Just a lil something I wrote about in my blog on myspace.. about my not so healthy obsession with Dr. Lecter. Hope you don't think I'm crazy after reading it LOL... :) Dayna I have been obsessed with Hannibal Lecter since I was 11 years old, when Silence of the Lambs was released (1991). I know that's probably one of the strangest things you've ever heard, yet still it's the truth. My mother was totally against me watching the movie at such a young age but I demanded she let me, that I could handle it. Instead of feeling frightened by Lecter (more by Buffalo Bill than anyone else and Dr. Chilton's horrendous taste in wardrobe and cheap pick ups) I found myself drawn to Lecter. Even at 11 years old, understanding that this fictitious character must have had something horrible happen to him to turn him into the "monster" he became. I found something intriquing in his speech, in his courtesy to those who were courteous to him. Although at 11, I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was I liked about him, I just knew that I was a strange child for thinking so. Afraid to tell my mother or anyone for that fact, that in some strange way, this character of evil was almost like a hero. I remember being 14 years old and watching Silence of the Lambs in the pitch dark at 2am by myself, never flinching, and being able to lull off to sleep while watching it. Strange... very strange. My 21st birthday, Hannibal came out in theaters, the book already months ago read, I could not wait. 10 years of an obsession with a well bred, well educated, extremely intelligent sociopath was being fed once more by the talented Thomas Harris. Everytime a new book or movie is released to the public I get the same excitement, the memories of how I somehow, in some strange way, connected with Hannibal Lecter. Even loved his demeanor. I know it sounds sick... I'm a typical 27 year old woman, happy single mom, but to this day, Hannibal still makes me feel like a child learning something new and dangerous. I have 30 pages left of the book which I will be finishing tonight (thanks to the lovely Sarah for my birthday gift) and I will be going to the theaters in the next day or 2 to see the film. There were a few parts in Hannibal (the novel) that touched lightly on Lecter's childhood, something I have wanted to know about for years.. now that I am reading the book, I am finding this, out of all the novels in the series to be more gruesome, more heartwrenching, more emotional. I think this movie will humanize Lecter in a way we never thought we could see him... as a victim. I think for Thomas Harris to ever have the opportunity to put the Hannibal Lecter in his head to rest, he had to write this book. I think that Hannibal himself would haunt his author until the entirity of his story was told. Harris has done just that. I'm not one for writing book or movie reviews or one to push reading onto another, but if you want a complete story, told only the way the great storytellers can do, read all the books. Read them in the order he wrote them. Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and now Hannibal Rising. Not only will you be entertained, but you will go through a proverbial mind palace of different emotions for one single solitary fictitious character. One you have known the name of as long as you can remember.
