Hmph! But yeah, you're right. There are probably a million things I should add there.
Sylvia Plath interests me because (and here it will get fangirlish), I've always related to her life, from childhood on. The ambition, the depression, the scholarly aspirations often sidelined by earthier passions (like men), and in so many ways the "ideal" she tried so hard to achieve -- a marriage of equals, in creativity and intellect; being a hands-on mother to her children; and writing everything she could, all while living in what seemed on the outside, at least, to be an idyllic cottage in the English countryside. She was the original Martha Stewart, if Martha was also a brilliant poet. And the way it crumbled, the demons who destroyed (both within and without) just breaks my heart. She had much more to say, I think.
I love New York City, period. But there's something about that era, when it had grown from a little start-up city into something approaching the city it was going to become, that fascinates me. The wealth juxtaposed with the poverty, the politics, the immigrants, the seeds of "celebrity" culture, and Mrs. Astor's 500 doing their snobby best to approximate British society (especially when impoverished British nobles were streaming into town to marry nouveau riche heiresses so they could hold onto their family homes) -- it's an interesting time in the city's history, and in the country's.
No, there's totally a relationship! Charles Addams was the cartoonist whose stuff was the basis for The Addams Family. He used to live in what I consider my hometown, and he's just brilliantly macabre and funny.
I don't know if I ever knew that! I'd forgotten there was an Addams family cartoon, much less paid attention to who wrote it. It's not in print anymore, is it? I think I may have to look around for TPBs to collect.
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Date: 2005-01-21 02:06 pm (UTC)Okay, I'll bite (although I'm not sure I'm going to play in my journal, so if that disqualifies me, I understand).
Sylvia Plath.
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Date: 2005-01-21 03:21 pm (UTC)Sylvia Plath interests me because (and here it will get fangirlish), I've always related to her life, from childhood on. The ambition, the depression, the scholarly aspirations often sidelined by earthier passions (like men), and in so many ways the "ideal" she tried so hard to achieve -- a marriage of equals, in creativity and intellect; being a hands-on mother to her children; and writing everything she could, all while living in what seemed on the outside, at least, to be an idyllic cottage in the English countryside. She was the original Martha Stewart, if Martha was also a brilliant poet. And the way it crumbled, the demons who destroyed (both within and without) just breaks my heart. She had much more to say, I think.
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Date: 2005-01-21 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-21 03:24 pm (UTC)And, you know, the clothes were pretty.
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Date: 2005-01-21 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 05:49 pm (UTC)