The problem with falling madly in love with a TV series, seeing the actors, creators, and the people involved create a true work of art is that this raises my expectations. Not only for all TV shows, but that show in particular.
I’ve now got this fannish idea stuck in my head about the fourth season of Hannibal, something which never happened in the canon, but is breeding in bits, pieces, scenes, and character concepts in my head. It came to me when Bryan Fuller talked in the Hannibal commentary about making Clarisse Starling black and from the south.
A image came to me of Clarisse as a young woman with dreadlocks, strongly resembling the trainee who was close to Jodie Foster’s Clarisse Starling in Silence of the Lambs. I imagined this Clarisse having a similar relationship to Miriam Lass, before and after Miriam’s abduction. I visualized Miriam bouncing ideas off Clarisse, the two of them talking about the Chesapeake Ripper and what happened to Will Graham in the same fashion that Clarisse once discussed Hannibal Lecter’s insights on Buffalo Bill with her fellow trainee. She might have shared Miriam’s awe of Jack Crawford as the Guru, shared many of the same ambitions. I got this image of Clarisse seeing Jack and Bella, dressed in the nines at some social function, and falling in love a little with both of them, how elegant they looked. Only it all went downhill after Miriam’s abduction. Clarisse started questioning Jack Crawford’s choices, questioning how Miriam followed his lead. In the meantime, given how utterly sympathetic (I mean this sarcastically) Kade Parnell was when Will Graham was on trial, how ready to throw Will to the wolves in order to protect the collected image of the Bureau, I doubt she would have wished to spend much energy or resources finding Miriam Lass. She would have put pressure on Jack not to do so. When Clarisse finds out what Kade Parnell is doing, she loses her temper and punches her superior in the face, stopping her own advancement. Clarisse might have seen the embodiment of her own ambition, where it could lead in Parnell. It would be so much easier to blame Parnell than Jack. Jack, however, continues to do things that make Clarisse question him. He gives up on Miriam. He pushes Will Graham in the same fashion, pushing him into hunting down the Chesapeake Ripper and other killers, pushing Will both into madness and the Ripper’s arms. Miriam returns, only traumatized and missing an arm. Clarisse finds she can’t forgive the Ripper, but she can’t forgive Jack either. When Will disappears with Hannibal after being manipulated by Jack into catching the Great Red Dragon, seeking out Hannibal’s help to do so, Jack calls Clarisse Starling in to find out what happened. This is an opportunity for Clarisse Starling to rise up from her past record, an opportunity to really prove herself. Only Clarisse no longer trusts Jack after all that’s happened. She’s seen what Jack Crawford is capable of doing to catch a killer, the Chesapeake Ripper in particular. In the meantime, Frederick Chilton with his best-selling Blood and Chocolate along with his hideous face is making himself only slightly less rich than Freddie Lounds with her own best seller, Murder Husbands. Both of these books focus on Hannibal Lecter’s relationship with Will Graham and his fate. Chilton warns the public that Lecter must have killed and eaten Graham if the two men survived their fall from the cliff, for that’s the only way a monster like Hannibal Lecter can express his love. Lounds (who now sports a truly outrageous hat symbolizing her status as one of the wealthy and obnoxious) warns readers that Will Graham is one of the few people who can keep up with Hannibal Lecter. Lecter isn’t going to be wanting to let Will go any time soon. It’s the rest of the world, not Graham, that needs to watch out as the two men cut a bloody swath through the world. Somewhere between all this sensationalism the truth lies. Clarisse Starling finds herself compelled to find it, in spite of her mistrust of Jack. With the help of Miriam Lass, she follows in the trail of Will Graham, trying to find out what happened to him. In doing so, the two women find themselves returning to the roles of investigators they were in the process of becoming. The problem is by doing so, they are drawn into the darkness of Will Graham’s imagination where Hannibal Lecter is waiting, holding Will firmly in his grasp. He’s not about to let his prize go and he’s only too willing to incorporate those who dare to get too close to Will into the nightmare landscape, make them a part of Will’s continued ‘transformation’. All of this is awakening memories from Clarisse’s own nightmares about the ranch where she once lived, the rancher who loved lambs, yet brought them screaming to be slaughtered. She was sure she could hear them scream, just as she’s sure she can hear Will Graham screaming now. He’s become the lamb she failed to save from the rancher’s loving, murderous intention. She cannot get his screams or the nightmares out of her head.
All of this is speculation and imagination on my part, even if it’s connected to the mythology of the TV show and the movie, Silence of the Lambs. Speculation so easily becomes expectation, even though it’s unfair to expect any of this. I was crushed, though, when the actor Bryan Fuller was considering for Clarisse didn’t look anything like what’s I’d visualized. I’ve now got this image of her in my head, which may have nothing to do with any canon perfomance chosen to play the part. As I said, it’s not fair to the actor or anyone who continues the series, these expectations. They could ruin a perfectly good continuation of the story. They’ve done it before, my expectations. I’ve gotten ideas which turned into expectations, a process I was unaware of until Anne Rice never did anything more with Paul de Pointe du Lac in her Vampire Chronicles, even though the elements she brought together with later books appeared to be weaving together into a story which he could be part of.
Such expectations only lead to disappointment. What can I do about them? How can I cope with such expectations?
The one answer that works for me is writing a fanfic, trying to express these expectations in a form of art which honours the canon, yet creates its own fictional space others enjoy. I’ve done this with Sasuke and Naruto. Perhaps I ought to do this with the Clarisse Staring I’ve envisioned. I’d love to draw her, power walking to edge of the cliff where Will and Hannibal fell, all apprehensive ambition and angry innocence, ready to deepen in the nightmare landscape she pursues Will into. Or draw her holding Miriam Lass’s hands, the flesh and the prosthetic one, as the two young women starting to analyzing and facing their demons together. I can’t draw, though. I’ll have to draw a picture with words if I want to do this.
The problem is I’m struggling with so many projects already, including three unfinished fanfic series I want and need to continue. There’s only so much time to do everything. I guess I’ll have to make or steal time for this, if I really want to do it. I never expressed my ideas about Paul de Pointe du Lac as fanfic, because Anne Rice was opposed to fanfic. This crushed me, crushed the inner life her characters lived within my imagination. The very thoughts her prose invoked felt taboo. The only way to cope was to walk away, take this energy, channel it into my own work, and avoid hers. I wasn’t able to read Anne Rice’s work again until she eased up and relented in her opposition to fanfiction, giving me permission to allow her characters to bloom in my imagination once more. Characters I truly love inevitably flower there, taking on new life. If they didn’t, they’d wither and be forgotten. In many ways, the TV show, Hannibal, feels like such a bloom which has been given a blessing to grow Bryan Fuller himself has acknowledged that the show, in many ways, is fanfic. Creating and expressing this Clarisse Starling, however, is bringing back some of the old fears invoked by that taboo, even thought this concept was born from the mythology already established. It’s meant to honour that mythology. It’s not done yet. This may be one of those ideas which has to stew and simmer, expressing itself in spurts. As I said, I’ve got a lot of other stories cooking in my imagination right now. I guess I’ll just have to see which one comes to a boil first.
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