#jk it's will graham

[dream-4-the-dead]

i was talking about my hannibal tattoo to my therapist and she asked me what my favorite character was and if i related to them, OH OH I'M NOT FALLING FOR THAT, MA'AM.

[itsawritblr]

J.K. Rowling has been proven right!

"The Cass Review is a damning indictment of what the NHS has been doing to children.

"Dr Hilary Cass has submitted her final report and recommendations to NHS England in her role as Chair of the Independent Review of gender identity services for children and young people.

"Hilary Cass’s report demolishes the entire basis for the current model of treating gender-distressed children. Its publication is a shameful day for NHS England, which for too long gave vulnerable children harmful treatments for which there was no evidence base. It’s now clear to all that this was quack medicine from the start. 

"Dr Cass delivers stinging criticisms of NHS gender clinics, both adult and child, and her description of the Gender Identity Development Service is absolutely damning. It is disgraceful that GIDS, alongside the adult clinics, did not cooperate with her attempt to survey its practice, or to carry out a high-quality, long-term follow-up study on the treatment of children as part of the review, which would have been a global first."

You can read the entire review here. (pdf)

"Glinner" is Graham Linehan, a writer, screenwriter, and comedian who's been fighting against transitioning minors for years, losing friends, his job, and his agent along the way. But he's kept on fighting.

,

;

.

.

The tide has turned in the UK and in Europe. When will American media finally begin reporting on the closing of "gender clinics" and the bans on puberty blockers for children? I figure nothing will happen here in the U.S. until the lawsuits start flooding in. It's already begun. And with proof like the Cass Review and the WPATH files, it's going to be very, very difficult for clinics, doctors, and therapists to continue lying about how transitioning does no permanent and irreversible physical and psychological harm.

[tethered-heartstrings]

If Will dies first, it is obvious Hannibal would cannibalize Will’s flesh. Hannibal mourned Mischa by eating her, and he would do the same for Will; to consume and eat and incorporate is part of grieving. But what would Hannibal do with Will’s bones? He’d eat the marrow, maybe make soup from them, but what of the calcified parts that remain, the parts that can’t be eaten?

I don’t really see him just keeping them around or displaying them, something stagnant and to be ogled. Burying them in the family plot in Lithuania makes sense because Will is family, but it also requires Hannibal to go back to a place he can’t go. Hannibal could cremate the bones, but then what? Spreading the ashes doesn’t seem like something he would do; he can’t know what happens to them. Keeping Will in an urn on his desk or a shelf also feels out of character, a memory collecting dust.

What if Hannibal had Will’s ashes pressed into pencil lead? There are ways to compress ashes into something that could be written with or drawn. What if Hannibal draws Will with his own ashes, commemorating him in a completed cycle. Sketching the man with his own remains. Remembering Will as he saw him, recreating moments they shared from Hannibal’s mind palace. Having Will live forever in depictions of himself. Hannibal would never be truly left behind. And Hannibal would sharpen the pencils as he always had; he isn’t unfamiliar with taking a blade to Will. Shaving off a layer but keeping him sharp.

Displaying and keeping art made from Will’s ashes would mean so much more than a reconstructed skeleton or an urn on a shelf or a plot that would become overgrown with weeds. He could draw Will in motion, alive, as he wished to remember him, and create moments and memories they didn’t get to experience together.

[pesky--dust]

How it feels to be on your period:

What I would like to do when I have a headache:

[mysharona1987]

This could easily apply to JK Rowling and Graham Linehan too.

I remember the reason Graham’s wife left him wasn’t so much that she disagreed with his political views (she’s gender critical, iirc), but that he was making 100 to 200 tweets about it *per day* and it became his absolute obsession in life.

“Honey, did you take out the bins?”

“Not now, the world needs my 5,782nd tweet about public bathrooms.”

It would get exhausting.

[the-abyss-of-fandoms]

Me when I learned that MY OWN bullets can hurt Ashley:

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: The Most Divorced Time of year

[mysterious circle of robed figures] JK Rowling: hello children Rowling: today we continue our quessst to rehabilitate glinner Rowling: i will not ressst until he isss reintegrated into ssociety Rowling: and not ssleeping on my couch anymore

Rowling: cuz you know Rowling: that man isss Rowling: i mean ssure i hate transs people too Rowling: but i have other interesstsss assss well Rowling: Rowling: i'll let you know asss sssoon asss i think of sssome

Rowling: i do have other interesstsss outsside of transsphobia Rowling: like Rowling: for example Rowling: i like hating on autissstic people too Rowling: i mean, let's be frank Rowling: they've had it too good for too long

Rowling: and, you know, dissabled people Rowling: and the goblinsss Rowling: in fact actually i'm pretty versssatile Rowling: i'm almossst as well-rounded as hp lovecraft if you think about it

Graham Lineham: jk did you know that trans people have smaller skull shapes Rowling: it's 1 pm graham, why are you sstill in pajamas Lineham: i've been researching how the trans control the media Rowling: did you even try to look for a job today

Rowling: graham here's the newssspaper Rowling: hey maybe you could look at the want adsss Rowling: bet there'sss plenty of openingsss for a transsphobic comedy writer Lineham: i don't read newspapers, i heard that the wood pulp industry is captured by trans activists Lineham: they put estrogen in the news ink Lineham: you know Lineham: to get you Rowling: Rowling: wait really? Rowling: shit maybe i should sstart possting that

Rowling: graham ssseriousssly Rowling: you could at leassst apply Lineham: no everyone's against me Lineham: there's no jobs for a fearless truth teller like me Rowling: i Rowling: how Rowling: we live in england! there'sss nothing BUT jobsss for transsphobesss! Rowling: how are you still unemployed!?!

Rowling: look jussst march into the BBC and asssk if they're hiring any transsphobesss Rowling: maybe they'll be impressssed with your moxie and hire you Lineham: it doesn't work like that these days Rowling: jusst wear a sssuit and ssit in the lobby til they hire you!

Lineham: i've got a great idea to get back in people's good graces! Rowling: whatss that Lineham: well you know how david tennant is the most beloved man in the country? Rowling: right Lineham: well if i can bring him down, then i will assume his place Lineham: as the most beloved man in the country Rowling: Rowling: right ok that makess ssensse to me

Rowling: look i clipped out a bunch of adss for transphobic jobss Rowling: i'll jussst ssend them to graham'ss agent Helen Joyce: terrible news, dark lord! Joyce: his agent dropped him for attacking david tennant Rowling: Rowling: oh

[sweetpaintedladie]

Keith Richards backstage at the final Faces concert, 1974

©️ Graham Wiltshire

[gummigvts]

What if we were two neurodivergent people on opposite sides of the spectrum, and we try to repeatedly kill each other while also being madly in love with each other and making physical contact at any given chance?

Oh, and we get matching but slightly different straitjackets and masks.

[gothicwill]

LESS CHATTING MORE LIVE BLOGGING PEOPLE COME ON >:(

[elierlick]

"My kids won't talk to me" pride flag

[edscuntyeyeshadow]

as a trans guy, this bitch is the bane of my fucking existence. you’re telling me he gets to look like that for free? bullshit. stupid fucking glasses. i hope he explodes. whore.

[richtkin]

wanted to share my hannibal playlist with y’all…

(i wish spotify had a feature where you could explain why songs are on a playlist…like a cute little description..)

(if anyone wants to give me more song recs for this playlist please lmk 🙏)

[wuntrum]

i should rewatch hannibal <- voice of the devil speaking btw

[craqueluring]

lets talk about will's journey through hannibals mind palace in s3a, the myth of theseus, the minotaur, ariadne’s thread, labyrinths, and mazes (there is a tldr at the end of this! and this gets better & more cohesive towards the end i promise lol esp after the uffizi gallery screenshot)

background on theseus: theseus sailed to crete intending to defeat the minotaur, a beast housed by the labyrinth constructed by daedalus. it was constructed so well, daedalus himself could not navigate it. ariadne was the daughter of king minos, who ordered the entrapment of the minotaur. she fell in love with theseus, and,betraying her father and her country, she gave theseus a thread to tie one end at the entrance of the labyrinth, and carry the rest with him, so he could find his way back out. theseus succeeded in killing the minotaur and returned safely.

will graham sails to italy as theseus sailed to crete, and enters the labyrinth of hannibal lecter's mind palace at the norman chapel in palermo, italy. the imagery of the many consecutive doorways and disorienting paths in the catacombs under the chapel is notably labyrinthine, and is actually what made me think of this connection in the first place.

*note the consecutive doorways/arches. this parallels the shot of will and hannibal in front of la primavera. in that shot, there are also many doorways behind them.

hannibal is simultaneously

daedalus, the maker of the labyrinth,

the minotaur, the beast at the center, and,

partly, ariadne, the one who betrays her father and her country, falls in love with theseus and allows him to navigate the labyrinth (i.e. the heart in the norman chapel is what confirms to will that he is going in the right direction). just as ariadne's love of theseus was a betrayal of her country and her father, hannibal's love of will is a betrayal of himself.

perhaps hannibal as daedalus-minotaur-ariadne represents the many contradictory parts of hannibal: the person suit containing the monster (daedalus), the monster (minotaur), and lover (ariadne).

but ariadne, the symbol of love, could also be more accurately represented by both will and hannibal: their connection, and its portrayal through will's hallucinations:

the ravenstag which leads will on the train tracks after chiyoh pushes him off

the blood puddle under the doors to the norman chapel catacombs

the fireflies that lead him to mischa's grave

& more

this thread of connection that leads will through the labyrinth of hannibal's mind is universally present throughout season 3a. it is not the physical actions of a lover that lead will through the labyrinth like ariadne did for theseus, but instead the undertanding derived from love of the labyrinth-maker himself which allows will to navigate the labyrinth. 

if the entrance ("foyer") to hannibal's labyrinthine mind palace is the norman chapel, the center is his home in lithuania, as will's imagined hannibal says while he is in the lithuanian forest in secondo 3x03:

"is this where construction began?" "on my memory palace? its door at the center of my mind. and here you are, feeling for the latch."

perhaps the center of hannibal's memory palace is actually hannibal's home and what happened there. "mazes intended to be more or less impenetrable have a center containing something so valuable or so shameful as to warrant protection" (x pg. 91) — hannibal's labyrinthine mind palace was constructed outward to protect something at his origin, at the center of his mind: mischa.

will's last stop in hannibal's labyrinth, and perhaps the exit, is where he finds hannibal in front of la primavera, once again in italy. the long hall of consecutive doorways in the center of the screen, which mirrors the doorways in the catacombs during will's 'entrance' into hannibal's mind palace, gives a sense of some long journey coming to an end. he tells hannibal "i wanted to understand you before i laid eyes on you again. i needed it to be clear what i was seeing," plainly stating his reason for his journey through the labyrinth — understanding. 

*note the consecutive doorways in the center, which parallel the arches in the aforementioned shot of will entering the catacombs in secondo

as explained by penelope reed doob, the purpose of a labyrinth can be to…

"…to entrap or enlighten errant mazewalkers, denying or controlling access to a center that may contain good or evil, and leaving the maze-walker with higher knowledge or in chaotic limbo" (x pg. 64)

certainly, will's journey through hannibal's labyrinth was, as doob calls it, "the labyrinth as a sign of difficult progress." as a plot device, will's journey through europe, hannibal's labyrinth, the mind palace, was a path designed to lead to will gaining higher knowledge, and the "transcendence of labyrinthine confusion" (x pg. 91) 

right?

but, even after will's journey, we as the audience, will as a character, and even hannibal himself, remain confused, turned around, and unable to see any end in sight, especially after both of their failed attempts at separation.

we are still in the labyrinth. 

"labyrinths, like life, involve chaos and order, destiny and free choice, terror and triumph — all held in balance, all perspective-dependent" (x pg. 252)

church labyrinths as a metaphor for life in particular emphasize a unicursal design, or there being only one true path — that of christ, who can act as a guide for humanity "to discover that the mythically multicursal and unstable labyrinth — of life, of the world, of hell — is in fact unicursal, stable, and extricable" (x pg. 133)

instead of this, nbc's hannibal purposefully emphasizes the multicursal and inextricable nature of life and the world through the use of a seemingly chaotic, and sometimes absurd, plot. there are so, so, so many paths will can (and does) follow in the labyrinth/maze of his life. but none are emphasized as the correct one. because that does not exist. everything becomes a matter of perspective, and even looking at the maze from the outside, one becomes disoriented.

thus, this gives even the viewer a sense that they are wandering through the labyrinth with will.

"The only pattern we are shown is the pattern of the labyrinth...all progress is illusory: we may think we are getting somewhere new, but really we are retreading old patterns, circling and turning and retracing our steps until suddenly we exit right where we entered, with an echoing line or repeated pattern, and not once only but time and again" (x pg. 336)

just as doob says of chaucer's the house of fame, nbc's hannibal as a whole "reconstructs, rather than transcends, the complexity of the many labyrinths in which we live and write — labyrinths we cannot, and perhaps do not even wish to, escape" (x pg 339)

the plot of hannibal has been criticized for being too absurd or chaotic, but the absurdity is the show's essence. it is a tool of emphasis to remind us of the fact that hannibal, will, bedelia, jack, abigail, alana, margot, are — everyone is — making their way through the inferno, wandering through the labyrinth, unable to see the forest for the trees, just as we are. 

"there is no overview of the labyrinth, at least not in this life, and nothing is clear but the uncertainties of the ambiguous maze above whose constraints we cannot rise. believing all this, some men might despair, but…if these be labyrinths, they are enchanting ones, as full of delight as of frustration…nightmarish as it may be, is colorful, energetic, chock-full of magnificent diversity, far more beguiling than cosmic spheres. it cries out for the shaping mind and voice of the poet to give order and perspective where none exists. if that shaping is no more reliable than its material, so be it: perhaps a well-wrought poem in such a world is all the more admirable, and much more fun. the confusions and errors of the maze may be as attractive as the transcendent view. and if truth is always deferred, redefined by another twist, a fresh perspective, a different viewer, so what?" (x pg. 337)

tldr: will's journey through europe, exploring hannibal's memory palace is comparable to theseus' exploration of the labyrinth in search of the minotaur. hannibal is simultaneously daedalus (the labyrinth's creator), his person suit, the minotaur, his monster, and ariadne, a lover who allows theseus to not get lost in the labyrinth. the ravenstag and hannibal and will's psychological connection and deep understanding of e/o could also be compared to ariadne's thread. the center of a labyrinth is commonly something that is protected; hannibal says his home is at the center of his mind — hannibal's mind palace protects mischa at the center. even when will leaves the labyrinth and finds hannibal, there is not much higher knowledge gained from the journey, as would be expected. that is because we are still in the labyrinth, such is life. the absurdity and chaos of the hannibal plot, the repeating themes, plotlines, and endless parallels exacerbate this point, and emphasizes the inextricability of life, and the fact that there is no one correct path in the winding maze of life.

[tappioca]

Leshley Week 2023 Day 5: Forbidden (Love) 🔞

(based upon Heinrich Lossow’s “The Sin”, 1880)