[HN Gopher] The Talented Ms. Highsmith
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The Talented Ms. Highsmith
Author : Caiero
Score : 27 points
Date : 2025-06-14 05:39 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (yalereview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (yalereview.org)
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| I know people like the Ripley novels, but I find them really
| creepy and predictable. This kind of wish-fulfillment fiction is
| kind of lazy. It's like the sci-fi where the author just invents
| a gadget that delivers what people fantasize about doing.
| moritzwarhier wrote:
| I disagree, apart from them being creepy.
|
| Do you think the novels are there to fulfill creepy "wishes"?
|
| In my opinion, this is not the case, but to each their own.
|
| What I find lazy is when stories try to make me guess about
| "what" happens in the story, flex about technological details,
| or use surprise as a narrative device.
|
| Highsmith's stories are about "how" and "why" something
| happens, they are not movie stories trying to lead you astray
| and make you guess _what_ will happen.
|
| I prefer this, always, in movies, books, writing, art.
|
| I like open questions. I hate plots that try to build surprises
| or riddles to keep me interested. These kinds of stories make
| me tune out and feel dull to me.
|
| I really love her other novels too, many of them also have the
| perspective of a crime perpetrator though.
|
| For a slightly different variant, maybe look at, for example,
| "Edith's diary".
|
| Also, her short stories are amazing, for example "When the
| Fleet Was in", or many other ones published in collections
| along with it.
|
| These stories are far from painting criminals as desirable, in
| my opinion. Sure, it's a part of the entertainment value to
| take the criminal's perspective.
|
| Her novels challenge simplistic morality, but she does not
| "side with the criminals" IMO.
|
| I get what you mean with her novels having in common a certain
| atmosphere of psychological determinism, and, a focus on dark
| motives that are somehow presented to the readers as
| "relatable".
|
| I suggest to read some interviews with her: she did not have a
| nihilistic view on hunamity. She believed in good and evil.
| Certainly she was a difficult person.
|
| This one has some content about these questions, it
| unfortunately also focuses strongly on the Ripley case, and you
| might feel it affirms your view in some sense (I'd disagree
| though):
|
| https://quartetbooks.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/patricia-highs...
|
| (please ignore the PL-related stuff... should not distract from
| the content)
|
| > Q: Your heroes are usually unscrupulous, amoral and sometimes
| schizoid. Is it simply that they are more dramatically
| interesting figures to write about, or does your attention to
| them run deeper than that?
|
| > A: It's not so much attraction. I find them interesting,
| puzzling. Nobody questions why somebody is good, but most
| people are curious about a murderer - they want to know why.
| Also there is entertainment value in somebody getting away with
| something. One may disapprove, but it's still fascinating.
|
| I couldn't retrieve the most interesting interview I read with
| her, didn't bookmark that, unfortunately.
|
| I don't think her novels simply exploit people fantasizing
| about be murderers. That kind of "crime-porn" is much more
| prevalent in simplistic crime novels about killers who are
| caught in the end, but get to commit atrocities described in
| details before.
|
| The "wish-fulfillment" you describe, in my opinion, I would
| call something else. I did not enjoy Highsmith because I wanted
| to murder people.
|
| But sure, nobody has to like her, and there are plenty of other
| writing styles to enjoy.
|
| She certainly has a style and complex of themes that leaves one
| with an urge to read something different after a couple of
| books.
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