Issues
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My sincerest hope for this issue has to do with homage. Through pain, Plath paved a mighty road for us. Culture has thanked Plath by making her a caricature that glamorizes her deepest agonies. In many ways, it’s fitting, completely unsurprising. We live in a world that saddles women to stereotypes they’ve long ago outgrown, that never fit them in the first place. Why does it take a woman’s death to bring change? Through Plath, let’s celebrate our cerebral weather together—give thanks for the sacrifice of her life.
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Hope is a small thing—but mighty, unsubtle, silvering in on itself, cellular, with its untapped locus of power. Libre was my battle-cry, and I wanted it to be others’ too. I have an image in my head of Joan of Arc. She’s slight, and the girlish curve of her cheek is visible under the too-big weight of a man’s helmet. Epicene face, calm and clear with a mouth meant for the fierce pucker of eternity. Her gait isn’t straight or strong, and at times her horse meanders, stopping at fresh cloves along the French countryside. There’s guidance, though, in her path, and there’s guidance too, in the sails of the Good Ship Libre.