true story there’s one reason and one reason only i picked up the bell jar. and that reason is family guy.

there’s an episode of family guy called “a fish out of water”, where peter buys a fishing boat and goes hunting for daggermouth, and lois and meg go to spring break. and in one scene in that episode, there’s a shot of meg sitting reading the bell jar. and i wanted to know why that crap was funny.

i tell you, i am committed to getting the most outta my comedy.

hearts and laserbeams book report: the bell jar by sylvia plath

ok when i started telling people i was reading this book, i got a lot of “uhhhhh are you ok? are you severely depressed? can i give you the number of a good therapist to talk to? will you give me fifty bucks?” type questions. (“yes, no, already got one, and once jen paypals me forty dollars maybe i’ll pass some on to you” are the answers to all of those by the way.)

and i may be weird in saying this…

please don’t think i’m emotionally disturbed.

but i didn’t think it was nearly as effed up and bad as folks were suggesting when i started reading it.

don’t get me wrong, this chick esther was effed up and depressed. that’s what the whole book is about – how she just starts spiralling downward into depression. but for the most part when you’re starting the book, it’s a lot of “eh, life is boring” type crap. like esther the molester (sorry, they don’t really call her that in the book but  i can’t help it. that crap rhymes.) is going to go to a party with her friend one night, and they meet some boys on the way there and they end up leaving with the guys instead and eh, esther could care less one way or another. there’s a lot of feeling like she doesn’t think she belongs anywhere in the first parts of this book.

if they did a re-write of this book today (re-makes are all the rage with movies, it’s only a matter of time before classic books start gettin’ hit, too) there’d probably be some product placement for xanax or whatever anti-depressent is big right now.

so i’m goin along, reading this book, going “uh this ain’t so bad what the heck is everyone talking about?” and then i got to right around chapter 12 and 13. and esther repeatedly tries to off herself. and that crap is sad, dude. it’s pretty intense. and just really sad – even worse when you read that the author had issues with depression, too, and eventually killed herself. but yeah – that couple of chapters were pretty rough, like every other page you get to something like “esther tries to drown herself”, or “esther drank drano”, or “esther taped raw steaks to herself and ran through a rabid dog quarantine area”, etc. etc. etc.

but then, and this is what i loved about the book, it gets hopeful. i am all about the hopeful stories, the ones where things are crapty but the protaganist finds a way to get through it and create a better life. (it’s why push by sapphire is one of my favorite reads ever. i don’t wanna say i’m ultracool or anything, but i read that book like 10 years before they made the movie precious.) because that’s the way it should be, guys. if crap happens, okay. it happens. but you do not just roll over and die (or drown yourself), or live the next 30 years of your life as the center of a massive pityparty. you deal with it and move on, and have your happy life back.

after the suicide chapters of the book she ends up in a mental home for a while. she does the shock treatment thing, she gets better and worse, but i feel like towards the end of the book things actually start  getting a little better. she starts understanding that she needs to fix her crap, and it seems like she’s making progress. i don’t know if esther ever really gets her happy life back, but she seemed to be on her way and i liked that.

hearts: 3 – this book was pretty sad throughout, even though it was more hopeful after the killy mckillsomuch chapters.

farts: 2 – DARN those suicide chapters are rough. the end!