I recall getting caught up with a suicide: Sylvia Plath. I can remember
rushing to a book store during my lunch hour, buying Ariel, reading it in my
car and feeling stunned by the poetry. This would have been 1965 when Ariel
was published. There was also the writings of A. Alverez, the poetry editor of
The Observer, who had “introduced” Sylvia, knew her personally and considered
her a friend. He subsequently wrote The Savage God, which is on the subject of
suicide, with Sylvia’s prominently described.
I recall feeling sad that Sylvia, who showed such promise in Ariel, should
commit suicide at age 30 and thinking that had I been her husband I would have
taken better care of her. However, as I read more about her over the years, I
could see that she was a much-more difficult person than I at first thought and
I probably would have made a hash of the marriage as well. I wasn’t like Ted
Hughes, whom I loathed, but there are all sorts of ways to make a hash of a
marriage.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of adriano paolo shaul gershom palma
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2018 2:26 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Food and Anthony Bourdain
oh, understood, a restaurant owner who died. one wonders what the head lines
are then about.
but thank you for the information and it lets itself be skimmed --the article--
while full of platitude, with one exception, the hatred expressed for breakfast
which escapes me
palma, apgs
On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 1:29 PM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
I confess to not knowing anything about Anthony Bourdain, but I did look him up
just now and one of the first things I encountered was this very interesting
New Yorker article:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/04/19/dont-eat-before-reading-this
Susan liked to go to restaurants, and one of the few things she didn’t like
about the town we retired to, or next-door Hemet, was that they didn’t have any
restaurants she liked. I held the somewhat incompatible view that exercise was
more important than food. “Eat simply and get lots of exercise.” But I did
like taking her to restaurants, and she didn’t mind that I usually chose a
chef’s salad. She liked fine cuts of steak, very rare. I did experiment from
time to time, but never appreciated any of those experiments.
And I did cook for Susan during her last few years, but now that I’m on my own
I buy a lot of Lean-Cuisine-type packaged meals from Stater Bros. I also like
Oatmeal a few times a week and canned chili from time to time – probably not an
Anthony Bourdain sort of person.
Lawrence
