Pain, regret, the things I knew only too late. These I call forth my calm distantly searching breath and eye. My inner visual flips through the pages of a thousand graphic novels igniting a soft blue flame which simultaneously burns, sooths, chills. I faintly drift and begin to age instantly. My dry crackling skin sheds dust upon the floor of the hells. I collapse like a stature of ash passed through the wake of absolute fire. I scream in formless agony and shattered heart. The remnants of my soul devoured by cruelty and greed of the devourer. Then as my screaming quakes upon the foundation by my damning curses upon the madness and absurdity, I blast forth in new purity. A sun spontaneously bursts forth and I feel the highened sensation throughout my body like the powers of the ascended. I found a sun resting upon the foundless. So there I reflect in myself where I stand upon the Void! I fear neither height nor falling!!! For I command these very dimensions and beyond!!!
I’m watching Silence Of The Lambs with a friend right now, reminds me of the quote Lecter paraphrases, it seems, from Marcus Aurelius: “Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature?”
For some reason this elegant and poetic post made me think of that, though I can’t rightly say why. 
I love that movie. Show a finesse and elegance of perceived “evil”. Which of the four do you think Hannibal saw most in Clarice: a meal, a rival, a companion, or a daughter? Personally I feel like he saw all four in her.
I often make this joke about myself, that I’m a ‘recovering endtimes prophet’. So what I did was create a type pf alchemy out of it. Things which used to consume me are now consumed in the fiery inspiration of creative passion! 
I see it all ways - one way to look at Lecter is, a man so driven by his pathological need to rip into human flesh, that he over-compensates with the cultural thing - this is especially noticeable in the book Hannibal, where it’s clear his creator has fallen in love with him (and, that’s a whole suitcase to unpack right there!) and is pretty much setting him against the most grotesque face of - well, basically American - consumerism, as represented by the truly disgusting character of Mason Verger, and his abuse of children, dogs, and his deeply inhumane pig farms.
They’re Smithfield foods given a fictional owner.
I like Lecter, myself, but for me he’s always going to be the compact and self-sufficient character from SotL, I don’t like where the Clarice character goes in Hannibal at all, because for every “chick-hypnotised-by-evil” meme (Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, etc - maybe even the Ripley-clone “Number 8” of Alien Resurrection), there’s a Clarice Starling of SotL, who still cares about those bloody lambs, and also, wants her talents to be expressed in some way, and not subsumed into the force she’s determnined to oppose, and ultimately, destroy.
As, to be fair, “Number 8” does in AR.
I like to play a little game sometimes, given the strangeness of my everyday life, which is “What would Clarice Starling do?” - and then sometimes, I also make it “What would Hannibal Lecter do” - I first saw SotL on videotape, it was a pivotal moment for me, one of the “adult” movies and I was just allowed to watch it, back when VCRs where a BIG deal, and it made an impact.
And, I just love Jodie Foster’s funny pointy little face, the way she didn’t game that look to only play ditzy heroines, evn though she’s probably as crazy as every other actor - my sweetie calls them “pot-smoking commies”!
Which of the four do you think Hannibal saw most in Clarice: a meal, a rival, a companion, or a daughter? Personally I feel like he saw all four in her.
Definitely all four, and IMO, that’s what turned him on so much! 
I would struggle to compose a better review! applause