{"id":1027,"date":"2024-11-03T08:52:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T16:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2026-10-06T10:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T17:37:06","slug":"in-collusion-with-a-cannibal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2024\/11\/03\/in-collusion-with-a-cannibal\/","title":{"rendered":"In Collusion with a Cannibal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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In Collusion with a Cannibal<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Arielle Rizal<\/strong>\n \n November 3, 2024<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Dried apricots, sliced gouda, prosciutto, water crackers. Over this past summer, my sister and I had begun a sort of tradition in preparing these small charcuterie boards, in service of our most recent \u2018sister-bonding\u2019 activity: watching our favorite cannibalistic serial killer use his affinity for manipulation to kill, cook, and consume a variety of human beings. All with a cup of freshly brewed Earl Grey tea, of course. This juxtaposition of activities may seem strange, but they are far from uncommon\u2014whether it\u2019s midnight showings of an alien axe-murderer with a penchant for singing, or scarfing down popcorn while watching frightening creatures commit violence\u2014 it seems the perception of such activities is skewed by one unifying factor. These activities don\u2019t seem so outlandish when the alien axe murderer is from the\u00a0Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em>, the frightening creatures are from\u00a0The Conjuring<\/em>, and the cannibalistic serial killer is named Hannibal Lecter. There seems to exist a certain suspension of moral values, one akin to the \u201csuspension of disbelief,\u201d when consuming fiction, raising questions about art\u2019s broader moral purpose. After all, why is there more leniency towards moral atrocities when they are depicted in a film versus in a news article, and what could be the moral purpose of such works? The answer to this lies in the relationship between empathy, art, and morality\u2013 a subject matter that has been deliberated in many works of art, but is especially demonstrated in the character of Hannibal Lecter. As moral and psychological benefits of art become apparent in the exploration of Dr. Lecter, art\u2019s ability to act as an influence on moral introspection, stands to constitute its moral purpose at large.<\/p>\n

Understanding the relationship between art and morality begins with defining human empathy. Empathy\u2013 the understanding of other people\u2019s emotions, which finds its expression in a range from sympathy to sadism\u2014 is described by researcher Fritz Breithaupt as being \u201cdeeply connected with two different domains: aesthetics and emotional development. Empathy intensifies our [aesthetic] experiences and widens the scope of our perceptions. . . This form of engagement can be described in terms of aesthetic experience and the deepening of our emotions\u201d (Breithaupt). Breithaupt establishes that aesthetic experiences, such as art, have a different engagement with human empathy from \u201cnon-aesthetic\u201d experiences. Moreover, this difference in engagement affects our perception of morality, which becomes altered by art in a manner that is unique from other influences, especially when narrowing the scope of \u201caesthetic experiences\u201d to \u201cfiction\u201d (Breithaupt).<\/p>\n

Kieran Matthews, a professor and philosopher of aesthetics, elaborates on this concept, by contrasting: a.) \u201cgenuine\u201d emotions that result from empathy with \u201creal world\u201d events, with b.) \u201cquasi\u201d emotions resulting from empathy derived from \u201cfictional\u201d events. Matthews posits that \u201cwe respond to real-life events with genuine emotions but only with quasi\u2010emotions to fictional events. . . Perhaps the asymmetries can be explained by virtue of quasi\u2010emotions not being subject to the same constraints as genuine emotions since belief is constrained in ways in which the imagination is not\u201d (Matthews). These \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d are most apparent in art that elicits an emotional response that would be different from that ascribed to a similar nonfiction event. The example that Matthews gives is the experience of a bar-fight, wherein one would feel anxiety, panic, and fear if confronted in the \u201creal world,\u201d but would feel excitement when witnessing a character on a TV show like\u00a0The Sopranos\u00a0<\/em>engage in one. With this, \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d become increasingly bound to a scope wherein morality does not apply, allowing for human empathy to become detached from morality that it would otherwise inform.<\/p>\n

This concept is arguably best demonstrated when in consideration of a morally contentious, yet empathetic subject matter \u2014with a notable instance of this \u2018archetype\u2019 being the fictional psychiatrist-turned-cannibal, Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal Lecter originates from a thriller series written by Thomas Harris, wherein different accounts of murder cases are detailed, some involving Dr. Lecter directly as the culprit, and others where he acted as a consultant to the novels\u2019 protagonists. Dr. Lecter has since had many adaptations, most notably in\u00a0The Silence Of The Lambs<\/em>\u2013 Jonathan Demme\u2019s Oscar-winning film\u2014 and the NBC TV show\u00a0Hannibal<\/em>, a modernized adaptation of Hannibal Lecter\u2019s backstory. Throughout adaptations, Dr. Lecter maintains a characterization that invokes empathy and evokes the \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d mentioned before\u2014 all in a manner unique from other serial killers within and outwards of\u00a0The Silence Of The Lambs\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Hannibal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Demonstrated in both adaptations, Dr. Lecter becomes immediately established to the audience as having a history of killing people guiltlessly as a culinary activity\u2014 yet much of his characterization leans heavily into more endearing aspects. At the outset of\u00a0The Silence of The Lambs<\/em>, the audience witnesses Dr. Lecter\u2019s politeness towards Clarice Starling, an FBI agent-in-training who interviews Lecter (who is imprisoned by the US government) on a case regarding another serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. Dr. Lecter is contrasted with others within\u00a0The Silence Of The Lambs,\u00a0<\/em>as he displays a class, taste, wit, and artistry that Buffalo Bill, as well as Clarice\u2019s own peers, seem to lack. As explained by Sonia Baelo-Allue, a lecturer in English culture, Dr. Lecter is \u201cnot treated as a monster in a classical sense. He is white, probably heterosexual, intelligent, had a liberal profession and is a gentleman. Sure, he is also a cannibal but he is extremely polite and tasteful, after all he used to eat his victims with aromatic herbs. . . Thus, Lecter is not presented as a savage bloodthirsty man but a selective high-class gourmet\u201d (Allue). Dr. Lecter\u2019s sketches of the Duomo, his affinity for the Goldberg Variations, and even his taste for human meat, are implied to be an extension of a refined and acquired taste, implemented to inspire \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d of intrigue and respect, which encourage the audiences to hold Dr. Lecter in higher regard.<\/p>\n

While there are many factors distinguishing Dr. Lecter from other classic monsters, he is more elusively and sinisterly differentiated by an empathy-driven psychology, wherein the narrative \u201caim\u201d of the initiated \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d becomes established. As Clarice gets mistreated and underestimated by prisoners in Lecter\u2019s neighboring cells, and even her peers and supervisors, Dr. Lecter seems to be the only character who speaks to Clarice as an equal. He displays a great amount of empathy for Clarice\u2019s struggles, and even the struggles of Buffalo Bill, which stems from a genuine understanding of their psychologies. This understanding prompts the audience to feel even more positively towards Dr. Lecter\u2014 once again, leading to \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d that arise from recognizing the trait of empathy in others, and most importantly, one that is brought about despite Dr. Lecter\u2019s moral shortcomings. This is affirmed in a statement made by Bryan Fuller, the developer and director of the NBC\u00a0Hannibal\u00a0<\/em>TV show, who offers insight into the audience experience, saying \u201c[E]very moment consciously plays with the juxtaposition of gorgeousness and visceral terror with the effect, at times, of slowly luring the audience into a sense of being in collusion with Hannibal\u201d (Logsdon). To put it briefly, while Fuller speaks to the NBC adaptation of Hannibal Lecter, it is no less applicable to Demme\u2019s Dr. Lecter from\u00a0The Silence Of The Lambs<\/em>. Both raise the question of what the evocation of \u201cquasi-emotions,\u201d so much so it results in an experience of collusion with Dr. Lecter, achieves in a moral sense\u2014ultimately bringing into question how \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d that act independently from an individual\u2019s morality, affect art\u2019s relationship with morality at large.<\/p>\n

When discussing the scope of an\u00a0individual\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>relationship with morality, it becomes clear that \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d are what allow for a consideration of morality that is simply not possible outside of fiction. This very concept is deliberated on by John Milton\u2014the writer of the epic poem\u00a0Paradise Lost,\u00a0<\/em>and Vladimir Nabokov\u2014the author of\u00a0Lolita.\u00a0<\/em>John Milton, being a staunch activist against censorship law, championed \u201cfree speech\u201d concerning controversial fiction, under the premise that the fictional portrayal of evil was necessary for the exercising of good moral judgment. In his pamphlet\u00a0Areopagitica,\u00a0<\/em>he claims that \u201cSince therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so\u00a0<\/em>necessary to the constituting\u00a0<\/em>of human virtue,\u00a0<\/em>and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth,\u00a0<\/em>how can we more safely,\u00a0<\/em>and with less danger,\u00a0<\/em>scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates,\u00a0<\/em>and hearing all manner of reason?\u201d (Milton). Milton alludes to written works, including fiction, as being the only \u201charmless\u201d way of proving human virtue, and that an imaginative landscape built and supported by \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d ultimately leads to fiction being the safest way to practice judgment.<\/p>\n

Nabokov alludes to a similar idea, in which, \u201che states in one great passage of his memoir his belief . . . that goodness is a function and agency of love permeating the universe, and that an artist seeks to discover it, find the right expression for it, and impart it\u201d (Rodgers and Sweeney). Nabokov\u2019s statement offers a nuance that builds on the view of fiction as an exercise of morality, incorporating the idea of \u201cdiscovery.\u201d While Milton speaks to morality and art from an audience\u2019s perspective\u2014 stating that it is the audience\u2019s responsibility to consume art that further develops judgment, Nabokov\u2019s statement directly alludes to the artist, wherein art should be\u00a0created\u00a0<\/em>with the intent for moral discovery. This \u201cdiscovery\u201d applies to the individual as well, as Breithaupt would establish with the literary term \u201canagnorisis,\u201d saying \u201cAlthough\u00a0anagnorisis\u00a0<\/em>is a literary effect, it may reveal a common, everyday experience in which we similarly see events unfold from multiple perspectives; we act and we reflect on how we are seen by others in those situations\u201d (Breithaupt). Breithaupt refers to \u201canagnorisis\u201d as stemming from in-person experience, but this concept can be applied to Milton and Nabokov\u2019s philosophy; in the concern for an individual\u2019s morality, there are self-discoveries concerning morality that can be made from art, resulting in the \u201canagnorisis\u201d detailed by Breithaupt.<\/p>\n

Once again, while these concepts are prominent throughout all art, they are most explicitly shown when an artwork provides a unique moral insight, harkening back to how \u201canagnorisis\u201d applies to Dr. Lecter, and circling back to the critical question: what\u00a0exactly\u00a0<\/em>is the moral lesson gleaned from engaging in sympathy for a serial killer? While \u201canagnorisis\u201d varies from individual to individual, in further deliberation of\u00a0The Silence of The Lambs<\/em>, there are a few unique takeaways, most visible in the interactions between Dr. Lecter and Clarice Starling. As Dr. Lecter prods Clarice with personal questions, he reveals a tactical yet gentle inquiry on differing aspects of her life. From her Southern roots to the titular moment Clarice reveals deep-set trauma relating to her family\u2019s livestock, Clarice, Dr. Lecter, and the audience continuously learn of Clarice\u2019s past, while also bearing witness to Dr. Lecter\u2019s enormous empathy and emotional intelligence first-hand.<\/p>\n

While this emotional intelligence is beneficial to the FBI, it becomes clear that it is also what makes him a killer. Dr. Lecter\u2019s empathy-driven murders are what distinguishes him from other fictional killers, and what leads to a unique moral discovery. When one thinks of a serial killer, simply put, \u201cempathetic\u201d is a rare descriptor. From Patrick Bateman to the Joker, fictional killers are often depicted as either entirely unfeeling or wholly sadistic; rarely is a killer understanding of the emotional intricacies within others. There is indeed \u201canagnorisis\u201d to be found when examining Dr. Lecter\u2019s empathy\u2014 especially in examining how his knack for understanding the psyches of others leads the audience to feel as though his murders are at odds with his nature\u2014as if his empathy conflicts with his cannibalistic tendencies.<\/p>\n

This points exactly to the purpose of art, as outlined by Milton and Nabokov, in which moral discoveries lead to a more informed and exercised person, especially regarding unusual, less-explored subject matters and ideas. In the case of Dr. Lecter, the perspective that empathy and cruelty are not mutually exclusive is presented through this character, and a new perspective on the relationship between these can be gleaned. This is the \u201canagnorisis\u201d that Hannibal Lecter instills: the realization that cruel people can be highly empathetic\u2014 that both those who are unfeeling and truly understanding are capable of barbarity. The audience firstly assumes that Dr. Lecter\u2019s empathy and murderous tendencies are despite each other, a result of empathy and cruelty\u2019s relationship being rarely depicted, with this eventually leading to the audience\u2019s own sense of empathy becoming morally questioned. Thomas Harris himself intended for Dr. Lecter, \u201cto allow both detectives and reader to confront \u2018their own inner demons,\u2019 on which he \u201cdepend[ed] upon \u2018the fascination we feel with all serial killers, the unnerving realization that this character is the monster that we could become\u2019\u201d (Logsdon). This exploration of empathy and morality allows the audience to re-evaluate their own perception of empathy, within not only others but within themselves \u2014bringing forth and supporting other moments of \u201canagnorisis\u201d that are presented through Dr. Lecter.<\/p>\n

Using Dr. Lecter as an example, the journey from \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d to achieving \u201canagnorisis,\u201d and how art results in moral development, is made apparent. The lens of fiction allows us to examine morality by way of interacting with a serial killer, an alien axe-murderer, or even a demon, from which we apply those moral discoveries made within fiction to the real world. This \u201canagnorisis\u201d differs from individual to individual\u2014I myself, have become more and more fascinated by Dr. Lecter\u2019s relationship with the US government, in which I issue doubts against an institution that benefits and is, indeed, reliant on those it deems unfit to live with others. These sorts of discoveries are what define fiction\u2019s impact on the \u201creal world,\u201d giving it the moral purpose of allowing for these discoveries to flourish. Just as Clarice learns more about herself through her interactions with Dr. Lecter, fiction\u2019s unique \u201cquasi-emotions\u201d allow for a unique perspective of morality, allowing us to discover more about our own morality by way of learning from the empathy-driven, eloquently speaking cannibal within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":1015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arielle-rizal","category-past-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn Collusion with a Cannibal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/scribe\/2024\/11\/03\/in-collusion-with-a-cannibal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Collusion with a Cannibal - 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