Eneh Akpan Writes: Hannibal Lecter

Showing posts with label Hannibal Lecter. Show all posts

Monday, February 18, 2013

Character Archetypes of the Horror Genre

Ghost Photo credit: Pétur Gauti

A look at character archetypes of the horror subgenre. This is a personal thing, really. Once, I found a website that classified all the prototype into only three classes: The Vampire; the Ghost and the Monster. I discovered doing it this way kind of leaves room for a little improvisation (for me, at least), I can focus on the individual character archetypes and talk about each one at a time instead of lumping them together in one bogus family tree.

The Vampire

The vampire is one of the shape shifters of the horror genre. And probably, the most famous of the undeads. Somebody once commented on how swiftly the character has evolved through time and even faster than the flu.

Modern films and books keep inventing new forms of the vampire story finally creating vampires who can co-exist with humans in a near-cordial relationship.

The Werewolf

Another shape-shifting character and for the most part sworn enemies of the vampire. This character is considered a lycanthrope or a wolfman whose transformation takes place at the appearance of the full moon. It wields a form of power stronger than a man's and a wolf's combined.

Extraterrestrials

Aliens or ETs are intelligent life forms from space. Although, in some fictional works, some of these extraterrestrial species are a positively productive bunch, many of their type like the ones featured in Stephen King's Dreamcatcher for example. Another good example are the set of ETs on the X-Files.

Psychos

I decided I'd detach these set of villains from the monsters for a special reason; most psychos are super-intelligent beings. (Their level of intelligence is probably too advanced for them and they eventually, self-destruct.) Thomas Harris' famous anti-hero, Hannibal Lecter falls under this category and probably, the prototype mad scientist, Frankenstein.

Monsters

The characters called monsters besides anacondas, devilish sewer rats, usually possess a low IQ yet, their blood boils with the essence of evil.

Zombies

These characters are classified as undead along with the vampires, the werewolves, and the ghouls. The zombie is a specie of mindless, reanimated corpses who feed on human flesh. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is considered a progenitor of the fictional zombie in modern fiction.

Ghouls

These characters are also shape-shifters as well as the undead. I have placed the Ghosts and the daemons or spirits in this category. Ghouls are desert-dwelling, shape-shifting, evil daemons. But since I also refer to the ghost, ghouls are also spirits of dead people and include the supernatural beings like evil spirits and the likes.

If, perhaps, you have a better method of classifying these horror archetypes, I'd like to see what you got to give.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Monday, October 29, 2012

Writers Live Double Lives

Pretense is a syllable too many for most writers when they take account of the role they play in their stories. It’s one word that don’t fit into the puzzle. Doesn’t spark a vibe.

Feigning their fictional people’s emotional roller coasters is too… well, shallow. As a writer, you want to, really throw yourself into the life of your characters to live out the peak moments with them. Including the low periods, as well. If you want to give your fiction an edge of reality and make it ring true in your readers’ ears, you must tackle this important step.

A writer is the best actor/actress of his own story. Let your characters be your director. Step into the spaces where your characters live, mark their footsteps, thread in them boldly. Face your fictional people’s fears and battle their dragons; go from their darkness into greater darkness; fail in their weaknesses until you drop off the lip of reality into a world that could only be magic. Until the spectacular culmination of art where the character wakes to life within you and walks out of your frame to a different plane, a unique personality separate from you and no less alive.

A New York Times review of his novel, Lisey’s Story, quotes Stephen King as saying (about his perspective on writing),

“The question which haunts and nags and won’t completely let go is this one: ‘Who am I when I write?’”

The quote was taken from a 1993 Stephen King essay but in a scene in his novel The Dark Half the main character in his novel makes a similar statement. (Did the author become his character or is his character voicing the writer’s fears?)

Thomas Harris wrote in the foreword to his novel Red Dragon,

‘I want to tell you the circumstances in which I first encountered Hannibal Lecter, M.D…’

Do you sense the urgency in this statement? See how those words push you to believe there might a real walking and breathing, psycho among us and, who goes by that name? Hannibal is a creation of Thomas Harris, a character in his books.

Writers possess more than one soul residing within them and these angle aggressively, for expression. Life often takes drastic twists for a writer; he cannot be one man at every turn of the page. He must not or he’ll lose the very substance which holds him in one piece, bonds his faculty together as a sane entity.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Your VILLAIN is Someone's HERO

Photo credit: Flickr

Yeah, and why not?

They all seem to be fighting for a cause.

Here’s a striking example from personal experience:

From a different P.O.V, Thomas Harris’ famous character, Hannibal Lecter would have been a formidable villain.

I had the misfortune, or whatever you might call it of reading ‘Hannibal’ first before any of the other books in the series. I ended up disappointed when Dr. Hannibal was not caught or gutted (not necessarily in that order) at the end of the story.

I was rooting for Clarice Starling and completely ignorant the whole time of the fact that Dr. Hannibal was the main character of the book while Agent Starling was tagging along for the ride! Imagine the surprise when Hannibal annihilated everything in his path and successfully kidnapped the FBI agent (Starling) assigned to his case.

The most fearful villains are the ones amped up with a reason for their actions. Morality issues are added boosts for these ‘bad guys’. Most of them believe their actions are for the good of humanity.

When you arm a villain with feelings and concrete emotions and throw in a bit of history in the mix, the reader either despairs for the hero of the story or falls in love with the ‘bad guy(s)’.

Villains do not understand why people hate or fear them. Many are driven beyond the lip of sanity because of the way people react(ed) toward them. You might need to remember this when you create villains for your story.

Making your villain(s) formidable and lovable involves giving them:

1. A history

2. A cause to live or die for

3. Concrete emotions–may involve making them fall in love, probably with somebody who doesn’t know who they really are. (This makes your reader see them as humans and as people going through rough times.)

Of course, your heroes do not always have human or superhuman enemies but when they do have ‘em remember your villain is the next guy’s hero.

Love them or lose your readers!

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan