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Talk:Sylvia Plath

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Good articleSylvia Plath has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
June 11, 2017Good article nomineeListed
July 7, 2017Featured article candidateNot promoted
On this day...A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on February 11, 2020.
Current status: Good article

Carbon monoxide poisoning

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I read the source, and it is reliably cited. However, I am not at all clear how one dies from carbon monoxide (CO) poising by immersing one's head in an oven venting natural gas. Does anyone have any insights? CO is the product of combustion. Had the oven been lighted, she would have been burned - but she wasn't. So where did the CO come from? Rklawton (talk) 14:34, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well the claim comes from page 364 of Butscher (2003): "The Deputy Coroner concluded that Sylvia had died from carbon monoxide poisoning." In 1963 in London it wasn't natural gas, but old-fashioned town gas? You may want to look at Suicide methods#Other toxins. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:53, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I hadn't thought of town gas. The inquest's findings make a lot more sense to me now. Thank you! Rklawton (talk) 17:03, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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The article title makes sense, but why don't we include her legal name in the opening paragraph? I know her husband's surname is a point of contention among some of her fans and feminists, but should that have any bearing on an encyclopedia article? Rklawton (talk) 17:03, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No strong objections. But did she ever use "Sylvia Hughes"? As far as I know she never published under that name. Her gravestone does have "Sylvia Plath Hughes", however. I'm thinking that a similar case might be Pam Ayres (although Dudley Russell is a theatre producer). Martinevans123 (talk) 17:41, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Suicide (again)

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Just to remind editors there have been two previous discussions, on the most appropriate format for this description, one in each of the two archives. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:12, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]