Yes, I was trying to say that Booth's thesis is obvious.
To be honest, I didn't really understand all your comments. I'm not sure what the difference is between "self-serving" and "self-creating". The only valid question that I can imagine is, Did Frost and Plath take their poetic personas seriously? That is, were they actually trying to convince the public that this is who they were? Or did they understand that their poetic personas were fictional characters?
I haven't read the article since I made my first post, and I really don't want to go back and re-read it. But I remember as I was reading it that I kept thinking, "This is obvious. This is obvious."
I think there are some personal reasons why everything seemed obvious to me. I have a metaphysical philosophy of life, and I tend to see everything as being symbolic. Nothing is strictly genuine, and I really don't think it's possible for any person to represent himself accurately. Whatever Frost and Plath were doing has been done by every other person, and every other poet. It's just a matter of degree and intention.
[This message has been edited by Caleb Murdock (edited May 10, 2001).]
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