The Talented Mr. Ripley: Book vs. Film
Details
“The name Patricia Highsmith designates for me a sacred territory,” writes Slavoj Žižek, “a figure whose position among writers is comparable to the place Spinoza holds for Deleuze—the Christ among philosophers. When one speaks of Highsmith, one should tread carefully, for one is walking through my dreams.”
— “Immoral, and Yet Ethical!”
For our book club meeting, I propose The Talented Mr. Ripley, the novel in which Tom Ripley first appears and in which Patricia Highsmith discovers what would become her most unsettling double. For her, Ripley is not just a character but a kind of externalized ego: Highsmith later signed her mail as “Tom (Pat)” and even appended his name to her own.
Ripley is a man without qualities, yet with a perfect ear for the intonations of others. He can be anyone, because being himself is unbearable.
To make our discussion even more interesting, I suggest reading the novel alongside its 1999 film adaptation by Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. It is not the only cinematic version of Highsmith’s work, but it remains the most celebrated—and perhaps the most seductive.
We’ll discuss what changes when Ripley moves from page to screen: morality versus beauty, inner emptiness versus outward glamour, and the question of why we want what Tom Ripley has.
Links for inspiration:
- Slavoj Žižek, Immoral, and Yet Ethical!
- The New Yorker podcast, Critics at Large: Why We Want What Tom Ripley Has