The Plath less travelled

In her latest book, leading non-fiction writer Maggie Nelson pitches Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift as cultural sisters. But Hannah Ewens is far from convinced of the connection

- Hannah Ewens

Taylor Swift will no doubt love being compared to Sylvia Plath.

Especially when the comparison comes from Maggie Nelson, one of the greatest living nonfiction writers and author of the it-girl philosophical memoir, The Argonauts. Because, of course, Swift is a self-professed tortured poet: a woman who stacks literary references like chord progressions, no bard too sacred, no play or fictional character too obvious to include in a song.

This is the woman who put on an auburn wig and signed a copy of her imaginary debut novel All Too Well in the video of the same name.

Despite how she aligns with the literary, there's little that meaningfully connects Swift to Plath - least of all in their work - beyond the fact that both are (or were, in Plath's case) industrious female artists who wanted to be famous and then became icons. Which is reason enough, I guess, for Nelson's new essay-length book, The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift, to make a mostly weak case that they are cultural sisters.

The book's title comes from a line in Plath's diary: “I will slave and slave until I break into those slicks.” The “slicks” being glossy, high-end magazines - the kind Plath longed to conquer, a goal she'd surpass before her death at age 30. Promo text for Nelson's book describes it as exploring “twin hosts of the female urge towards wanting hard, working hard, and pouring forth - and as twinned targets of patriarchy's ancient urge to disparage, trivialise and demonise such prolific, intimate output”. After reading it, I'm less convinced than I was before. They're neither twins nor sisters, perhaps very distant relatives.

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