Re: RARA-AVIS: The Talented Mr. Ripley

From: Patrick King ( abrasax93@yahoo.com)
Date: 02 Apr 2007


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
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> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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