adapt/evolve/become

oh god so many things

The canon: Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Hannibal Rising.

Mythology: Hesiod, Theogony; Ovid, Metamorphoses; the Bible [e.g. Genesis 3, Deut. 28, John 6, 1 Kings 14, Ecclesiastes 1, Book of Job, Revelation]; Satan [x]; the Devil in Christianity [x]; Catchism of the Catholic Church: The Fall [x]; John Milton, Paradise Lost; Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno & La Vita Nuova; cannibalism [x], the wendigo [x x], Michael Kinnucan, “Incest, cannibalism, and the gods”. 

Philosophy & psychology: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations; Kurzban & Leary, “Evolutionary Origins of Stigmatization“ [probable inspiration for Hannibal’s “social exclusion” paper]; Kristen Guest [ed.], Eating Their Words: Cannibalism and the Boundaries of Cultural Identity; Jennifer Brown, Cannibalism in Literature and Film;Alexandre Dumas, Grande Dictionnaire de Cuisine.

Criminology: Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths; Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, Douglad & Olshake, Mind Hunter and Journey Into Darkness; J.C. Oleson, “The Criminological Theories of Hannibal Lecter” [one; two; three]; Bettina Gregory, “The honey in the lion’s mouth”; Holmes & Holmes, Contemporary Perspectives on Serial Murder.

Serial killers: Hannibal Lecter; Ted Bundy, Ed Kempner, Eddie Gein; the Yorkshire Ripper, The Monster of Florence, Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrei Chikatilo, Albert Fish, Jason Ricketts, Dykes Askew Simmons, Dorangel Vargas.

Literature: William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Europe a Prophecy & Songs of Innocence and Experience; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Bram Stoker, Dracula; Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov; Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood & A Good Man is Hard to Find; Truman Capote, In Cold Blood; Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter; Cormac McCarthy, No Country For Old Men, Child of God & Blood Meridian, Roberto Bolaño, 2666; William Faulkner, Sanctuary.

Thomas Harris: Wikipedia; Jason Cowley, “Creator of a monstrous hit”; David Sexton, The Strange World of Thomas Harris [excerpt]

canon is what happens in the text. e.g. merlin tries to poison morgana

a headcanon is a fact that you have personally made up as an elaboration of canon. it is your invention. e.g. i think morgana and gwen had a teenage lesbian situationship before the events of canon. or, i think modern morgana would love evanesence.

an interpretation is how one reads the existing text. it is not an invented fact nor is it a headcanon, it is a reading. e.g. i think merlin tries to poison morgana out of misplaced self-hatred. or, i think that one line was delivered with suppressed malice and shows a nuanced relationship.

fanon is the general fandom’s accepted headcanons and interpretations that elaborate or recontextualize canon. e.g. merlin is a badass waif and morgana is a bitch.