Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy)

by Joseph Westfall

  We also do not know, however, that it is an impediment to that flourishing. I take the view of any Aristotelian: whether the metamorphosis of Starling (and Lecter) is good or not depends on its long-term consequences. Especially important are the consequences with regard to their basic biology, given the constraints of their environment. And these we have not yet seen. Accordingly, it seems to me that the answer to the primary ethical question is that we do not know. And herein lies a standing challenge to us and to Harris.

  The challenge to us is to take seriously the possibility of a similar metamorphosis in us, or at least in our imaginations. We see how far-reaching the results of Starling’s “sea change” are. The incalculable consequences of such momentous changes are enough to frighten almost anyone. Think about what happens when people eschew religious belief, separate from an abusive spouse, leave their homeland, attempt a major career change, and so on. Indeed, fear of the results of such changes is one major reason why so many potential patients stay away from psychotherapy (as well they might). Such fear is, I submit, a sound basis for disliking Hannibal Lecter. And it is all very well to reject the outcome of Hannibal (as the filmmakers did). But it is quite another matter simply to burke the issues that Starling’s history raises (as the filmmakers did, as well). The former is a difference of interpretation; the latter is a failure of courage.

  Finally, there is implicit in the story of Hannibal Lecter a challenge for Thomas Harris himself. When we last see the couple at the end of Hannibal, they are living the life of wealthy individuals in Buenos Aires. But such a life may seem curiously empty. They dance, they go to the opera, they enjoy fine meals and talk to one another in many languages. But there are no children. There is no socially responsible work being done. Isn’t this just another—albeit comfortable—“low-ceiling life?” (Harris, Hannibal, p. 454). What comes next? Can a 36-year old woman and a 68-year old man form a durable partnership? The challenge for Harris will be to return at least once more to Hannibal and Clarice, to explore his characters further, to see if their transformations allow for an autonomy that is genuinely worth having or if they are condemned to remain locked in some more profound illusion of human flourishing. Meanwhile, their temporary success may constitute a sharp-pointed poke at our own assumptions about what constitutes the good life.

  1 For a more wide-ranging study of the ethics of psychiatric practice as they apply to Dr. Lecter, see Chapter 5 of this volume.—Ed.

  Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

  —NIETZSCHE

  Ingredients

  The Hannibal Lecter Canon

  Novels

  Harris, Thomas. Red Dragon. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981.

  ———. The Silence of the Lambs. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.

  ———. Hannibal. New York: Delacorte, 1999.

  ———. Hannibal Rising. New York: Delacorte, 2006.

  Films

  Mann, Michael, director. Manhunter. De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.

  Demme, Jonathan, director. The Silence of the Lambs. Orion, 1991.

  Scott, Ridley, director. Hannibal. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Universal Pictures, 2001.

  Ratner, Brett, director. Red Dragon. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2002.

  Webber, Peter, director. Hannibal Rising. Dino de Laurentiis Company, 2007.

  Television

  Hannibal. Developed for television by Bryan Fuller. NBC, 2013–2015.

  Stage

  Red Dragon. Adapted for the stage by Christopher Johnson. Premiered at the Defiant Theatre, Chicago, 1996.

  Silence! The Musical. Book by Hunter Bell. Music and lyrics by Jon and Al Kaplan. Premiered at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York, 2005.

  Works about Hannibal Lecter

  Bottai, Sean, and Kristine Peashock. “Movie Discussion: Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1986),” Girl Meets Freak: Rethinking Horror Movies (blog), April 15, 2014.

  Brown, Jennifer. Cannibalism in Literature and Film. Basinstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

  Carroll, Noël. “Enjoying Horror Fictions: A Reply to Gaut.” British Journal of Aesthetics 35 (1995): 67–72.

  ———. “Horror and Humor.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 57, no. 2 (1999): 145–60.

  Conceição, Ricky da, Simon Howell, and Edgar Chaput. “Michael Mann’s Thief and Manhunter.” Sordid Cinema Podcast, no. 56 (audio recording), Sound on Sight, April 28, 2013.

  DeLisi, Matt, Michael G. Vaughn, Kevin M. Beaver, and John Paul Wright. “The Hannibal Lecter Myth: Psychopathy and Verbal Intelligence in the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study.” Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 32, no. 2 (2010): 169–77.

  Dery, Mark. “Eat the Rude: Hannibal Lecter Meets the 99%.” Boing Boing, February 17, 2015.

  Freeland, Cynthia A. The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.

  ———. “Realist Horror.” In Aesthetics: The Big Questions, ed. Carolyn Korsmeyer. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell, 1998, 283–93.

  Greggio, Ezio, director. The Silence of the Hams. Silvio Berlusconi Productions/30th Century Wolf, 1994.

  Harris, Thomas. “Author’s Note.” In The Silence of the Lambs, 25th Anniversary Edition. London: Arrow Books, 2013.

  ———. “Foreword.” In Red Dragon. New York: Berkley Books, 2000.

  Hill, Libby. “God, the Devil and ‘Hannibal’.” Monkey–See: Pop Culture News and Analysis from NPR (blog), National Public Radio, May 23, 2014.

  Jensen, Jeff. “Hannibal.” Entertainment Weekly, June 20, 2013.

  King, Stephen. “Hannibal the Cannibal.” New York Times, June 13, 1999.

  Lewis, Paul. Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

  McLean, Jesse. The Art and Making of Hannibal: The Television Series. London: Titan Books, 2015.

  McNamara, Mary. “‘Hannibal’ Drains the Mirth Out of Lecter.” Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2013.

  Poon, Janice. “Episode 10 Naka choko,” Feeding Hannibal (blog), May 7, 2014.

  Robinson, Mike (mister X). “A Tale of Two Lecters: ‘Red Dragon’ vs. ‘Manhunter’.” Film Threat, October 10, 2002.

  Schneider, Steven, and Daniel Shaw, editors. Dark Thoughts: Philosophic Reflections on Cinematic Horror. London: Scarecrow Press, 2003.

  Seitz, Matt Zoller, and Aaron Aradillas. “Do You See?: Michael Mann’s Reflections, Doubles, and Doppelgängers.” Zen Pulp, Part 4 (video). Moving Image Source, July 15, 2009.

  Shaw, Daniel. “The Birth of a Killer: Hannibal Rising.” Philosopher’s Magazine, no. 47 (2009).

  ———. “The Mastery of Hannibal Lecter.” In Dark Thoughts: Philosophic Reflections on Cinematic Horror, edited by Steven Schneider and Daniel Shaw. London: Scarecrow Press, 2003, 10–24.

  ———. “Power, Horror and Ambivalence.” Film and Philosophy, Special Edition on Horror, edited by Daniel Shaw (2001), 1–12.

  Simpson, Philip L. Making Murder: The Fiction of Thomas Harris. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010.

  Stephenson, Cliff, director and producer. “A Taste for Killing” (commentary). Hannibal: Season One [Blu-ray]. Lions Gate Films, 2013.

  ———, director and producer. “This Is My Design” (commentary). Hannibal: Season Two [Blu-ray]. Lions Gate Films, 2014.

  Szumskyj, Benjamin, editor. Dissecting Hannibal Lecter: Essays on the Novels of Thomas Harris. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008.

  Ullyatt, Tony. “To Amuse the Mouth: Anthropophagy in Thomas Harris’s Tetralogy of Hannibal Lecter Novels,” Journal of Literary Studies 28 (2012): 4–20.

  Walker, Doug. “Nostalgia Critic: Old vs New—Manhunter and Red Dragon” (video). Channel Awesome, April 10, 2012.

  White, Mike, Rob St. Mary, and Mike Robinson (mister X). “Manhunter” (podcast). The Projection Booth, Episode 170. June 10, 2014.
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  Other Resources

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  Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by David Ross and Lesley Brown. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

  Avramescu, Cătălin. An Intellectual History of Cannibalism. Translated by Alistair Ian Blyth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

  Bataille, Georges. The Bataille Reader. Edited by Fred Botting and Scott Wilson. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1997.

  ———. Erotism: Death & Sensuality. Translated by Mary Dalwood. San Francisco: City Lights, 1986.

  Beam, Christopher. “Blood Loss: The Decline of the Serial Killer.” Slate, January 5, 2011.

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  Bruun Vaage, Margrethe. “The Empathic Film Spectator in Analytic Philosophy and Naturalized Phenomenology.” Film and Philosophy 10 (2006): 21–38.

  Bullough, Edward. “‘Psychical Distance’ as a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic Principle.” British Journal of Psychology 5, no. 2 (1912): 87–118.

  Buss, David. The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill. New York: Penguin, 2005.

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  Cleckley, Hervey. The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues about the So-Called Psychopathic Personality, 5th ed. Emily S. Cleckley (private printing), 1988.

  Dolan, Maria. “The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine.” Smithsonian.com, May 6, 2012.

  Douglas, John and Mark Olshaker. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Crime Unit. London: Arrow Books, 2006.

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  Egger, Steven. “The Less Dead.” In Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime, edited by Eric Hickey. London: Sage, 2003.

  Everts, Sarah. “Europe’s Hypocritical History of Cannibalism.” Smithsonian.com, April 24, 2013.

  Feeney, F.X. Michael Mann. Edited by Paul Duncan. Koln & London: Taschen, 2006.

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  Fox, James Alan, and Jack Levin. “A Surprising Truth about Serial Killings.” CNN, October 24, 2014.

  ———. Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2015.

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  Griswold, Eliza. “The truth behind the cannibals of Congo.” Independent, March 26, 2004.

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  Howe, David. Empathy: What It Is and Why It Matters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

  Iacoboni, Marco. Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others. New York: Picador, 2009.

  Irvine, William B. “Cannibalism, Vegetarianism and Narcissism.” Between the Species 5, no. 1 (1989): 11–17.

  Jenkins, Philip. “Catch Me Before I Kill More: Seriality as Modern Monstrosity.” Cultural Analysis 3 (2002): 1–17.

  Logan, Caroline. “Cannibal Warlords of Liberia.” Borgen Magazine, July 3, 2014.

  Lu, Matthew. “Explaining the Wrongness of Cannibalism.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87, no. 3 (2013): 433–58.

  Maibom, Heidi, and James Harold. “Without Taste: Psychopaths and the Appreciation of Art,” La Nouvelle Revue Française d’Esthétique 6 (2010): 71–84.

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  Mearns, Dave, and Brian Thorne. Person-Centered Counselling in Action. 4th ed. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013.

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  Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ. Translated by R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Penguin, 1968.

  ———. The Dawn of Day. Translated by John M. Kennedy. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1911.

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  Novitz, David. The Boundaries of Art: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Place of Art in Everyday Life. Rev. ed. Rochester, MN: Cybereditions, 2001.

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  The Psychopaths

  Here we are: a bunch of psychopaths, helping each other out.
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br />   —FREDDIE LOUNDS in Hannibal, Season 1, “Entrée”

  SHAI BIDERMAN holds a PhD in philosophy from Boston University, and teaches film and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and at Beit-Berl College, Israel. He is the co-editor of The Philosophy of David Lynch (2011), and has published articles and book chapters in philosophy of film, film analysis, and film-philosophy, in journals such as Film and Philosophy and Cinema, and in edited volumes such as The Philosophy of the Western (2010), The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film (2008), Lost and Philosophy (2008), and Movies and the Meaning of Life (2005). He enjoys writing papers with his co-author, Will, not because of Will’s writing style or the fact that he can interpret the evidence of psychopathic monsters, but because his liver will more than likely taste good with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

  SELENA K.L. BREIKSS is a graduate student at Washington State University, pursuing a PhD in American studies. Her broad academic interests are in gender, race, and class in film and television. After seeing The Silence of the Lambs at a young age, she dreamed of being the next Clarice Starling and has continued to be an avid Fannibal (complete with themed tattoos and a bearded dragon named Mason Verger). When she is not being gorged, drowned, plucked, and roasted by graduate school, she spends her free time crafting, reading, baking, and cooking—often having friends for dinner.

  When the body of JASON DAVIS was eventually found, the fact that some of his organs had been removed post-mortem was not made public. Crime writers and bloggers covering his murder had already made cheap irony of how he had been a contributor to Dexter and Philosophy (2011). But should anyone caring to uncover more about his death at Macquarie University where he worked, a hastily obscured copy on his desk of Planet of the Apes and Philosophy (2013), which he’d also contributed to, hides something much more telling. Waiting in its pages is a torn and creased photo of an immaculately dressed, balding yet ponytailed man Jason had been tailing as a mysterious donor to the university. And on the other side, in elegant handwriting, half of a recipe for devilled kidneys.