On Sunday, David Barstow of The New York Times published "A New Chapter of Grief in the Plath-Hughes Legacy" on the death of Nicholas Hughes. This is a very good article on the subject, certainly one of the finest published in the last three weeks. Thanks to Amanda for pointing this out.
Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove...
Going for a walk and hanging by rafter are reminiscent of scenes from The Bell Jar.
ReplyDeleteVery sad ending to Nicholas Hughes' story.
Interesting article. Thanks Peter (& Amanda)!
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday, I finished listening to an unabridged reading of The Bell Jar and it struck me about that hanging, as Anonymous mentions, when I heard that part. It is just coincidence, but noteworthy.
ReplyDeleteI wish the article hadn't been so explicit. Did I want to know that Nick described it as a Good Day? I supposed it speaks to the relief of knowing an end to suffering has been formed and that conclusion must seem Good in a warped, circular inevitability. Who told the writer this!? It should have remained private.
Karen Kukil is right. Those of us in the Plath/Hughes camp are really upset about Nick's death. What we feel is chump change to what Frieda must be going through. So, I don't see how that article with its, 'Nick loved his privacy' mantra but still exposed him and his sister without regard is a good thing. I'm not even sure why I find it so upsetting. I suppose it must be mostly about the disregard.
There was "something" about Nicholas living here in my state. I didn't dwell on it, but it was something I'd consider from time to time that he was safe up there in Fairbanks away from prying eyes. I know the few university English courses I took here in Juneau, it was never mentioned. He was vicariously a literary superstar, yet his privacy was honored. I don't think anywhere but Alaska could have pulled that off.
I appreciate the finding and sharing of the article. But, think the writer went way too far. Just because you 'can' do something, doesn't mean you should.
I'm done.
Going for a walk is, oddly, exactly what people in Greenland used to do (do they still ?) when they felt they had had enough. They would walk right into the interior, away from human community, until they died of hypothermia.
ReplyDeleteI`m glad Nick Hughes had his privacy respected. That he was allowed to be himself. Surely we should all be allowed that ?
The private details of Nicholas Hughes' suicide were bound to be made known at some point - and I'd rather read about it in The New York Times than in some other paper (i.e. a tabloid).
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