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Sylvia Plath (continued from page 7)

have survived Sylvia, for example her colleagues and her children. It may be argued that however nice this may be for the living, it does little justice to Plath, but I think a more serious charge is that this criterion of protection was not applied equally. Two events of rage-one against her husband, and one directed at her mother are worth noting. The first event is prefaced by this comment from the editors:

About this time, and for months afterward, Plath began to feel a upsurge of rage, an emotion she rarely allowed herself. In the passage that follows it is a rage against her husband in which a small incident takes on enormous proportions...the real source is her father, though it would be several years before she could make the connection in a deep way.

The "small incident" occurred on the last day of Plath's year of teaching at Smith College, a job they both looked forward to her completing. As she relates in her journal, she asked Hughes to drive over to campus and pick her up after her last class, as a kind of treat. When she looked for him, their car was there, but not Hughes. Plath searched for him in the library; as she emerged from that building, she saw

Dandelion (continued from page 9)

flowers to steep for 3 days. Strain through a jelly cloth to squeeze all the liquid from the flowers. Put the liquid in a kettle, add 1 small ginger root and the thinly pared peels and juice of 3 oranges and 1 lemon. Stir in 3 pounds of sugar and boil gently for 20 minutes. Return the liquid to the crock and allow it to cool until barely lukewarm. Spread 1⁄2 cake of yeast on a piece of toasted rye bread and float it on top. Cover the crock with a cloth and keep in a warm room for 6 days. Then strain off the wine into a gallon jug, corking it loosely with a wad of cotton. Keep in a dark place for 3 weeks, then carefully decant into a bottle and cork tightly. Do not touch until the Winter Solstice or later!

The Dandelion as Medicine

As a medicine, only the leaves and roots of the dandelion are used. Gather the leaves during flowering time and the roots in autumn, when they have their most stored energy.

The roots can make an excellent diuretic and have a slightly aperient (gentle laxative) effect on the system. The following decoctions taken internally stimulate bile secretion:

Tonic: Add 2 tablespoons dried root to I pint water, allow to sit for 2 hours. Bring to a boil and strain. Dose: this quantity during the day.

For sluggish livers: Wash and slice 2 ounces freshly gathered root. Boil in 2 pints water and reduce to 1 pint. Add 1 ounce tincture of horseradish. Dose: 3 fluid ounces per day.

The leaves as an infusion are also a mild laxative, perk up the appetite, stimulate bile secretion and act as a general tonic.

General Tonic: Add 2 tablespoons leaves to I cup boiling water; flavor; drink every day.

Dandelion Tea for indigestion: Add 1 ounce of leaves to 1 pint boiled water. Sweeten with honey. Drink during the day and at night for insomnia.

I hope you will take advantage of the dandelion's many beneficial uses. Soon, the West Side Market will offer dandelion greens, and many people will pay for what can be gathered for free!

Sources:

Stalking the Wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons, 1962.

The Wild Garden, by Lys deBray, 1978.

her husband and a young Smith student "coming up the road from Paradise Pond where the girls take their boys to neck on weekends." When the pair saw Plath, the girl "began to run, literally, without goodbye."

In hindsight, anyone reflecting on such an incident in her life might indeed consider it "small," but the effect of the editors' use of this adjective to preface the account of the incident is to trivialize Plath's adult rage. It also makes her anger appear unprovoked by any action of Hughes'. The lengthy passage is packed with omissions, apparently of comments aimed at Hughes; their very number seems more damning than anything she might have said.

Some months later, while in therapy, Plath released a lot of rage against her mother. These passages are preceded not only by an editorial comment applauding this expression as a major breakthrough, but also by a note from Aurelia Plath herself:

Much of the material in these pages relating to Sylvia Plath's therapy is of course very painful to me, and coming to the decision to approve its release has been difficult. I have no doubt that many readers will accept whatever negative thoughts she reveals here as the whole and absolute truth, despite their cancellation on other, more positive pages. In any case, the importance of this material to Sylvia Plath's work is certain, and in the interest of furthering understanding of her emotional situation, I have given my consent to the release of this material.

In the light of Plath's mother's courage, Hughes' selective forgetting and omissions are nothing but sheer, self-serving cowardice.

I had thought that we had begun to realize that to understand someone, we require accurate information concerning her situation. The editors, through their omissions, cuts, and other acts of violence, have created an illusion of Sylvia Plath living in a void, as a self-contained, self-referential bombshell. The ironies pile up: the editorial discussion of Plath's inarticulate rage when they themselves are responsible for so much censorship, and this, the closing comment of McCullough's' introduction: "The book these journals make is an enormously moving document, and it seems best to simply let it speak for itself."

Smith College has sealed all of Plath's journals which concern anyone still living in a time capsule. For now, we have her poems, her letters and this cxpurgated version of her journals. Everyone, but especially students of women's history, must recognize that this selective remembrance is an enemy of true history.

Animals (continued from page 5)

He, said, "I believe I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further."

The demonstrations on April.24 will be important educational, consciousness-raising and media events. MFA welcomes all readers of What She Wants who would like to join us in this struggle and in the ongoing struggle to liberate animals from human oppression. For literature, bus reservations, a reading list in animal rights, some suggestions on how you can help Alex Pacheco and the Maryland monkeys, and a complete list of the demands for the April 24 action, write Mobilization for Animals, P.O. Box 21004, Cleveland, Ohio 44121, or call 291-2470.

1

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