Why I never hated Hannibal Lecter?

I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts about this for a while.

I’ve been fascinated by criminology and serial killers’ profiles since I was very young –I bought my first encyclopedia about serial killers when I was twelve and at that time studies about these types of crimes were still speculative and the names always the same: Bundy, Berkowitz, Dhamer, Kemper, Biachi&Buono, Fish, Gein…

I wanted to be a profiler so much.

I don’t want to trasform this post in a complain about my country so, let’s say I completely lost my will for many reasons and simply kept on studying for my own interest.

What I felt about my readings was anger, disbelief and a lack of respect for those people. It’s obvious but I say it anyway: murders like that are so inexplicable to me.

All murders are horrible, but those… They made no sense, that’s why I wanted to understand the minds behind them.

That is the real part.

I started to watch movies about it. One of my favourite was Copycat, maybe because it had references about all the serial killers I already knew.

And movies made me feel as my real readings.

All but one.

Silence of the Lambs.

And since that day I watched it, many years ago, until now, I’ve been asking myself:

Why I never hated Hannibal Lecter?

Or, at least, not as much as I should.

Well, back then I had only that one movie to think about Hannibal. I was so young I didn’t even ask myself if there was a book to read.

Now I have three versions of Hannibal: the one in the movies, the one in the tv show and the one in the books.

Do I hate or feel nauseated by one of them?

No.

I think I know why.

Aside the fact that he is a fictional character.

Buffalo Bill is fictional, he made me sick. Francys Dolarhyde… I wanted him dead. Dexter, Letherface… Even Jigsaw.

Why not Hannibal?

The character does to readers what he does to his unfortunate patients: he bewitches them.

But it’s not just that.

For me, it’s the feeling that all the people around him underestimate him sooner or later.

Nobody underestimates the others. For Buffalo Bill and Dolarhyde Jack Crawford wishes for a suicide, Letherface scares the shit out of people after they know what he does, Dexter is chased all along season two and he is not apprehended just for luck. Jigsaw had all the police on his heels.   

They seem to become all idiots around Hannibal Lecter.

So, fuck you. It’s your fault.

I didn’t understand that until I started Silence of the Lambs.

We read that

Lecter’s intelligence is not measurable by any means know to man.

Ok, Harris uses the omniscent narrator many times in his books, but that should be something known worldwide. We are talking about a maniac who killed people, served them to his friends as dinner and fooled police and policemen friends for a long time.

And still they transfer him from one place to another and treat him like he is a poor thing in a cage who can be handled easily.

They hear him -HIM, that thing that tore a nurse’s face with his teeth- saying “I’m sorry, I must use the toilet for a long time, see you later, guys…” and they don’t check on him after, make sure he is not up to something?

Fuck you, your fault.

And after the bloodbath in the room, after they saw what he did, after the two poor policemen down what one of the other policemen say?

The dumb shit didn’t take the extra rounds.

Yes, because that’s make Lecter the dumb shit. The fact that he doesn’t need the extra rounds, because probably he has something else in mind entirely and the gun is the last thing he needs.

They, and Chilton also, put Lecter in the hands of people who underestimate him, and that makes me furious.

You’re dealing with a weapon, you release that weapon out in the world and other people would die. I’m mad at you not at Lecter.

In the tv show the only thing I blame on Hannibal is the lack of a death. I hated him for depriving  Bella of her right to decide.

And he did it by tossing a coin, so it wasn’t a thing done for fun nor a thing done for the continuation of his plan, it was a thing done by chance. So cruel, worse than many of his murders.

It’s always my opinion, I repeat it because it’s important.

The relationship with Will is abusive, yes, we said that many times.

The RELATIONSHIP is abusive, but Will is not a poor little thing who is abused.

Will is not Miriam Lass, he is not Tier, he is not Franklyn, hell, he is not even Bedelia. Maybe those people have been abused more than he was.

Will is always alive and kicking, he doesn’t take it and shut up -that’s why Hannibal likes him- I can’t be mad at Hannibal even for his attempts at Will’s life because, hell, Will is not mad. Why should I be?

So after all this long post my conclusion is that Hannibal Lecter stands out in a crowd of people who have to blame themselves for their way to deal with a man who is the devil himself.

I loved Beverly, but that was another death I can’t blame all on Hannibal. If you’re investigating the Chesapeake Ripper, and you’re going to Hannibal’s house believing he has something to do with it, you can’t underestimate the great risk you’re putting yourself into.

I’m aware that this is a vast topic one can’t settle in a few words, but that’s my general feeling. Because it doesn’t seem so, but I often ask myself why it has always been so simple to me to consider Hannibal a creature, instead of a fucked up human being.

And for the one in the tv show I have another reason. I don’t hate him because he is so intelligent and so far away from the real stories I read in my life. Hannibal has the horrible need to kill, but he is not driven by the shameful reasons that drive real serial killers.