Moms Gone Mad - What Makes Them Tick?

Alina and I watched Sylvia last night. It's always amazing to see how troubled the lives of the immensely talented are. Is one the product of the other? Do you really have to starve to invoke the talented artist within?

When first introduced to women poets of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton's ilk, I became somewhat enamored by the internal struggle of women coming to terms with their gender's new found freedoms while still feeling societal/genetic pressure to be wives and mothers. I read Kate Chopin's The Awakening around the same time as well. It's unfortunate that those gifted, complex women had to be mentally imbalanced. And it's their imbalance that gets most of the attention when discussing their work. Don't the well balanced have something to say too? It is interesting, though, that each woman's existing destructive traits were heightened after childbirth. Makes you wonder about all those recent moms gone mad (Andrea Yates, Marilyn Lemak, etc.).

A great site found during my morning of post-Sylvia reflection...http://www.literarytraveler.com.