureen O'Hara (Fitzsimons), Ted Hughes, V. S. Naipaul, Robert De Niro, Belinda Carlisle, David Koresh (b. Vernon Wayne Howell), Jonathan Franzen, Sean Penn, Uhm Jung-hwa.

3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Been hearing a lot about Plath lately, and thinking I need to go back and read some of her poetry again.

the walking man said...

Duck quick! It sounds like you're dumping on the hero of the angst ridden youth of the culture in which you live.

Never liked Plath from the first moment I read her work to the last work of hers I read. I think she was stunted in her growth and it finally caught up with her when she suicided as a last ditch attempt to free herself from her own past.

Peace

mark

Naw I ain't afraid of the Plath lovers of the world Erik, they'll just cry themselves into a depression and then sleep some more.

JR's Thumbprints said...

So Lady Lazarus will reappear once again. Her poetry is excellent, but I'd keep a lid on the Bell Jar. Last movie about her stunk too.