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.