Thursday, January 11, 2007

The Sincerest Form of Flattery?

As we await the February release of Hannibal Rising, the film based on Thomas Harris’ latest novel (see a trailer for that movie here), John Sutherland contributes a most interesting article to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper about puzzling similarities between Harris’ novel and some of the Lecter fan fiction (“fanfic”) that circulates along the Internet’s damp floor. Sutherland writes, in part:
Compare the opening of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Rising with the opening of another novel, by another hand, published three years earlier: ‘The door to Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s memory palace is in the darkness at the center of his mind and it has a latch that can be found by touch alone. This curious portal opens on immense and well-lit spaces, early baroque, and corridors and chambers rivalling in number those of the Topkapi Museum. Everywhere there are exhibits, well-spaced and lighted, each keyed to memories that lead to other memories in geometric progression ... Pleas and screaming fill some places on the grounds where Hannibal himself cannot go.’

The second story begins: ‘He often sits, as he is now, on the bed with his head against the wall, eyes closed, head tilted back and his mind wandering. Yes, wandering--wandering down the halls of what he fervently calls his Mind Palace. It is a wonderful place secret to all but him ... His Mind Palace is large, divided into many rooms, each containing his most vivid memories. Towards the center of the Palace is where his thoughts reside most of the time ... In this stronghold, he can visit his favourite operas and wineries ... In the outer circle of the Palace is where his most painful memories reside ... lost cries come from behind the walls pleading for mercy while mournful voices beg for forgiveness and peace.’

Who wrote this second passage? We don’t know. It’s by ‘Blythebee’ on
a fanfic site, along with a multitude of other Hannibalistic Homage. The similarities (too extensive to quote here) continue, paragraph after paragraph.
So, is the reclusive Harris playing a joke with (or on) his fans and fanfic writers? And what are his obsessive fans to make of it all? Who is plagiarizing, or paying homage, to whom?

Read all of Sutherland’s Telegraph piece here.

(Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.)

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