autumnsunset101 replied to your post “Hannibal is the biggest copout I’ve ever read.”
Hmm? Hi there :) I just stumbled across this post, and it caught my curiosity… Would you mind explaining/satisfying my curiosity a bit? What did you see as a “copout”? (I so rarely find people who have actually read the original books, so I would be very happy to have any sort of discussion about them…lol)
Okay, first of all, I’m sorry if I get little rambly, I also don’t know anyone who reads the books, so I might go a little overboard because I can finally talk to someone about it. Also, I get a little emotional when talking about things I really like, and I’m a sarcastic little shit, so if I ever seem like I’m being rude or mean, I’m sorry, I really don’t mean to, I’m just excited to talk about it and it might come out wrong. But, I really don’t mean to and I really do appreciate you asking.
I read Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal right after each other, so I might be getting some things mixed up, but if I remember correctly, no one ever mentioned Hannibal having a sister in SotL. It seems like something Crawford would mention to Starling, either to use it or make sure to avoid mentioning it in her and Hannibal’s ‘meetings’, or something Chilton would taunt him with. Now, he might not have told them, but, at least I think, he would have mentioned it Barney or in one of the sections that tells you what he’s thinking. A good portion of his thoughts in Hannibal are about Mischa, so I would think he would think about her while in captivity, too. He might have just put her out of his mind, focused on the present complications, but from what I gathered in Hannibal, she’s always been on his mind, somehow bringing her back was always his end game.
It seems like Hannibal suddenly has the tragic backstory to explain everything he does and make the reader sympathize with him. Now, I’m all for a tragic backstory and I usually like the villains, but I never really feel bad for Hannibal, but I did like him. I think trying to make me sympathize with him took away from how terrified and intrigued I was by him. He was cold and heartless, for seemingly no reason besides he was a genius who considered himself better than everyone else and above the law. There’s just something fascinating about that to me. He reminded me of Michael Meyers in the Halloween film franchise, no motive or explanation, just pure rage and violence, which made him so much more scary.
I also never really noticed any attraction between Starling and Hannibal in SotL. They had a connection, but I always thought his and Barney’s was stronger, or her and Crawford’s. Maybe it’s from every other character hammering it into Starling’s head that he doesn’t care about her and can’t be trusted, but I just never got that vibe from them. Possibly friends, but not this romantic or even platonic relationship they seem to have in Hannibal. It seemed like they changed both the characters, especially Starling, just to have them end up together. Her talk with Mapp about wanting him to survive and her to bring him in seemed awkward and out of character to me. Her leaving Mapp at all seemed a little out of character to me, but I did like the parts about Mapp helping her and then trying to find her and the little tidbits of Mapp’s history we got to see and hear about.
I also didn’t like the introduction of Chilton’s ‘fiancee’. It was made very clear in SotL that he was all alone and then all of a sudden this fiancee pops up for one scene to give Starling information she needed? I would have preferred Inelle to be just a staff member at the hospital, that would have made more sense. Actually, what I really would have preferred, was for Inelle to be lying to Starling and either working to help Chilton, who faked his own death, or Hannibal, who she somehow has a connection with.
These are all just my opinions and theories and I might be completely wrong about what I sensed and thought about the relationships in SotL, but it just seemed like a copout to me because Hannibal got a happy ending and, in a way, so did Starling. I think it would have been more fulfilling to have them either die together or end up in a mental hospital together. Even though I didn’t see them as caring about each other all that much, their lives were connected and it would have been, to me, a good conclusion for them to end up in the same place.
Did you like the ending? Oh, and what about the Vergers? I thought they were both interesting, what did you think about them? Seriously, what did you think about anything, I’d be more than happy to talk about any part of it, I’m just so happy to be able to talk about it at all!
I honestly believe that, from the very beginning, Thomas Harris intended for Clarice and Dr. Lecter to be exactly what the other needed: They both eventually manage to make each other confront uncomfortable truths about themselves, which also leads to both of them “cleansing themselves of their respective demons” at the end of the story. I really do like the ending, because Clarice is finally freed from the after effects of her father’s death, and Hannibal is finally freed from the after effects of Mischa’s death. And Clarice is given a fresh start, after her entire world fell apart (because she had given everything she had to the FBI - “You fall in love with the Bureau, but the Bureau doesn’t fall in love with you.”) As for the romance not starting until “Hannibal”, I think that there were actually *many* signs in “Silence” of what was between Dr. Lecter and Clarice: After just their very first meeting, when Hannibal has such an emotional reaction to what Miggs did; “flirting” a bit because of Valentine’s Day; Hannibal drawing pictures of Clarice; Clarice thinking about how Ardelia and Dr. Lecter are the two “brightest” people she knew; Clarice’s discussion with Pilcher about how he loves moths, even though people think of them as “destructive” (the same word Clarice used to describe what is evil in her discussion with Hannibal); Chilton teasing Hannibal about how Clarice “made him go to jelly” and that he’ll only have “one more day with her”; “Some of our stars are the same.”; and when Clarice visits Hannibal in Memphis and, after she tells him that she came because she wanted to, he tells her that “People Will Say We’re In Love” - which is also the name of a song from the very old musical “Oklahoma” that is about a not-yet-couple who are trying to deny and hide their feelings from everyone else, and even from themselves (however, the reprise of the song is called “Let People Say We’re In Love”… I think you get the idea lol…)
I stand with Autumn. I believe that from the start Hannibal knew what Clarice was and soon he had plans for her. However, on Hannibal, what he feels for her turns into something so big that he tries to make her become Mischa so he won’t get rejected and hurt again, like it happened when he fell for Murasaki. On Silence of the Lambs, you can see that he is solely flirting with Clarice and, sometimes, trying to impress her. Also, Miggs was a big parallel to the dead butcher who insulted Murasaki. Hannibal fell hard for Clarice and he had to find a way to cope it, without getting hurt in the process, so he tries to scare her a bit, taunt her, make her his sister. But then you’ll have several scenes on both books that will make you say “Man, are you sure you know how to have a sister around?”. He checks Clarice out, he compliments her with words like “delicious vision”, and, of course, he licks her steering wheel. If you guys do that to your siblings, well, I have news for you. By the way, I believe Mischa was never mentioned on SotL because Chilton and the press would use it against Lecter, they would do anything in their power to break him, even go extremely cruel. And I was not surprised that Chilton left a fiancee, he ACTED as a single man, like many men do. Anyway, both Hannibal and Clarice are real strong characters, they stand on their own. What do I mean? Writers know that characters make their own decisions, they have a life of their own when they’re well-written. And Lecter clearly does that. Harris ALWAYS asks for permission to enter the Memory Palace. And there are scenes when Harris is at loss to what Clarice is feeling, because she also doesn’t know or just won’t tell him. So, no, it was not made up to a happy ending, as sudden as it was, it was their decision. As much as it was their decision to be left alone in their new home.
Thank you, friend! :D Your words are a welcome addition to any post, and I ~loved~ what you wrote here! ;) :)
