Re: the literary life

Thor Cameron (my_colours@hotmail.com)
Tue, 06 Oct 1998 15:56:32 -0700 (PDT) 

OK, Camille,

I'm in high umbrage and feel that I must take issue with you on several 
points.  You see, I built a very large house in SylviaPlathLand and live 
there frequently.
First, Bell Jar is in No Way a "female catcher".  If a Salinger 
connection must be made, let's say that Bell Jar is The Long Debut of 
Lois Taggett taken to extreme.
Secondly, although like Salinger, Plath drew upon her experiences with  
being committed, etc., Bell Jar is, ultimately a work of fiction.  Plath 
herself was the first to stand up and say that the cruel, controlling 
mother that she wrote about was not her mother, who she was very close 
to.  Yes, there is insight into Plath in that book, but careful how far 
you take that.
Lastly, "mediocre"?  Well, no accounting for taste, I suppose.  I will 
grant you that her writing style was not the best that I've read. That 
was not her primary talent.  But the characters, my God, the characters.  
When I read Bell Jar, every time, the characters rip themselves from my 
pages and they are transmogrified into my own bleeding angst. 
Sorry you didn't like it.

Namaste,

Thor

P.S. Please check out my web page & let me know what you think.
http://www.uscolo.edu/TAC/



> Akemi, I think what we really know of most authors is what they write,
but
> it's harder to know something from fiction than from memoirs and other
> forms of reporting...what we learn of salinger regarding love or the
> way many of us are vulgar from his writing says a lot more about the 
man
> than what has been reported...will

I find that straight autobiography also stands very much in the way of 
good
fiction. It rarely, in my experience, turns into anything totally
satisfying - Sylvia Plath's `The Bell Jar' is a case in point, which I 
had
leaped into (after reading several Plath biographies admittedly) after
hearing it described as the female Catcher in the Rye, and found very
mediocre. I think a good novelist knows where to draw the line; what of 
his
or her life to include in their fiction. Which is why, I suppose, people
like Salinger get so irritated when they are pushed by force over this
line.

Camille 



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