Reading (re-reading) The Talented Mr Ripley (Highsmith) in preparation for an essay I have to supervise.

This time through I'm struck by the frequent descriptions of drinking and the states of altered consciousness. No doubt an area of particular expertise for Highsmith and - equally probable - the topic for a thesis at some university or other.

Parallel to a rather predictable Oedipal reading - the Greenleaf father at the beginning and the police Ripley dreads at the end - runs a more intriguing cultural theme: the American's obsession with Europe. That Tom arrives in Crete at the end - symbolic of the cradle of Western civilisation, site of the labyrinth and fittingly associated with the liar paradox - seems more than coincidental. And yet what does this desire mask? (A seemingly sterile existence of anticipatory life and empty possessions). More to think on ...