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Life is chaos. A pen and ink are my favorite navigational tools. Blue ink on a blank page is as close to real magic as I may ever get to experience in this life... and every written word carries the power of creation. It also paves a road for everyone who reads it to follow. I love following roads and crossing bridges built by the genius mind's of Sylvia Plath, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe and too many more to list. So I hope you like to travel... because that's the best part about turning p ...
I shortened one of my episodes to act as a sample of the things I talk about on this podcast, the things I write and share, the emotion that explodes out of my experiences. Just an honest glimpse of real life.By Antigone Heartford
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Closet Agony
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The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plaths Treatment: Part Two
1:32:00
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In this episode we pick up the story from the moment Sylvia wakes up in the hospital after attempting to kill herself. We follow her transfer to a city hospital with a behavioral health ward, although that term is a new one and not one used in the book. Then we read about her transfer to a private hospital and her encounter with Dr. Nolan. The fema…
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Closet Agony
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The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plaths Treatment: Part One
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Sylvia starts treatment with her family doctor. It begins with sleeping pills. She is told by her family doctor she needs to go to a psychiatrist. In this episode we read through her experiences and treatment with her first psychiatrist Dr. Gordon. It's a catastrophic failure. It's torture. It's pain and judgment. She gives up on getting help after…
Due to unforseen circumstances my daughter has been home with me instead of at school. So recording for you lovely listeners has been more of a challenge than usual. I didn't have the time or focus to read from the Bell Jar and organize my thoughts about the theme we were discussing. So instead I decided to read some of Sylvia Plaths poems from her…
This is a tough subject and one that is personal to me. In this episode we walk with Sylvia through her suicidal thoughts. Her research. Her plans. Her experiments with self harm and gearing up for the seeming inevitability of her death. Her conversations. And then last of all her final attempt that lands her in the hospital. I read excerpts that s…
Sylvia battles depression throughout the entirety of The Bell Jar. But it worsens after she is assaulted, gets rejected for a summer writing course she had been looking forward to and pulls away from her friends. There are a specific set of circumstances that lead to her hospitalization and this week we talk about the emotional and mental breakdown…
I know I told you we were going to talk about Sylvia Plath. But I woke up this morning and wanted to share something else. Something of mine to go with my bad day. My struggle. So in this episode I share three journal entries. One from July of 2019. One from around April of 2020 when the whole world seemed to shut down in quarantine. And one from M…
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Closet Agony
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The Bell Jar: Marriage & Gender Roles
1:13:08
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Sylvia is a woman with big dreams and aspirations in life. In the time period she's living in there are expectations for women within society, within relationships and within the home and all of those expectations feel burdensome and confining. She feels trapped and forced to choose her future based on what she is or isn't willing to sacrifice of h…
I wanted to showcase the two big love stories of my life. To contrast the two men who's lives impacted mine in the biggest ways. One through abuse and mistreatment and one through true love and acceptance. I think it's important to know it's OK to have expectations for love and sex and people. I think it's important to talk about how vital it is to…
This episode covers Sylvia Plath's journey to discovering sexuality for herself and the obstacles she must overcome to do so. She confronts the double standard of purity women are held to as opposed to men. She recounts being assaulted by her date at a country club. And she also describes her first sexual encounter. We follow the trail of her exper…
Sylvia Plath has a way of casting herself in the book as an observer, someone who is watching events unfold, watching people experience life, while she looks on unable to do the same. She is lonely and depressed. In this episode I talk about this perspective and share stories from my own life, times I have felt like an observer and not an active pa…
