Bombshell Bibliophiles - Sylvia Plath

When you casually mention to people that you slightly over-identify with Sylvia Plath, they start to get nervous. And rightfully so. Most people reduce her entire life to how she died. She was depressed, sad, and ended up hanging out in her oven for a little too long with the gas on.

But what most people don't realize is that Syliva Plath was beautiful, studious, and had a voracious appetite for the entire world. She was plagued constantly with the realization that the limits of her life prohibited her from experiencing all the people, all the food, all the music, all the life that the world had to offer. She wanted to marry with whom she was desperately in love, that desperately loved her, but that would allow her to exist beyond the kitchen. She was never comfortable with the idea of Mrs. yet she was endlessly fascinated by love. I relate to all of that, wholeheartedly.

Sylvia Plath also read as much as she wrote, making her one of my favorite bibliophiles. She was endlessly contemplative, eager to learn about absolutely everything. And she was tormented by the idea that her life would never be big enough to hold everything she wanted to be. I relate to that, too. Sure she was troubled. But it was because she felt too much, too deeply. Everything felt like a burn because she walked around like an open wound - her synapses exposed and ready to take in as much as they physically could. No one can bare the weight of that kind of experiencing and not buckle after awhile.

and in case you're looking to add a few Plath-inspired pieces to your wardrobe

Sylvia Plath was aware of every minute detail of her day - the way the sun baked her back, the flow of her skirt, the way food tasted, the conversations people were having. And she recorded it all in her journal. That's extremely inspiring to me because most of the time my day feels so daunting that all I can get down at the end of it is, "Need sleep. Did laundry today. Have to remember to go check on the price of brakes for the car." Okay, maybe not, but here are some of my favorite little nuggets from what many people call her best piece of prose.

- "I am jealous of those who think more deeply, who write better, who draw better, who live better, who love better than I. 

      

- "I want to taste and glory in each day, and never be afraid to experience pain; and never shut myself up in a numb core of non-feeling, or stop questioning and criticizing life and take the easy way out. To learn and think; to live and learn: this always, with new insight, new understanding, and new love."

- "Indecision and reveries are the anesthetics of constructive action."

- "I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between."

- "I smile now, thinking: we all like to think we are important enough to psychiatrists."

- "Please, I want so badly for the good things to happen."

- "Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me a little? For all my despair, for all my ideals, for all that - I love life. But it is hard, and I have so much - so very much to learn."

xo.

Photos courtesy of Google Images, and Stickersanddonuts.