Defining Psychopaths-Hannibal Lecter, Series VS Movies VS Books

Oh Please, If you love Penny Dreadful and Dexter you know exactly how satisfying this gif is.

I tried to make sense of why I was so obsessed with Hannibal, But, I couldn’t. There was always fuss about the comparison. Is the movie better than the book? Or was the book better than the Television series?  Or movie being better than both the books and the Television series? So what did I do to see the difference? I watched the movie, and I read the book.

Silence of the Lambs, the movie, was unusually faithful to the book.  Dozens of lines of dialogue were right away lifted from the book; many of the best ones, in fact.  The screenplay was also skillfully modified, since almost every change in the movie was a development on what was in the book, and things that were polished over in the movie were things that the book defined in more detail than we really needed to know.

The film contains less description than the book, of course. But here is the main story-line; So Dr. Hannibal Lecter is approached by a young cadet with tortured past about an interview, which is later revealed to be part of an investigation regarding a serial killer that skins his victims. During their encounters, Hannibal gets fond of Clarice Starling, cadet and with a main saying, ‘Quid Pro Quo’ he offers Clarice a chance to capture the Buffalo Bill, the serial killer. Using the details provided by Lecter, Clarice guesses that Buffalo Bill considers himself a transgender (when he isn’t) and is creating a "woman suit" because he craves their skin. Clarice figures out that he knew his first target, Francesca Bimmel, and then travels to Ohio to search for more clues. Her search leads her to a local seamstress. The seamstress was no longer living there, but the new tenant turns out to be the murderer. A chase through the serial killer’s puzzle-like basement starts, resulting in Starling gunning down Jame Gumb and rescuing Catherine Martin.

So the long speeches Hannibal gives when talking to Clarice were often hard to grasp in the book but they are amply clear in the film, with Anthony Hopkin’s phenomenal performance.  Since almost all of the dialogue in the book is imitated exactly in the film, I find myself hearing Anthony Hopkins say each word which I could listen every time I watched the film, and I would just hear the story as it was in film, instead of thinking, hey this is a book. There was a song I really felt intrigued from; it was called ‘Goodbye Horses’ which refers to an eastern philosophy to represent the five senses. It narrates that the flying part means that a person would escape the shell of this body to become something else. The words were, “Goodbye Horses, I’m flying over you, Goodbye horses, I’m flying, flying, flying over you”

According to IMDB this film won Oscars in all five categories: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Fun fact is that Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for acting for almost 16 minutes in the film. And he did a great job doing them. Here is what I learned in the film:

Everyone goes through the phase of change or metamorphosis, the storyline explains how people transform under certain conditions and every character in the film wants to bring a change.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the movie 9 being the best adaptation I have seen, along with Lord of the rings or the Hobbit. The book 10 because it is one of the most intriguing, most beautifully written books I have ever read.

Psychaotic Review By Colin Andersen

Colin Andersen rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this enticing debut collection, Irum Zahra gives us lyrical poems that seem to evolve straight from the heart. In her writing Irum talks about life, love and the hurt that accompanies human beings, and the anguishes a young woman often has to endure while traveling through life. The writings offered in the collection are evidence of the author's poetic strength and depth of expression.

Almost all the poems are enjoyable and it's hard to resist quoting lines that are examples of splendid poetry, like the ones below:

I speak, I cry, I read, I write,
I like, I hate, I scar, I bleed,
I drown, I feel, I run, I sing,
I say, I yell, I make, I break
"Psychaotic: See The World In Red" is sprinkled with many other gems like the above. Once you complete the book you realize Irum Zahra is a writer capable of delivering poetry which is passionate but does not disintegrate in cheap sentimentality. I highly recommend the collection, it's a must read for poetry lovers.

Psychaotic Book Launch in Lahore

Literature is the essence of civilization in a society and striving to get literature the importance it deserves is exactly what people at 'Daastan' are doing. 'Daastan - A Literary Forum' held its brand launch in the city of Lahore at Arfa Kareem Technology Park on April 16, 2015. The event, in itself, was an inspiring experience for the 50+ young literary enthusiasts present there.

 The show started with Syeda Aisha Ameer, co-founder of Daastan, welcoming the guests followed by a video displaying the journey of Daastan so far. The video had been prepared by Abdul Wahab from Revolution Flame: an NGO. Once the guests had witnessed Daastan's accomplishments in its short journey, Daastan's young founder, Ommar Amer came forward to share his views. He emphasized upon the crucial status of literature from every dimension and explained how 'writing' is way more significant than the credit people of Pakistan happen to give it. He also shared his beliefs about how Daastan aims to fill the gap and that his brand would soon be the center of international attention for the quality writers it would produce.

Interests further heightened when young speakers from various literary backgrounds were given a chance on the stage. These included Mughees Anwar: founding member of AniMAG, the first ever anime magazine of Pakistan; Hassan Siddiqui: Pakistan's first comic book writer; Ghalib Khalil: founder of Rescue Pakistan Youth Forum with its applaudable projects for the country including the magnificent Project Azaad Pakistan and Rutaba Yaqoob: the emerging singer/songwriter who has been a part of Nescafe Basement. The author Irum Zahra was there who is our country's first Free Verse Gothic Poet and there she launched a poetic masterpiece named 'Psychaotic: See The World In Black And Red' which promises a strict reality check! She talked to the media and also distributed signed copies of her book among her readers.

The event's closing ceremony came last with Sarah Tariq Gilani, the assistant manager of Plan 9, distributing awards and shields to partners of Dastaan including its media partners which were SBN, Da Artist, Radio FM 89 and Express News.

 The mere fact that they were all young people there achieving all these milestones was a wake up call for people who somehow still don't believe in our youth. Pakistan's literature industry has done its rightful share of waiting and now it deserves a sincere effort towards the fulfilment of Daastan's aims.

Credits: Noor.ul.Ain from Beyond Sanity Publishing

James Hannibal rated it 5 of 5 stars

 

Psychaotic is a collection of predominantly dark poetry from a gifted writer. Irum Zahra creates exquisite imagery with an economy of words. With her melancholy tone — at times almost suicidal and at others overtly homicidal, usually in stream of consciousness style — her work is reminiscent of Edward Young of the eighteenth century Gothic poets. If Zahra’s work does not tug at the empathetic strings of your heart, you may have no heart at all. Five stars.