There was a guy on NPR who had helped develop profiling. He mentioned the Harris novels; Buffalo Bill was a composite character, etc. He also mention interviewing some women whose lovers had “turned” them to assist in their crimes. I wonder if Harris was interested in this phenomenon and if that is what happened to Clarice in Hannibal.
Clarice “cures” hannibal, just as he “cures” her.
Their life together after the end of Hannibal, I see as the life of a loving couple with refined tastes and substantial resources.
Harris gives you the feeling that while the couple are resourceful and potentially dangerous, their primary interest is one another.
But maybe I’m over-romanticising it. I LOVE hannibal, and I LOVE Clarice. Not so much Agent Starling.
Still, when Harris writes:
I got chills. When I read it the first time I actually fell to my knees and cried. It still chokes me up.
b.
SPOILERS FOR HANNIBAL (THE BOOK)
Well, Hannibal has certainly “turned” Clarice. What you’re referring to a phenomenon in which a female victim cooperates with her captor as a kind of survival technique, and comes to sympathise with her captor; sort of a very intense form of the Stockholm syndrome.
What Hannibal has done is brainwash Clarice using hypnosis (the references to “a single light” in the room) and powerful drugs. He has programmed her to be his perfect companion, a “fate worse than death” for such a strong-willed, independant-minded woman. He has also provided an out for her: remember the bit about the exact tone made by the bow string? If Clarice hears that exact note, the brainwashing will be erased, and she will revert to her true personality, which would be a very dangerous situation for Mr. Lecter. I suspect this is his way of keeping the relationship interesting, because he can never truly be sure whether she is his programmed automoton, or has reverted to her true self.
If you can’t tell, I loved the ending.
No, what chapter is that in?
It’s in the last dozen pages of the book or so, isn’t it? Just before Barney spots the Lecters in South America.
I wouldn’t say Hannibal is “cured,” either. Despite their having servants, they enjoy preparing dinner themselves, alone. The real Clarice is totally subsumed by the new persona of Hannibal’s sister.
I never really worked the whole thing out, but I think Harris has invested a lot of himself in these novels.
I think the reporter in Red Dragon was something Harris feared he would become if he stayed in journalism, and part of that story is about escaping that profession.
Then, I think he found a balance of sorts in Silence of the Lambs, but like his own character he became trapped in his own success. He writes about success in the face of adversity and discrimination, but at the same time he’s still writing about escape.
Hannibal is Harris’ own breakout. What he did with it was ensure that he never, ever has to write another Lecter book again–until he needs the money. In the meantime, he does some very hurtful things to the reader–and we like it. It’s a sociopathic book about a sociopath, and I can’t tell if he’s f—ing with the reader because he’s trying to tell us something, or just because he can.
I hope Tommy is a vegetarian in real life.
Anyone ever wonder if Thomas Harris and Robert Harris are actually the same guy?
I didn’t get that from it. It was before she offered him the breast, and I thought that he was going to kill her to replace his sister until she made that gesture; so why the hypnotic escape thing?
Is there any particular meaning to or use for D below middle C?
I was surprised that Harris cooperated with the movie after the ending was changed. Perhaps it was a contractural thing. At any rate, the different endings would imply that that is if not the last novel, at least the last one to be filmed.
Damn, I missed Will Graham.
I don’t think he was trying to program her to be a long-term companion either, for the same reason - the book made it clear he intended to kill her in some demented plan to reverse entropy and somehow bring back his sister. I found this bit interesting because it’s about the only peek into the nature of Hannibal’s insanity, though it’s still not enough to understand his reasoning. It’s really the only truly crazy thing he does (or plans on doing, at least)…most of his criminal behavior is completely rational, though driven by a different value system than what most people have. He kills people for understandable reasons, he finds them distasteful or he is trying do defend himself. When the book started going into his obsession with entropy I thought ‘This is an insane person’ for the first time in the series.
I think the hypnosis was intended to both free Clarice from her hangups related to her father and to make her into a totally willing sacrifice. Hannibal’s change of heart seems to be him finding an escape from his obsession with turning back time.
I found him to be frighteningly insane during his conversations with Will Graham in Red Dragon.
If he were to shoot Clarice with the crossbow, she would regain her personality and memory as she was dying. Perhaos this was the plan when he was going to kill her.
I had a really witty and insightful post written last night, and I got blown offline by AOL and lost an hours work. I was so pissed I wrote three nasty letters to AOL tech support. SO think of something particularly witty and insightful, and insert here.
If I ever get over losing that much of what’s left of my precious few remaining cogent thoughts, I’ll try to remember and re-post.
b.
It’s been a while since I read that, but I don’t recall feeling that way. Maybe my definition of insanity is a bit off, I mean someone whose worldview is seriously different from reality. I don’t really see sociopathy as insanity, but then I’m a bit sociopathic.