After one particular slog of a day last week, writing and researching, I decided I was not going to torture myself further by doing course reading that night. Instead I rummaged through my own "leisure reading" drawer and settled on The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962. Futile, I know.
Much like her novel, The Bell Jar, Plath diary prose are fused with the sinister undertones of her troubled psyche. I have only made a dent in the immense document, but like with her poetry, the empathy I feel within the confines of her stifled narratives are overwhelming. Plath was one of the great writers of the female mind, that part which was (is?) largely unexplored. There is paradoxically an urgency along with a hesitancy in some of the entries, however, I am still exploring the early days.
It could be because I too am in the spring of my aspiring career in writing, but whatever it is, I find comfort in her words. The art of balance is one I need to master.
"Some things are hard to write about. After something happens to you, you go to write it down, and either you over dramatize it or underplay it, exaggerate the wrong parts or ignore the important parts."
*Disclaimer - Originally published in my other blog girlwritesblog
Much like her novel, The Bell Jar, Plath diary prose are fused with the sinister undertones of her troubled psyche. I have only made a dent in the immense document, but like with her poetry, the empathy I feel within the confines of her stifled narratives are overwhelming. Plath was one of the great writers of the female mind, that part which was (is?) largely unexplored. There is paradoxically an urgency along with a hesitancy in some of the entries, however, I am still exploring the early days.
It could be because I too am in the spring of my aspiring career in writing, but whatever it is, I find comfort in her words. The art of balance is one I need to master.
"Some things are hard to write about. After something happens to you, you go to write it down, and either you over dramatize it or underplay it, exaggerate the wrong parts or ignore the important parts."
*Disclaimer - Originally published in my other blog girlwritesblog
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