![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Actually, through the course of the research, I became a more firm believer in my own thesis, because even I would have these moments, and my editor would write in the margin, “Don’t fall into the Plath trap. So I started with that sense of mission, but I certainly don’t think it’s something that everyone starts with. I felt like she’s so brilliant and witty and cerebral and ironic, and a lot of that was getting lost in the popular imagination. I had this sense of injustice, or frankly anger, about the ways in which she had become a writer whose name was often synonymous with madness and tragedy. But I don’t necessarily believe that’s the case. It’s been drilled into my head that you need a thesis. ![]() Heather Clark: I guess I did begin with that thesis, probably because of my academic training. Later, Plutarch wrote De Iside et Osiride, a story of dismemberment and repair. Her desire to excel on all fronts has its roots in the Germanic aspirational work ethic that was her inheritance. Some pieces were inscribed on the walls of the pyramids’ burial chambers. Sylvia’s perfectionism, often derided as neurotic or pathological, needs to be understood within the historical and sociological context of the American immigrant experience, which framed her life. My question is, does biography always begin with an agenda? You already had a previous understanding of this woman’s work as a scholar, but did you begin with that thesis or did the research show you what that thesis was? The Isis myth survives in fragments, so any overarching story is a weaving, a confection. ![]()
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