Talk:Patricia Highsmith

Who stalked whom?

I am unclear as to whether Highsmith stalked the Bloomindale's woman or vice versa. Can someone please clear this up?

Done. It was Highsmith who did it, but it wasn't exactly stalking - Highsmith did not harass the woman, who never even knew of her existence. PhilipC

After Dark image?

Not sure if the picture of her tv appearance is now in the right place. The image may not have been correctly placed before but it doesn't seem to fit with sections on Religious, racial and ethnic views / Politics / Israel, given how specific her appearance on the programme was and how closely that programme ("How Do You Survive a Murder?") related to what she is best known for, see here. What do others think? AnOpenMedium (talk) 16:30, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Having the image in the //Sexuality// section did not make sense and that's why, per WP:BOLD, I moved it to a different area of the page. I tried positioning it in other sections, but the insufficient amount of text in them caused the image to spill into the section that followed and altered the page layout. The only other area where it can be located without creating the layout issue is the space between the //Writing history// and //Comic books// sections. Pyxis Solitary yak 10:57, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks, yes I see the problem! I've just tried another place, which (based on the description of what she did on the programme) seems to complement the nearby text pretty well. What do you think? AnOpenMedium (talk) 11:08, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

I think it's now a little crowded. You have the infobox - residence - After Dark files, one after the other, and the next image on the page is The Talented Mr. Ripley file. She's an author and her appearance on After Dark was because she was an author, so I think that the best location for the file would be in the //Writing history// section. Pyxis Solitary yak 12:02, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Unknowable Firsts

I have just corrected the statement that she wrotie the “first lesbian novel with a happy ending.” I suspect this was a misinterpretation of the line in Marijane Meakers' memoir recalling that it was “the only” such story available.

Most of the past is lost to us. Firsts are often very hard to pin down. Superlatives almost always require qualifiers: first known; first known English-language; first known English-language 20th-century; and so on, sometimes to the point of absurdity. Ms. Meakers' tribute and Ms Highsmith's achievement are not diminished by this.Merry medievalist (talk) 18:18, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

"I suspect this was a misinterpretation of the line in Marijane Meakers' memoir recalling that it was “the only” such story available." – What you "suspect" is strictly your point of view. But your POV doesn't decide what is or isn't included in a Wikipedia article.
"Most of the past is lost to us. Firsts are often very hard to pin down." – That's your opinion. But if Marijane Meakers, who is not only an authority on lesbian fiction but also an author of lesbian-theme fiction during the 50s-60s (under pen names), says it is the first lesbian novel with a happy ending ... then that is what the article can also state.
Meakers wrote: "...Pat was revered for her pseudonymous novel, The Price of Salt, which had been published in 1952 by Coward McCann. It was for many years the only lesbian novel, in either hard or soft cover, with a happy ending."
Meakers' memoir is cited several times in the article (and if you had bothered to look at the references you would not have assumed that you creating a citation for the Meakers book was the first time that it was being used as a source).
The article also includes the following quote:
"The appeal of The Price of Salt was that it had a happy ending for its two main characters, or at least they were going to try to have a future together. Prior to this book, homosexuals male and female in American novels had had to pay for their deviation by cutting their wrists, drowning themselves in a swimming pool, or by switching to heterosexuality (so it was stated), or by collapsing – alone and miserable and shunned – into a depression equal to hell." — "Happily ever after, at last: Patricia Highsmith on the inspiration for Carol". Patricia Highsmith (11 November 2015). The Telegraph.
If you want to go against Meakers and remove content sourced to her memoir: seek consensus for it. Pyxis Solitary (yak). L not Q. 14:27, 22 June 2021 (UTC)