“After reading Burgum, [Patricia Highsmith] wrote in her cahier that, like Kafka, she felt she was a pessimist, unable to formulate a system in which an individual could believe in God, government or self. Again like Kafka, she looked into the great abyss which separated the spiritual and the material and saw the terrifying emptiness, the hollowness, at the heart of every man, a sense of alienation she felt compelled to explore in her fiction. As her next hero, she would take an architect, 'a young man whose authority is art and therefore himself,' who when he murders, 'feels no guilt or even fear when he thinks of legal retribution'. The more she read of Kafka the more she felt afraid as she came to realise, 'I am so similar to him.” HeartArtSelfGovernmentSpiritualIndividualBeliefFearFictionAuthorityMurderGuiltEmptinessPessimismAutismAbyssAlienationPessimistSystemRetributionExploreKafkaMaterialHollownessTerrifyingGog Book:Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι Source: Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι
“[Patricia Highsmith] was overwhelmed by sensory stimulation - there were too many people and too much noise and she just could not handle the supermarket. She continually jumped, afraid that someone might recognise or touch her. She could not make the simplest of decisions - which type of bread did she want, or what kind of salami? I tried to do the shopping as quickly as possible, but at the check-out she started to panic. She took out her wallet, knocked off her glasses, dropped the money on the floor, stuff was going all over the place.” PeopleFearStuffDecisionMoneyGlassesNoiseDecisionsShoppingPanicAutismOverwhelmedRecogniseTouchAfraidAspergersJumpAspergers SyndromeQuicklySupermarketWalletAsperger SAsperger S SyndromeCheck OutJumpedSensory Stimulation Book:Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι Source: Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι