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A review by elliebreen
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts by Sylvia Plath
5.0
Underrated, dismissed, avoided, ignored. Every word that means not respected enough - because these short stories are not respected or appreciated enough.
I have studied 4 for my Undergrad Diss and 2 for my MA Diss, and the rest have been a joy to read. Plath’s Short stories are shunned in comparison to The Bell Jar, and I believe it is because they are more challenging. They’re shorter so her metaphors, double meanings and subtle remarks are much more difficult to discover. They require work and that is why I enjoy them.
Personal faves:
Title Name Story
The Daughters of Blossom Street
Ocean 1212-W
Context
Cambridge Notes
Sunday at The Mintons
Mothers
Since studying them I have discovered they match Plath’s mindset far more than these grandiose TBJ statements and criticisms do - to read them against her journals provides connections between what she was interested in, reading, writing, studying, watching at the moment she is writing them. The time periods line up and the subject matter do as well, she writes for the moment. To try and use TBJ as a fixed autobiographical account for her entire life ignores a lot of her as a multifaceted character - some are short, sporadic childless writings because she was once a child that wanted to play around with colour and light and adjectives, she was not always this Esther Greenwood character that the world has tried to confide her to. I hope that future Plath scholars focus on her short stories more, I would hate to see them get lost.
I have studied 4 for my Undergrad Diss and 2 for my MA Diss, and the rest have been a joy to read. Plath’s Short stories are shunned in comparison to The Bell Jar, and I believe it is because they are more challenging. They’re shorter so her metaphors, double meanings and subtle remarks are much more difficult to discover. They require work and that is why I enjoy them.
Personal faves:
Title Name Story
The Daughters of Blossom Street
Ocean 1212-W
Context
Cambridge Notes
Sunday at The Mintons
Mothers
Since studying them I have discovered they match Plath’s mindset far more than these grandiose TBJ statements and criticisms do - to read them against her journals provides connections between what she was interested in, reading, writing, studying, watching at the moment she is writing them. The time periods line up and the subject matter do as well, she writes for the moment. To try and use TBJ as a fixed autobiographical account for her entire life ignores a lot of her as a multifaceted character - some are short, sporadic childless writings because she was once a child that wanted to play around with colour and light and adjectives, she was not always this Esther Greenwood character that the world has tried to confide her to. I hope that future Plath scholars focus on her short stories more, I would hate to see them get lost.