Sunday, April 19, 2009

Notes

Notes on (Re)Writing Ariel

“The thing about Ted is
that he is a terrifically
attractive man,” Al
Alvarez said. “Before my
second marriage, I had an
Australian girlfriend, who
knew Ted, and she told me
that when she first set eyes
on him her knees went weak.
‘He looked like Jack Palance
in Shane,’ she said.”—Janet
Malcolm, The Silent Woman,
1995, 121

“And I knew another woman,
a psychoanalyst, who had
such a strong reaction when
she first met Ted—she told
me [Alvarez said] this many
years later—that she actually
went to the bathroom and
vomited. Ted kind of went
through swaths of women,
like a guy harvesting corn.”
—Janet Malcolm, The Silent
Woman, 1995, 121-122

“She frequently depicted
Hughes not simply as big
but as dangerous as well.
“During their courtship
she called him a “black
Marauder” and a “panther.”
—Steven Gould Axelrod,
Sylvia Plath: The Wound
And the Cure of Words,
Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1990, 192

“Judith Kroll is right to
observe that part of Plath’s
presentation of Hughes “is
as a reformed or reformable
destroyer.” After the marriage,
Plath continued to entertain
violent fantasies concerning
him, but with growing
ambivalence.” —Steven Gould
Axelrod, Sylvia Plath: The
Wound and the Cure of Words,
Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1990, 193

“On one occasion she ran out
of the house following a
nighttime quarrel, sat in a
park, and then spotted him
striding down the street:
‘He paused, stared, and if
he weren’t my husband I
would have run from him
as a killer.” —Steven Gould
Axelrod, Sylvia Plath: The
Wound and the Cure of Words,
Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1990, 193

“Later Hughes gassed an
injured bird to death—ostensibly
an act of mercy but possibly
an oblique threat to Plath as
well, since she identified
herself with the “panic bird.”
Her description of the dead
bird—“composed, perfect and
beautiful in death”—strangely
foreshadows her last self-
representation as a being who
has been “perfected.”
—Steven Gould Axelrod, Sylvia
Plath: The Wound and the Cure
of Words, Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1990, 193

“As Sylvia had described it, his
face whitened, his body contorted,
his gaze intensified. He was on
top of her—not kissing her, as he
usually did, but choking her. Finally,
at the moment when she began to
lose consciousness—the moment
she said she resolved herself to die
Ted released his grip and stopped
his assault as abruptly as he had
started it”—Janet Malcolm, The
Silent Woman, quoting Paul
Alexander, Rough Magic: A
Biography of Sylvia Plath, New
York: Penguin, 1991

“This is a horrible story. Who is
this close friend who can charge
Hughes with nothing less than
attempted murder? How reliable
a witness? A confidential source,
Alexander calmly writes.”
—Janet Malcolm, The Silent
Woman, 1994, 167


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