Peter Walker (pw@pw.cablenet.co.uk)
Tue, 22 Jun 1999 18:55:06 +0000
Christopher Bahn wrote:
> I think the general consensus was that "Hannibal"
wasn't hardboiled/noir
> enough to fit the RARA AVIS template..
Err, well excuse me, must be working on another notion of
hard-boiled. Could someone just run that by me again or have
you all talked about Hannibal already and I missed it? should
we get on to Stephen King?
>Some of this was rather clumsy, though -
> Lecter's really a Latvian count? Come on.
Well someones got to be. Its not beyond the realms of
possibility....
> Lecter's newly revealed history feels like a ploy
for sympathy,. In
>Silence of the Lambs,
> Harris actively avoided giving Lecter a past
("Nothing happened to me,
> Clarice - I happened.") and it was probably a
mistake to have given him one
> in Hannibal. A reviewer in Slate pointed out that
Lecter didn't NEED a
> history, and was far more frightening without
it.
A good point but even still all that about his sister being
eaten - makes you wonder he didn't turn into a vegan. Oh
well, the vageries of human nature...But I don't agree
with....
> Also, I think Harris cut some corners with the plot
just to make it easier
> to stage the Lecter/Verger confrontation. Jack
Crawford has a convenient
> heart attack just when Clarice needs him? Hm. And
Krendler is able to
> singlehandedly derail and subvert the FBI search for
a guy who's at the top
> of the Ten Most Wanted List? No way.
This is a work of fiction and the whole point is to suspend
reality and join in. Hannibal himself isn't real. The super
intellegent invincible cold blooded vampire cannibal killer
bit is unreal but who cares - it's a good read. Most killers
are stupid. Someone should write a book about a serial killer
who crosses out all the warnings on plastic bags or
something...
>Basically, I think Harris let Mason
> Verger's character take over too much of the
plot.
But who's the real horror? A rich kid peodophile who has
welfare children bussed in to abuse - now thats
real....
>Since Verger kept every
>I wanted two things out of the sequel: To see how
Lecter
> would behave out of a cell, and to see how Starling
would out-think Lecter
> well enough to catch him. I only got one of
those.
Which is a fair point. Mad ending but if fitted in with the
whole book I thought...the whole was complete and integrated.
Peter Peter
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