(November 11th, 2019)
Glory in Gore: “Sublime Mutations” and Hannibal
Introduction
To visit an old and possibly hackneyed adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, but arguably many of them are informed by context. Nonetheless, an image’s aesthetic appeal and components greatly influence our reactions to its subject(s). In “From the Medical Gaze to Sublime Mutations,” T. Benjamin Singer argues that techniques used in photographs of non-normative bodies have significant ethical implications. According to Singer, by portraying these marginalized groups as sublime rather than beautiful, society can better relate to them and adopt more ethical conduct.
NBC’s Hannibal (2013-2015) is a psychological horror-thriller series that reintroduces audiences to Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a serial killing cannibal. A fusion of the original novels and new material, the show incorporates the concepts of beauty and sublimity to a similar end as the photography discussed by Singer: making the non-normative palatable and intriguing. However, the approach differs and as a result, instead of empathizing with the subjects of the images, the audience experiences a disconnect from them, moving away from ethical considerations rather than toward them.
Though it is not readily apparent, Hannibal mainly supports Singer’s lens. It attests to the power of aesthetics in manipulating the audience’s perception of a subject but demonstrates how beautiful and sublime visuals alike can challenge society’s disgust toward the atypical.
Definition of Singer’s Lens
Singer analyzes photographs of transgender and disabled people that are taken with different aesthetic approaches—the pathological, beautiful, and sublime—to contrast their impact on the viewer and, by extension, the groups represented by the photographs. While he contests the idea that photography is the “art of Truth,” he acknowledges the “profoundly ethical dimension” of it because of society’s tendency to isolate aesthetic considerations from utilitarian ones (Singer 602). Singer maintains that aesthetic informs our understanding of non-normative bodies and thus our social practices and ethicality toward them (602).
To discuss Hannibal, we must sum up these three lenses through which non-normative people are viewed according to Singer. The “medical gaze” seeks to identify a problem for correction, “establish[ing] visual evidence of physical pathology and criminal deviance” (604). On the other hand, the sublime “challenges the act of judgment itself by suggesting…limitlessness” (614). This opposes beauty, which “can be apprehended in its entirety,” or is limited and easily understood (607). Essentially, sublime portrayals challenge our notions of a group. Beautiful ones do not.
The Beautiful
In Hannibal, the victims are depicted as beautiful but are ultimately dehumanized, unlike Singer’s examples. This can be related to Singer’s claims surrounding the “damaging isolation” of “aesthetic considerations” (602). Lecter embodies this idea. He is far from a vigilante, choosing his victims almost arbitrarily. His psychiatrist, who is aware of his kills, makes note of this:
“Bedelia: You no longer have ethical concerns, Hannibal, you have aesthetical ones.
Hannibal: Ethics become aesthetics” (“Antipasto”).
His concern for aesthetics, chiefly through the lens of beauty, is evident in many of his murders, notably his recreation of Botticelli’s “Primavera.”
This tableau parallels Figures 43.5-43.8 in “Sublime Mutations” because it has conventionally attractive features (dynamic poses, complementary colors) and “enacts notions of ‘beauty’ and ‘totality’” (Singer 607). Like Figure 43.5, God’s Will, it accomplishes this through framing, which underscores the limitation of the work and thus its adherence to Singer’s definition of beauty. Whereas in God’s Will this is created through negative space, Lecter uses the leaves, fruit and the tarpaulin to enclose his subjects. Both also relate to traditional European art, with Cameron’s physique and pose being evocative of classical Greek sculptures (607).
Similar techniques are used in the Muralist murders, especially with regards to framing and color (“Sakizuke”).
Despite adhering to Singer’s concept of beauty, Lecter’s murders depersonalize victims in a way comparable to the medical photographs of transgender individuals. This is made evident in the murder of Cassie Boyle, which is “the homicidal equivalent of fecal smearing,” “petulant…[and] mocking” (“Apéritif”). Like the medical photos’ subjects, she is nude yet desexualized. Her breasts and groin are obscured, and she is gored on a stag head and left out in the open to eventually be scavenged by crows. Her face is also hidden by the antlers.
Like Figures 43.1 and 43.2 in “Sublime Mutations,” this “strips away the personhood” of the subject because the antlers also hide something we would “recognize as belonging to a fellow human being” (Singer 604). In the “Primavera” murders, Lecter arguably strips the victims of their own identities and personhood, albeit in a different way. He eliminates all identifiers and replicates the figures in the painting almost perfectly. Both methods of depersonalization—through the aesthetic approach and medical gaze—work to create distance between the audience and the victims. This has the opposite effect from the beautiful photographs in “Sublime Mutations,” which address the central concern of ethics: “proper regard for others’ legitimate claims for recognition” (602). The photographs examined in the reading do this by “asserting visibility” through the inclusion of a “normative environment” to show that non-normative people lead lives of significance outside of medicine (604). Hannibal’s murders, as discussed, do the opposite of this.
Additionally, the audience learns that Lecter is extremely intolerant towards rudeness and views his victims as “pigs” which he “elevates” through art, be it the staging of his kills or the elaborate dishes he makes (“Entrée”). Furthermore, he says “It’s only cannibalism when [he and the victim] are equals” (“Antipasto”). Therefore, his attitude towards his victims is best reflected by the medical gaze, seeing as he is “establish[ing] visual evidence of physical pathology and criminal deviance” (Singer 602). Of course, this is perhaps not entirely apparent in the image of Boyle’s murder, seeing as it is a copycat. As an audience, however, we are aware that Lecter views rudeness as a pathology that can be corrected with death.
The Sublime
The case can be made that Lecter’s attitude toward his victims reflects that of society toward non-normative people, but Lecter and the show’s assorted serial killers represent the true non-normative figures in society. It seems appropriate, then, for a show that raises questions about morality, that these people are represented subliminally. This representation constitutes much of the show’s element of magical realism.
The most prominent example of this would be the Wendigo that makes many appearances in Graham’s hallucinations. It is implied to represent Lecter just as Graham (correctly) suspects him of being the Chesapeake Ripper. Upon further research, the Wendigo is a mythological man-eating creature from Algonquian folklore, which corresponds to Lecter’s cannibalism as well as his manipulation of Will Graham.
The Wendigo is a sublime representation of Lecter because, as defined by Singer, it “confront[s] audiences with the threat of the absolute Other” (Singer 614). It suggests that Hannibal is above being human. In the image below, the Wendigo is depicted as being extremely large, possessing six arms, possibly representing Lecter’s sheer power and influence. On a related note, many deities in Hinduism possess multiple arms, which supports the representation of Lecter as an absolute, god-like “Other.”
This confronts audiences with the fear of the kind of non-normative that Lecter represents. In a sense, the visual compounds this fear, which stems from the idea that Lecter defies traditional classification. In season three, he narrowly escapes the death penalty by being declared insane, but the characters acknowledge how Lecter is not truly a psychopath. One character even states, “You’ve long been regarded by your peers in psychiatry as something entirely Other. For convenience, they term you a monster” (“The Great Red Dragon”). This quote aptly summarizes society’s view of Lecter as well as directly connects to Singer’s definition of the sublime.
The representation of Francis Dolarhyde, the main antagonist of the second half of season three, as William Blake’s “The Great Red Dragon” paintings serve a similar purpose. Furthermore, Dolarhyde’s “becoming,” parallels Graham’s transformation throughout the show as he becomes a killer himself.
The sublime imagery of the Wendigo is also used to represent this change. In one scene, antlers pierce through Graham, effectively turning him into a Wendigo.
Conclusion
To conclude, Fuller’s use of both aesthetic forms accomplishes a similar goal: providing alternate ways of viewing Hannibal Lecter, the true non-normative subject. In doing so, the beautiful and sublime aesthetics perhaps indirectly encourage “proper regard for [Lecter’s] legitimate claims for recognition” (602). This is in line with Lecter’s desire to take part in Will’s becoming. While it can be argued that Lecter is humanized throughout the series primarily through his relationship with Will Graham, this, too, is conveyed through imagery as well as dialogue.
The show implores its audience to extend the sympathy it usually reserves for normative characters to characters who are simultaneously capable of great violence and great emotion and empathy—Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon for a woman he loves and Lecter turns himself in after being rejected by Graham. Nevertheless, the beauty of Lecter’s murders combined with the sublime representations of himself and the other killers enable audiences to see and attempt to understand them beyond their crime and deviance. In Hannibal, crime becomes beautiful and the deviants become sublime.
Works Cited
“Antipasto.” Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis, season 3, episode 1, Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2015.
“Apéritif.” Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis, season 1, episode 1, Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2013.
“Entrée.” Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis, season 1, episode 6, Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2013.
Fuller, Bryan, creator. Hannibal. Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2015.
“Sakizuke.” Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis, season 2, episode 2, Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2014.
“Su-zakana.” Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis, season 2, episode 8, Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2014.
“The Great Red Dragon.” Hannibal, created by Bryan Fuller and Martha De Laurentiis, season 3, episode 8, Dino De Laurentiis Company and Sony Pictures Television, 2015.
Singer, T. Benjamin, “From the Medical Gaze to Sublime Mutations: The Ethics of (Re)Viewing Non-normative Body Images.” The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, Routledge, 2013, pp. 601–620.
