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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1998)
Rhythm-ReVieWS FRIDAY,FEBRUARY 13. 1998 Lucky 7 A rising band of all University students unit play WOW Hall on Valentine’s Day Effierald PAGE 9 ‘Up the Down Staircase’ A play based on Bel Kaufman's novel tells the story' of one teacher's struggle to gain the trust and respect of her students PAGE 8 Volume 99, Issue 96 mmm ■ Patty Larkin will play at the Wild Duck Music Hall tonight in support of her new album,‘Per ishable Fruit.’ A New York Times critic recently called her music ‘comparable to the best of Bonnie : Raitt.’ Tickets are $14 at f the door. I ■ The Five Fin gers of Funk with Habeneros will perform at WOW Hall tonight. Doors open at 9, jj and tickets are $7. f ■ The Valentine’s \ Day Carnival of Love'at the Nexus Club (1045 j Willamette) will feature a Delphina | clothing store fashion show as j well as Belly danc- f ing, juggling and a i drag show. Tick- | ets are $7 for one person, $10 per couple at the door. f ■ For their Febru- I ary concert, the \ Eugene Sympho- \ ny will present the | ‘Sounds of Spain.’ I The program will \ be conducted by f Miguel Harth Bedoya, with award-winning pi- | anist Angela Cheng as the fea tured soloist. The concert will occur at the Hult Center at 8 p.m. on Feb. 19. Tickets are $12- | 36, $10 for students. ■ Songwriter/ performer Mason I Williams will be the featured speaker at the School of Music’s ? Forum at 1 p.m. in j Beall Hall on Feb. 19. Mason’s topic i is ‘Choosing Com- j munity as a Rea son for Music.' Williams is a two time Grammy award winner. u I refuse to be drawn into reading ['Birthday Letters'] as a kind of psychic healing for Hughes or as a recognition that we should forgive him. ** Karen Ford University English professor Plath A Love-Hate ELATIONSHIP By Sara Pritchard Freelance reporter Earlier this month, England’s Poet Laureate Ted Hughes published his 14th book ol poetry, “Birthday Letters.’ The collection of poems is inspired by his late wife, the famous American poet Sylvia Plath. “Birthday Letters” was published tc mark the anniversary of Plath’s death, February holds a certain ironic signifi cance for Hughes and Plath: It was the month in which they met and the month in which she died. The book signifies the end of Hughes’ silence about their tragic relationship and acts as a catalyst for new discussion. The story of Plath and Hughes be gins in 1956 in Cambridge, England Plath graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and received a Ful bright Scholarship to study and teach at Newnham College. Hughes re turned to Cambridge that same year having received a degree in English from Pembroke two years prior. After meeting at a party in February 1956, they were married in a private ceremony in June. The only person in attendance was Plath’s mother, and no photos were taken. In 1957, the Hughes moved to America. Plath re turned to Smith to teach while Hughes taught at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. mrwtirm Sara Pritchard In December 1959, they returned to England where they continued their writing careers. In April I960, their first child, Frieda, was bom. Later that year, Plath published her first book of poetry, “The Colossus.” In 1961, Plath published her autobi ographical novel "The Bell Jar” under a pseudonym. In October 1962, not long after their second child, Nicholas, was bom, Plath and Hughes separated. On February 11, 1963, Plath com mitted suicide by placing her head in a gas oven. The children were safely tucked away in their rooms. This time line would have provid ed sufficient biographical information had Hughes been a responsible execu tor of her posthumous work. The re cent publication of “Birthday Letters,” however, is a continuation of Hughes’ abuse of his role as owner of Plath’s literary body. Although Hughes has been the Poet Laureate of England since 1984 and is considered an exceptional poet in Britain, his latest work succeeds in re opening wounds for Plath readers and scholars. As the executor of her work, Hugh es was presented with two options: He could either seal the work or pub lish the remaining poems, letters and journals in their entirety. But Hughes chose another option — to destruc tively edit Plath’s work. Perhaps he did this to protect him self and his family; however, it was this editing that created a hatred that continues to haunt him. “In about 1980, he handed over some of the papers to Smith College and published the collected poems. It was such a long time after her death that (critics] felt he was suppressing material,” said Karen Ford, a Univer sity professor of English. Hughes published a book of her po etry titled “Ariel," but later he re vealed that he had edited and changed the sequence of the poems. “We realized that he had manipu lated the literary remains in yet anoth er way — that even this book that her whole reputation was raised on was n’t the book that Plath had left be hind,” Ford said. This knowledge only made his Turn to POETRY Page 10 University professor debuts collection of short stories Author and professor Peter Ho Davies will sign copies and read from his book, ‘7he Ugliest House in the World, ’ on Feb. 19 By Shannon Sneed Entertainment Reporter University creative writing professor Peter Ho Davies will read from and sign copies of his debut collection of short sto ries, “The Ugliest House in the World,” on Thursday, Feb. 19 in the Knight Library Browsing Room. The book features a collection of eight short stories that range from past to pre sent and are set in places all over the world, from England to Malaysia to Africa, Davies said. "One thing so appealing about writing short stories as opposed to a novel is the ability to make changes in voice, changes in place and changes in time,” Davies said. "I’ve always been drawn to working with different material.” Part of this attraction stems from Davies’ own mixed cultural heritage. He was raised in Wales, and his mother is Chinese and his father is Welsh — an odd combi nation of heritages that has helped inspire his interest in different cultures and expe riences, he said. The short stories in the book also have a wide emotional range, from heartbreaking tragedy to warm humor. In the title story, for example, Davies tells the tale of the fu neral of a six-year-old boy, but then he quickly switches to humorous plot twists in “I Don’t Know, What Do You Think?,’’ a sto Turnto NOVEL, Page 7 —.. III mil II III _J COURTESY PHOTO Peter Ho Davies is a University professor.
