#To be quite frank

[phoenixkaptain]

There’s one part in Red Dragon that I can’t stop thinking about.

Right at the start of chapter 8, right after the chapter where Will speaks to Lecter.

“Dr. Hannibal Lecter lay on his cot with the cell lights down after Graham left him. Several hours passed.

For a while he had textures; the weave of the pillowcase against his hands clasped behind his head, the smooth membrane that lined his cheek.

Then he had odors and let his mind play over them. Some were real, some were not. They had put Clorox in the drains; semen. They were serving chili down the hall; sweat-stiffened khaki. Graham would not give him his home telephone number; the bitter green smell of cut cocklebur and teaweed.”

It’s like this:

First and foremost, it’s been several hours since Will left. Will wasn’t there very long in the first place, maybe two hours if we push it, and for one of those hours he left Lecter alone.

Second, the first thing Lecter says to Will is this: “That’s the same atrocious aftershave you wore in court.”

Third, “Some were real, some were not.” The first part of the sentences following are real, the second parts are not. That’s the implication. Lecter is described only a chapter before as neat. He sorted the real and fake into two columns. What does that leave us with?

What’s real: Clorox in the drains, chili down the hall, Will Graham would not give him his home telephone number. We know these are the real scents because Will didn’t give him his home telephone number, a true statement, and it matches the columns.

(I’ve long wondered what Will not giving his home telephone number smells like.)

What’s not real: semen, sweat-stiffened khaki, cut cocklebur and teaweed.

What’s my point? Why do I bring attention to these details?

I believe the scents Lecter imagines are in reference to Will.

“Sweat-stiffened khaki.” We don’t know what Will is wearing (it would have been incredibly strange for Harris to describe what Will’s wearing, he almost never describes what anyone wears unless it’s important), but we can assume Will was sweating. From chapter 7, “He had to go to the rest room twice. He was numb.” Will is nervous throughout the encounter. Will is also, I have to tell you, the type of man to wear khaki.

“Cut cocklebur and teaweed.” I believe this is the scent of Will’s aftershave. Why do I think that? Lecter describes it as “the bitter green smell,” implying distaste. Further implying this, after he thinks of this particular scent, he sits up. He doesn’t like it. It bothers him enough to comment on it.

Also, I just can’t imagine why else he would smell cocklebur and teaweed, it’s really out of place if it doesn’t have to do with Will’s aftershave. I suppose it could just be a scent that he doesn’t like, but he pairs it directly with his main source of irritation, ie: Will would not give him his home telephone number. This implies a direct connection between the two, because both irritate him. The bitter smell and Will’s refusal.

Now, my main focus. “Semen.” When I originally read this passage, my assumption was that Lecter is making an educated guess as to why they would put Clorox in the drains. I’m not sure that’s the case. Lecter is the type of man who could smell semen underneath the Clorox, but the smell of semen is firmly in the “not real” category.

I’m just going to cut to the chase. I think Lecter is thinking about the scent of Will’s semen.

Why do I think this? Well, a few reasons. I don’t know if I believe Will actually smelled like semen upon visiting Lecter in prison. That would be a little bit… out of place? He hasn’t had sex in a while and he hasn’t masturbated. We know this. Don’t ask why, but we know this. It wouldn’t really make sense for Will to smell like semen. I mean, I could worm out an explanation for a possibility of how he could smell like semen, draft one of this text, but I won’t.

The semen smell doesn’t actually have to have been present. Just as Will’s aftershave and sweat are no longer present while Lecter is imagining them, the semen could be fabricated entirely.

I suppose my point is this. Why does Lecter imagine the smell of Will’s semen? Does it bother him? Perhaps all of these scents, real and fake, are bothersome to him, Clorox and chili included. It could irritate him. And he’s upset at Will in the first place, so it could very well be another straw on the camel’s proverbial back.

I don’t know if Will’s sweat bothers Lecter. Making Will nervous makes Lecter experience joy. He knows Will doesn’t like him, and he still sent Will a Christmas card. He likes luring people into a false sense of security and then ripping the rug out from under them. I don’t know if the scent of Will’s nerves would bother Lecter.

Okay, does he like the smell of semen then? Also debatable. I mean, he could, I suppose. Lecter is a man who eats human flesh. He’s not exactly the prime example of a person with “normal” taste. He could very well enjoy the scent, I would have no way of knowing either way.

Maybe it’s neutral. This three example case could be like this: neutral, like, dislike. Neutral to Clorox and semen. He likes sweat and chili. He dislikes Will not giving him his home telephone number and Will’s aftershave. That could be it. We know he enjoys food, even at this point, so he could very well enjoy the scent of chili. Somehow, I doubt prison chili smells as good as maybe other types, but I digress.

Why am I bringing any of this up? Good question.

I suppose, I’m just curious. Was the intention for Lecter’s obsession to be sexual? Or maybe not sexual, but romantic wouldn’t be quite the right word either. This book came out in 1981. A lot of early media depicting gay people did so exclusively by hinting at their sexuality with stereotyping. I’ve never seen someone (aside from Bryan Fuller I guess) who talked about this possible aspect of Lecter.

Lecter is described as small, lithe. He’s vain and prideful. You could say our first real introduction to Lecter is through Chilton, who states outright that Lecter knows a lot about Will. His first comment is on Will’s smell. He speaks with his head always tilted. (That one’s not stereotypically gay, I just think it’s kind of funny because whenever I write for him, I tilt my head without thinking about it) His final letter to Will ends with: “I think of you often.” He is, and I cannot stress this enough, highly invested in Will’s looks.

I just feel like, when you take into context that this was a period of time when being gay was highly frowned upon, queerness is mentioned several times throughout the book, Lecter calls him “my dear Will,” and while a cannibalistic serial killer being obsessed with you is a scary thought, wouldn’t, in the 80s, a gay cannibalistic serial killer being obsessed with you be scarier?

I know that Lecter’s characterization does change later on, in Silence of the Lambs and so forth. I’m not talking about those. Red Dragon was his first appearance. Mind you, he still rambles. But still.

I just wonder is all. A lot of people focus so much on his appearance in Silence of the Lambs, especially the movie version, but I ponder the early days, you know?

[fruitbasketball]

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSLq67Qe3/

I think anon may have been talking about this one - azzi’s so done 😭

i am so so sick of paige madison bueckers like she literally just got cleared and she's showing off her new little finger injury bro i will FLY TO STORRS do NOT test me

[kimberulez]

love their halloween costumes sm, had to draw em

[writing-for-life]

Morpheus—Frank Quitely

[change-the-rules]

.

[vertigoartgore]

Judge Dredd in bed by Frank Quitely.

[clownsuu]

i never leave asks but i NEED to say that ur interpretation of wally is the best i’ve seen in the fandom and my absolute favorite hdkgnskgs like hell yea go completely unhinged u tiny fucking freak /affectionate

in love with ur art in general <3

WHEEZE lmao thanks my guy! I try my best to appropriately display wally to the best of my ability

cw obsessive/possessive behavior

He’s just a lil silly, maybe even a lil goofy (and dare I say, even a lil quirky-?)

[mylittleredgirl]

when i hear "found family" in relation to an ensemble of fictional characters in media there's two different things that could be happening here.

often it's what i think of as forced family, which is like "i found myself in a situation with these people" but a key part of the trope is that, like most families of origin, they're stuck with each other and can't leave without taking extreme action. voyager's "found family" is a forced family. i'm watching m*a*s*h now and it seems that way too. in both cases there's an outside constraint where you literally cannot escape these people and so grow to love them as a result, often in a codependent or unhealthy way but you are closer to them than you will ever be to anyone who did not share this experience. you would sell some of them to satan for one corn chip but god help any outsider who tries to break you up or even understand the situation. sometimes you get lucky and there's a person or two in there that you would choose to spend every day with regardless of circumstance (but would you really? can you even tell for sure??). but also it's "i will never ever speak to you again as long as i live but i'm really bored so can you give me a ride to the 7-11 first."

meanwhile chosen family is more like star trek the next generation where they are placed in this group at random but there's no hostage element to it. any one of them could request a transfer at any time, but they never will because this community and group of people have become an inseparable part of their identity. in both cases they'd saddle up and risk their lives to save each other forever at any personal cost ("not to me, not if it's you") but forced family also contains the element of "i'll fucking do it but christ alive." not every ensemble fits into one or the other but i think it's fun to distinguish as a concept.

[batmancurated]

batman gargoyle of gotham #3 cover by frank quitely

[cyanwyrmy]

Have a shaky sketch

[fox-guardian]

[ID: A sketchy comic drawn in purples and blue featuring Cecil Palmer from Welcome To Night Vale and Sans the Skeleton from Undertale. Cecil is an older mid-sized white man with a mullet, a mustache, and body hair. He's wearing an unbuttoned bowling shirt tied into a crop top, assless chaps, bowling shoes, and a thong. Sans is a short skeleton wearing a blue hoodie, shorts, mittens, and slippers. Cecil is colored entirely in purple and Sans is only colored in his clothes, via his blue hoodie and dark shorts.

In the first image, Cecil throws a bowling ball, smiling with his leg and non-throwing arm out for balance. The next image shows Sans standing plainly with his hands in his hoodie pockets and saying "huh" before the bowling ball crashes into his body, sending his bones and clothes in all directions, to which he responds with "aw hell". His hands remain in his mittens as they fly away, and his feet and lower leg bones remain upright in his slippers, unaffected. Above him reads "strike!" in brackets and all caps. end ID]

~~~~

i would like to remind the tumblr community that cecil is part of the night vale bowling league

(sans is fine)

[ungoliantschilde]

Swamp Thing, by Frank Quitely.

[99bowl]

cowgirl dorothy AGAIN!

[goodomenshq]

New goals unlocked! New targets announced! £750,000 and we'll add more pages to the graphic novel. Beyond that? We have some things up our sleeve.

Get your copy of Good Omens: the Official (and Ineffable) Graphic Novel on Kickstarter.

[browsethestacks]

Daredevil vs Elektra

Art by Frank Quitely

[screamingtheo]

So I had this really stupid idea...