A Mushroom of Doom, a Marriage of Doom, and a Face of Doom

"It doesn’t fall to many men to murder a genius” - Ted Hughes, husband to genius poet Sylvia Plath

For the Littles:

The Mushroom of Doom by Becky Davies
This is the origin story of an evil mushroom - I thought this one was clever. It crosses just enough lines (like feeding a pineapple to the fishes for revenge). and (spoiler) I loved the ending where our mushroom main character had the chance and motivation to turn over a new leaf - and doesn’t because he likes being evil (Mwahaha).

For Family Readloud:
We did not yet finish Harry Potter Book #3 - though we did a morning time reread of both Winnie the Pooh books. Wryly funny and syntactically masterful, read these and please throw the Disney-fied picture book abominations in the trash.

For Myself:
I cheated terribly on the Count of Monte Cristo this month - if he were real, he would probably be working his way into my acquaintances and plotting to take me down. Some of what I’ve finished instead:

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis
This is a retelling of the myth of Psyche, who marries a god but isn’t allowed to see his face at night. Her ugly sister, Orual, convinces her to take a lantern to bed to see the god (Cupid), which results in Psyche becoming an exile and having to complete tasks to eventually become a goddess. The myth of course focuses on Psyche, but Lewis makes Orual the main character.

Lewis thought this was his best book. While I did admire much of the prose of the first half for its clarity and stark beauty, I prefer The Horse and His Boy, Perelandra, and A Grief Observed (in fact, this book reminded me most of my least favorite Lewis book, The Last Battle). Am I allowed to be a homeschool mom and have a Least-Favorite C.S. Lewis book, or have I spoken heresy?

I think I would have rather had it be all fiction or all philosophy; the first half reads more like a novel, while the second half is more of a theological treatise (in visions). I also hate it when plot in fiction is abandoned to vision or dream-sequence, so that may be a personal preference for me.

Truthfully, I just related to Orual too much. I felt sorry for her - earnest, confused, doing the best she can without guidance yet punished for it. It’s emphasized in the book that Orual’s great sin was her selfish, consuming love, the cause of Psyche’s downfall. Even then, I considered her a seeker, trying to understand and looking for the deeper meaning in life, only to meet, literally, a blank stone (Ungit) and an empty valley with a castle she can’t see (Psyche’s home). The god reveals himself to her cryptically, briefly, and she goes on her way. Is she ultimately punished because she wants to Know, because she seeks knowledge, confirmation?

I did like the symbolism of the lack of faces / masking and how we hide our true motivations from ourselves; I think of Orual’s veil, the faceless idol Ungit, even Orual’s extreme ugliness and Psyche’s Beauty, attributes that prevented people from seeing them as they truly were.

I couldn't see a biblical God in the story, though I think I'm supposed to (there are definite Job vibes toward the end). If Psyche is supposed to be Jesus, didn’t she fall when she brought the lantern? Is our God as silent as this book seems to think he is - what about the revelation of scripture and the natural world? To me the ending felt cruel, only allowing Orual to see her true nature and repent at the end of her life. Doesn’t God meet us right to our ugly faces?

I like that this book gave me much to think about (it would be a wonderful book to study in a class). Reason and imagination in C.S. Lewis : A study of Till We Have Faces by Peter Schakel is coming to me via interlibrary loan, and I look forward to wrestling with this book more.

Feel free to comment and share your Till We Have Faces insights! If I can stand to slog through that second half again, I’ll give it another try sometime.

The Animal is Chemical by Hadara Bar-Nadav
This poetry collection weaves together holocaust, Jewish identity, and pharmaceutical dependence. It is a bit more experimental than I typically favor - incorporating erasure poems from the warning labels of various drugs, for instance - but I admired her use of white space and lineation and the cohesiveness despite the disparate forms. Actually it is the best poetry book I have read in a while. It made me reexamine my own work-in-progress and think about where I could insert some “breath” into my poetry. (some poems from the collection can be found online HERE)

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
First, the positive - I loved the second half of this book, where Clark tied in Plath’s life to what she was writing at the time. It gave some insight into her writing process and what inspired specific poems, and analyzed the artistry of her work. I also was impressed with Plath’s ambition and work ethic - I feel like a champion when I wake up at 4:45 to get a bit of writing done in my morning routine, but Plath wrote from 4 - 8am, as a single mother with very young children. She puts me to shame!

The negative…I did the audiobook for this - it was 45 hours long. I like Sylvia Plath as much as the next person - perhaps more - but I did not care about what she ate at girl scout camp or what grades she made in elementary school. I would have preferred a 300 page condensed version of this, focusing more on her career, development as a poet, and her poetics. I thought too Clark could have gone a bit more into the mental health aspect - I think she is kind of trying to make the reader think that Plath’s depression was hereditary and inevitable - but more could have been explored there.

But my main complaint is Clark’s kid-glove handling of the monstrous Ted Hughes. I think Hughes, whether indirectly or not, murdered Plath. Actual quotes from Ted Hughes:
“I murdered her.”
”It doesn’t fall to many men to murder a genius”
(at her funeral) “It was either her or me.”
(also at her funeral) “You all hated her too, right?”

Not to mention that he wrote Plath to tell her it would be better for him if she committed suicide. And don’t get me started on how he mishandled her work after her death - destroying her novel-in-progress and current journals, rearranging and editing her manuscript to take out the parts that made him look bad, letting his sister who hated Sylvia write her biography, letting his mistress handle her work…

Yet, Clark tries to subtly manipulate the reader of this biography to think of him as a Byronic hero - comparing him to Heathcliff and Rochester, commenting on his stormy good looks and country ways, his powerful poetic “talent” and how much he suffered after Plath’s death. Oh please! I like a biography that sticks a bit more closely to the facts of what this guy actually did, rather than trying to paint it in a gothic romance light.

Plath was no Innocent - the first half of the book slogged along as she dated so and so and cheated with blah blah blah and got drunk here and etc etc etc - she was not much of a prim 1950s lady. But choosing Hughes as a husband set her on an unstoppable slide to self-destruction. I don’t think he remotely deserves the wrist-slap of being called a “Rochester.”

I think there is room for another Plath biography to be written - one that is a little less soft on Hughes, a bit more focused on Sylvia’s career as a poet, and 1/3rd the length of this one.

Writing Updates:
I’ve had some publication luck lately -
- “Recurrent Loss” in Asterales ( This journal is edited by a poet whose work I much admire, Donna Vorreyer - and they send each contributor a handmade postcard inspired by their poem - really lovely all around!)

- “The Key of Promise in Doubting Castle” was featured in The Habit Portfolio (inspired by Pilgrim’s Progress, which I had been reading to the kids at the time)

- I was a finalist for the James H. Nash contest - my poem St. Lucy Holds Her Eyes. This poem was inspired by a homeschool field trip to our local Basilica.

My online Louise Gluck generative poetry class starts this week, and I’m writing one on Sylvia Plath for August - still room to sign up!