Writing With Heart

 I have read Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novel, and nothing else. I did get to see the movie Salt. Also, I have watched Strangers on a Train. Therein are all of my experiences with Highsmith. What articles I have read about her, leave me intrigued and impressed; impressed enough to be a little scared by her talent. Jess Walter on the Highsmithian Principles of Suspense from LitHub teaches me something else:

So, what are the Highsmithian principles I used to assemble the stories in this year’s collection? We started with drama and suspense, some violence and psychology, and a fair amount of what Pat called “soul.” “How little does plot matter,” Highsmith wrote in May of 1953. “The joy and the art is how it is handled.” Joy and art, check and check. Highsmith at another point: “One cannot write, however well, and leave out the heart.” Heart, check again. Still later, “The main thing in any book, for me, is the momentum, the enthusiasm, the narrative rush.” Momentum, enthusiasm, and narrative rush. Check, check, and check.

Which I related immediately to another LitHub essay I had just finished reading and noting under What Good is Writing?

The key word there was urgency. Seems to me, reading these two essays in such close connection, that heart begets urgency. Still, these leave me thinking I see a weakness in "Colonel Tom" and perils ahead. These will be ideas I keep chewing over for a long while. Nice to have inchoate thoughts put into words. 

sch 12/17/22