Appros of nothing, I *really* want to watch a panel or something where you interview Rahul Kanakia (or vice-versa). There are so many parallels with your works, but from opposite angles.
She is probably best known for the YA novel ' We Are Totally Normal,' which is a gay romance, and it plays with and subverts some m/m fanfiction tropes that she found frustrating or just strange back when she identified as a gay man (as a teenager and young adult).
I first discovered her work when I read this Clarkesworld sf story, "Seeking Boarder For Rm w/ Attached Bathroom, Must be Willing to Live With Ghosts," which honestly is still one of my favorites: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kanakia_10_14/
It has been especially fascinating to read her blog before and after she publicly transitioned / came out as trans.
Here is one of my favorite blog posts from her from before she came out / transitioned, where she is clearly wrestling with this idea of, "what does it mean to be a man?" and what is masculine violence. TW, though, for discussion of sexual violence: https://thewaronloneliness.com/2017/10/17/on-mens-contempt-for-women/
Overall I think you both have similar senses of humor and relationships to pop culture, and you're both very thoughtful and have this intense conscience that I admire.
DANNYYYYY we all need all your Hannibal feelings especially as I am trying to rewatch and not at all impeded by the gore but by how bad I feel for poor baby (grown man) Will Graham.
Also, the whole show is queer coded cartoon villains but I think Raúl Esparza is the most cartoony and most villainous and I love that for both him and me very very much.
i don't know what queer coded means because it seems like people often use it when they just mean (in the best possible sense) "faggy" but I agree that he is very cartoony on the show
To me it calls to mind the 90s cartoon kind of sleek, elegant, panache-y villains like Scar or HIM but yes I think that's what you're saying- "queer coded" is too vague.
i at first refused to bring hannibal up to my therapist at the time at ALL. i was like "if she knows how i feel about this she will know i am INSANE". i imprinted on will super fucking hard during season one, the whole "unstable" thing unmoored me from reality at times.
must remember to watch this space as you near the end of its run as i paused 4 episodes in to season 3 and then some life interfered as it does and i have yet to finish it and that was 5 years ago...
only in the vaguest sense, as gleaned from quickly-glimpsed tumblr fanart and slashy otp musings. i always scampered away before i could learn too much, because i always intended to go back
until i do, i guess, i have several lovely and some horrid ideas for how it (should have) ended
WILL GRAHAM "Has more feelings than anybody else in the world..." Aaaaaactually, he has the same range of emotions as anyone else. Instead, he has the rare ability of enmeshment...his conscious perception merges with that of others. When he codas a crime scene using his edict memory, he fully enmeshes with the consciousness of the killer and even the victim/s. In other words, he utilizes his power of perception (imagination) and becomes them. He uses the evidence to guide him, like cue cards. I have Hyper-Empathy Syndrome (what Will's "empathy disorder" is technically called) so I have little more insight than most about how this particular "gift" works. If you become enmeshed thoroughly enough with someone, you can end up experiencing mirror touch synesthesia as well as the ability to manifest physiological changes (on top of the emotional) that mirror the other
person. So when Will is connecting with a killer who gets sexual gratification for his crimes...Will is feeling vividly and acutely what the killer is both emotionally and physiologically. What makes it worse is that he is simultaneously experiencing the same from the victim.
And dropping something else most people don't seem to realize about Hannibal Lecter, both in the novels and in Bryan's masterpiece, Hannibal Lecter is also a Hyper-Empath, but it's not a disorder for him because he has a particular way of looking at the world that affords him the ability to both enmesh whilst keeping his sense of self intact and his emotional state under absolute control. That's not the only thing he shares with Will either.
In the novel, "Red Dragon," Hannibal tells Will that they are exactly alike. It's said in various ways in Fuller's adaption. I did a write up in response to the question, "Why was someone as intellectually sound and self-aware as Hannibal Lecter a Psychopath?" which goes into greater detail about Lecter and Graham which might shed light on not only the characters as they are in the novels, but as well as Bryan's adaption of them (absolutely compatible). It certainly will change the viewing experience of the show. Link: https://www.quora.com/Why-was-someone-as-intellectually-sound-and-self-aware-as-Hannibal-Lecter-a-psychopath/answer/Ara-Claire?ch=10&share=0e2986d9&srid=u3sNq
Oh, and here's a freebie (without spoiling)...Will's not "completely" who he asserts himself to be and Hannibal is not lying when he says he only wants to help Will...that he knows what's best for him.
I’m on season 2 and love this show, but every time I see Will Graham onscreen I feel this -yearning- and it’s not sexual, but... “oh, could that be me”
The show is brilliant in so many ways that it defies belief that it didn't get much bigger following before Netflix. Yeah, we live in the post-cable times, but for fuck's sake? The cast bill on its own should inspire curiosity, if not outright enthusiasm. Mads is Mads, he's a fucking monster of an actor, a known fact. Hugh Dancy is a very pleasant surprise, even if you're tuning into the show only now, several years removed. Laurence Fishburne is a known quality. The show aesthetic is so deeply and thoughtfully done, it's hard to believe the show was created this side of The Lord of The Rings, nobody gets that kind of freedom nowadays, who isn't Christopher Nolan. Consider also the fact that no show past or present will make cannibalism as appealing an option diet-wise as this. The show is a gem, there's no two ways about it.
Oh, I am going to enjoy watching you watch Hannibal. I actually wrote a wall of text about it back in the day when I was first watching it... but it has spoilers, so no link.
Daniel I respectfully request that you stop knowing exactly what my slightly-pre-transition self was thinking circa 2014
this!
Appros of nothing, I *really* want to watch a panel or something where you interview Rahul Kanakia (or vice-versa). There are so many parallels with your works, but from opposite angles.
I'm not familiar with Rahul! What should I read?
She is probably best known for the YA novel ' We Are Totally Normal,' which is a gay romance, and it plays with and subverts some m/m fanfiction tropes that she found frustrating or just strange back when she identified as a gay man (as a teenager and young adult).
I first discovered her work when I read this Clarkesworld sf story, "Seeking Boarder For Rm w/ Attached Bathroom, Must be Willing to Live With Ghosts," which honestly is still one of my favorites: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kanakia_10_14/
It has been especially fascinating to read her blog before and after she publicly transitioned / came out as trans.
Here is one of my favorite blog posts from her from before she came out / transitioned, where she is clearly wrestling with this idea of, "what does it mean to be a man?" and what is masculine violence. TW, though, for discussion of sexual violence: https://thewaronloneliness.com/2017/10/17/on-mens-contempt-for-women/
And then this post, from after her coming out, about the DC animated series 'Harley Quinn,' reminds me a little bit about how you write about Star Trek: https://thewaronloneliness.com/2020/06/11/things-you-might-not-know-about-me-i-love-the-dc-universe-have-been-really-liking-the-show-harley-quinn/
Overall I think you both have similar senses of humor and relationships to pop culture, and you're both very thoughtful and have this intense conscience that I admire.
I misread the title as On Frasier Watching HANNIBAL and while I immensely enjoyed this already... Please
oh god Niles watching Hannibal
the possibilities are exquisite
The Hurt/Comfort Beacon is the soft masc spin on the Bat-Signal.
I am so tickled that the internet has collectively decided to watch this again. I loved when we all watched it together the first time.
God and COVID willing, some entity will pick it up for Season 4
DANNYYYYY we all need all your Hannibal feelings especially as I am trying to rewatch and not at all impeded by the gore but by how bad I feel for poor baby (grown man) Will Graham.
Also, the whole show is queer coded cartoon villains but I think Raúl Esparza is the most cartoony and most villainous and I love that for both him and me very very much.
i don't know what queer coded means because it seems like people often use it when they just mean (in the best possible sense) "faggy" but I agree that he is very cartoony on the show
To me it calls to mind the 90s cartoon kind of sleek, elegant, panache-y villains like Scar or HIM but yes I think that's what you're saying- "queer coded" is too vague.
I identify with Will Graham so much that it's frightening. I have actually told my therapist how much I identify with Will Graham.
That being said, I'm pretty sure he has a cluster B personality disorder...
Of course compared to Hannibal everybody seems normal.
i at first refused to bring hannibal up to my therapist at the time at ALL. i was like "if she knows how i feel about this she will know i am INSANE". i imprinted on will super fucking hard during season one, the whole "unstable" thing unmoored me from reality at times.
must remember to watch this space as you near the end of its run as i paused 4 episodes in to season 3 and then some life interfered as it does and i have yet to finish it and that was 5 years ago...
but my stars. isn't it ghastly and beautiful.
wait... you mean... you don't know how it ended?
only in the vaguest sense, as gleaned from quickly-glimpsed tumblr fanart and slashy otp musings. i always scampered away before i could learn too much, because i always intended to go back
until i do, i guess, i have several lovely and some horrid ideas for how it (should have) ended
let's just say it surpassed all our expectations
This is too good!
WILL GRAHAM "Has more feelings than anybody else in the world..." Aaaaaactually, he has the same range of emotions as anyone else. Instead, he has the rare ability of enmeshment...his conscious perception merges with that of others. When he codas a crime scene using his edict memory, he fully enmeshes with the consciousness of the killer and even the victim/s. In other words, he utilizes his power of perception (imagination) and becomes them. He uses the evidence to guide him, like cue cards. I have Hyper-Empathy Syndrome (what Will's "empathy disorder" is technically called) so I have little more insight than most about how this particular "gift" works. If you become enmeshed thoroughly enough with someone, you can end up experiencing mirror touch synesthesia as well as the ability to manifest physiological changes (on top of the emotional) that mirror the other
person. So when Will is connecting with a killer who gets sexual gratification for his crimes...Will is feeling vividly and acutely what the killer is both emotionally and physiologically. What makes it worse is that he is simultaneously experiencing the same from the victim.
And dropping something else most people don't seem to realize about Hannibal Lecter, both in the novels and in Bryan's masterpiece, Hannibal Lecter is also a Hyper-Empath, but it's not a disorder for him because he has a particular way of looking at the world that affords him the ability to both enmesh whilst keeping his sense of self intact and his emotional state under absolute control. That's not the only thing he shares with Will either.
In the novel, "Red Dragon," Hannibal tells Will that they are exactly alike. It's said in various ways in Fuller's adaption. I did a write up in response to the question, "Why was someone as intellectually sound and self-aware as Hannibal Lecter a Psychopath?" which goes into greater detail about Lecter and Graham which might shed light on not only the characters as they are in the novels, but as well as Bryan's adaption of them (absolutely compatible). It certainly will change the viewing experience of the show. Link: https://www.quora.com/Why-was-someone-as-intellectually-sound-and-self-aware-as-Hannibal-Lecter-a-psychopath/answer/Ara-Claire?ch=10&share=0e2986d9&srid=u3sNq
Oh, and here's a freebie (without spoiling)...Will's not "completely" who he asserts himself to be and Hannibal is not lying when he says he only wants to help Will...that he knows what's best for him.
🙈🙉🙊
I binged it all at one time absolutely fabulous! Mads Mikkelsen is a God
Oh. Oh, this is me.
I’m on season 2 and love this show, but every time I see Will Graham onscreen I feel this -yearning- and it’s not sexual, but... “oh, could that be me”
The show is brilliant in so many ways that it defies belief that it didn't get much bigger following before Netflix. Yeah, we live in the post-cable times, but for fuck's sake? The cast bill on its own should inspire curiosity, if not outright enthusiasm. Mads is Mads, he's a fucking monster of an actor, a known fact. Hugh Dancy is a very pleasant surprise, even if you're tuning into the show only now, several years removed. Laurence Fishburne is a known quality. The show aesthetic is so deeply and thoughtfully done, it's hard to believe the show was created this side of The Lord of The Rings, nobody gets that kind of freedom nowadays, who isn't Christopher Nolan. Consider also the fact that no show past or present will make cannibalism as appealing an option diet-wise as this. The show is a gem, there's no two ways about it.
Oh, I am going to enjoy watching you watch Hannibal. I actually wrote a wall of text about it back in the day when I was first watching it... but it has spoilers, so no link.
link!!! i'll wait til after i've finished to click!
this is, like, a reblog of a reblog of a reblog https://zecurlyone.tumblr.com/post/183125184802/axmxz-tea-and-liminality-axmxz
this is GREAT, btw
*microsmiles a la mads mikkelsen*