Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Wednesday 27 May 2009

A religion,

culture, or civilisation
that cannot cope with suicide
is fundamentally defective.

4 comments:

Etienne said...

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/plath-alvarez.html

Wofl said...

Thanks for that. But the tired old idea of suicide as a "cry for help" trotted out by tired old Al is an insult to the intelligence.

Etienne said...

I am not so sure. I think that depends on the intelligence.
In The Savage God, Plath's suicide is like unto a leitmotiv which is presented each time in a different mode. Alvarez successfully communicates the idea that any such gesture is very complex. In Plath's case, it may have been a) a cry for help, b) an aesthetic necessity, c) a way out of an impossible situation, d) the result of psychopathology e) all of the above d) none of the above.

Mostly I wanted to plug that book. I have found it to be worth my time.

Wofl said...

I agree with you, but Alvarez does seem to me to be somewhat reductive in his approach, while acknowledging the multifaceted stance or attitude of Plath.
I have my own axe to grind on the subject of suicide : I tend towards Ancient Greek attitudes towards living and dying. Christianity somehow made death necessarily ignoble, and that was just one of its crimes against Nature!