Good. We're starting to get some discussion. I, for one, look
forward to
Michael's remarks, and hope he includes the reactions of his
students. I
have a feeling he might have to mount some of his spirited
defense in the
classroom.
I will say that I am now more driven to read the novel, but,
again, it's
more a plot interest in how a criminal will manage to cover
up things, how
well he will play the game of deception. Sort of the flip
side of an
intellectual interest in the solution of crimes committed in
detective
fiction. Ripley seems most human in the flashes of hatred,
his impulses to
push someone in the water or his wish that chance harm occur.
But unlike
Lou Ford or Nabokov's HH, the guy doesn't seem to commit to
much beyond a
certain level of comfort.
How about some help, someone? Is Highsmith working with a
psychological
profile of some kind? She uses his sexual orientation to set
up a
distance, a coolness toward people--not sure I would call it
misanthropy.
Are we also getting a 50s model of someone, outwardly
directed, who cares
what people think of him, even while he may dislike them?
Complicate that
with his homosexual feelings that he suppresses or denies, so
as to be
accepted, and we seem to be in a psych textbook situation. I
dunno.
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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