All of Ripley's early crimes are crimes of passion and anger.
In both The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ripley Underground,
Ripley kills in a fury, and to avoid being outed for his
other crimes. It is not until Ripley's Game that he becomes a
premeditated assassin. By then he knows the thrill of murder.
The young Ripley committed murders, then considered the
advantages the demise of his acquaintences left him with and
used his unique gift for forgery and lying and mimicry to
gain their property and to distance himself from their
deaths. Ripley may be a genius, but he is absolutely
insane.
Patrick King
--- Robert Elkin <
rictusaporia@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Re lack of empathy: Ripley exhibits thus
what
> psychology might call a "flattening of
affect"--&
> "missing" is a suspect term, given social
treatment
> of
> others with his sexual orientation...& aren't
there
> a
> number of scenes in the series where Tom just
"loses
> it" & ends up killing people? (Sorry--It's been
a
> few
> years since I've read these amazing books--RIP
PH)
>
> --- Tim Wohlforth <
timwohlforth@opendoor.com> wrote:
>
> > What makes Ripley work is precisely that he
isn't
> > crazy. He is just
> > missing a part in his emotions called
"empathy."
> And
> > he is not alone
> > in lacking this emotion. Some Ripleys
run
> countries,
> > other
> > corporations, still others are con artists
like
> > Ripley. And I believe
> > this was Highsmith's dark point.
> > On Mar 30, 2007, at 5:59 PM, Michael
Robison
> wrote:
> >
> > > Dave Zeltserman wrote:
> > >
> > > I guess you could argue Lou Ford and Nick
Corey
> > are
> > > complex--although describing them as
deeply
> > psychotic
> > > would be more accurate.
> > >
> > > *************
> > > I haven't read Pop. 1280, but I've been
feeling
> > > another Jim Thompson coming on. Lou is
certainly
> a
> > > wild and crazy guy, isn't he?
> > >
> > > I just finished Highsmith's Talented Mr.
Ripley.
> > In
> > > the layman-judging-sanity category, I
didn't see
> > > Ripley as crazy. The closest I saw to
crazy was
> a
> > > couple minor bouts of panic.
> > >
> > > miker
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have
been
> > removed]
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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