The Red Pen

Austin accompanies Amanda as she revisits twenty years of fannish enthusiasm and exasperation to discuss the Hannibal Lecter tetralogy by Thomas Harris. Specifically, why are the first two in the series so good despite their pitfalls? Why is the prequel so underwhelming? Amanda talks the perils of showing the monster, writing from a genius' POV, changing genres throughout a series, and licking steering wheels. (The episode does contain spoilers for most of the series.)

Content warnings: This episode discusses murder, cannibalism, transphobia, abuse, gaslighting, non-consensual drugging, brainwashing, and other gross subjects you'd expect to find in an episode about a sadistic cannibal who thinks he's an artiste.

Works cited:

Opening quote by Thomas Harris

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

The Lecter franchise

Patton Oswalt - At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas with a Shovel

Special thanks to Ibba Armancas.

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The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.

Our sponsor for this episode is the crime podcast Criminal Records, which is all about history's weirdest criminal cases. Hosts Demetria Spinrad and Isaac Meyer traverse the globe finding all sorts of fascinating people who aren't typically featured in history books, and the strange crimes they do.