Batman, Hannibal and Poirot, oh my
My mind was a rather strange place last night as I dreamed that I was not Batman and not exactly Bryce Wayne but someone in between. I was investigating something at a girl's boarding school that reminded me of the main castle in Prague. As in there was the entire little city in this small space, it was a claustrophobic sort of dream. Also at some point in the dream, I turned into a student who was lost and couldn't figure anything out.
I'm pretty sure I know why I had such a dream, that was because last night I watched the season finale of Hannibal and then before going to bed finished reading The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie and there were unexpected parallels going on.
Now to start off, this parallel might not be that special, the idea of a careful framing of someone else but especially someone who is easily manipulated. Its just as I woke up and this morning, I kept wondering about it. I know people have probably made these connections but for now these are my thoughts.
To start off for those who don't remember the plot, in The A.B.C Murders, Poirot gets a series of letters to tell him about murders happening an alphabetical series of towns. At each of these murders an A.B.C guide is left at the scene to tie them together. A man is arrested for the murders, Alexander Napoleon Cust who seems like a stereotype of a certain kind of serial killer, the man that no one notices. With all of this, there's Christie delving into psychology but of that era and its in a mystery format, which means sometimes things are anvilish. This is all the lead up to the fact that Cust who actually has epilepsy and has points where he blacks out and doesn't remember things is being set up. One man wanted to commit the third murder and creates this series of murders as a way to hide it and uses Cust who is easily managed to take the blame. Poirot sees through it due to the type of personality that would commit one of the murders.
Last night, Hannibal ended with Will Graham being Hannibal's Cust, but Will spotted it just far too late. Hannibal used the tricks and knowledge of how investigators would look at various crime scenes to manipulate not just Will but the entire detective team. The murderer in The A.B.C Murders did the same thing, he knew that with a series of murders, people would search for a connection or even create one and thus not look at the obvious motives and suspects around the murder. Hannibal used the copy cat murders to not only hide his traces but to manipulate Will Graham to a point where no one saw what was truly in front of them. Will even doubted himself because due to his encephalitis has been having seizures and black outs combined with his empathy means he hasn't been trusting his sense of reality. The only thing is that the closest Will has to Poirot is Alana but Hannibal drew the trap around Will far tighter than what the murderer did around Cust. This is due to different eras and the needs and I look forward to seeing it play out. If Harris or Fuller took inspiration from Christie then the homage is slipped in alongside everything else and well done and honestly, she's one of the best to learn from. I'd love anyone else's thoughts on this, should I share this in more meta circles or is this just me seeing a coincidence where there might not be one?
Otherwise, I'm finding it weird to not be heading off to work and so am spending a lot of my time writing and preparing to head to the ALA conference in Chicago from June 27th to July 1st. I'm excited and scared as I know there's more I need to be doing to really be at my best for looking for a job. I have blog posts that I should get writing but mainly that words I keep getting at the moment are fandom ones. I did get some minicards made up for myself, which I love. They have all my pertinent information on them and as my Wordpress blog is pretty much my digital portfolio, they should work.
On Wednesday, I went to the Detroit Zoo and had an amazing time, it was wonderful to just wander around and enjoy the crowds of kids and the beautiful weather. The only annoying part was that when I was trying to get a picture of the prairie dogs, I missed where the concrete changed and skinned my elbow and acquired a nice bruise on my knee. I'm still a little sore since I didn't fall all the way down, I took a major bump. I think I might end up doing another post with just those pictures or at least some of my favorites for those who don't follow me elsewhere to see them.
In terms of fandom writing, I wrote a femslash piece for the Marvel Femslash Prompt Fest, its a little out of my normal round but the prompt clicked for me. Harder than Steel, which is Raven/Emma and explicit.
Today has also been a busy day as the DE was a prompt one and I wrote a number of fics, some of I might expand out and I'm still open for more prompts there.
It was also FicFriday over on Twitter and I'm still taking prompts there as well.
For @yakalskovich
The subject of fear for
Jane
She had given her book up to the publishers, it was still hers but in their control. Soon the public would decide her worth.
Charles
In the quiet of the night, he sometimes reaches for minds that aren't there anymore. Then how lonely the world is pressed down.
Moist
It wouldn't have been so bad to wait for his hanging if he'd had more space, but they kept him locked up in that box with time
For @quiverby
Moist/anyone:
wrong way Moist and Helena
Helena watched him calmly walk through the Warehouse and waited before saying in her sweetest voice, "Darling, wrong way, this way."
no such thing Moist and Joshua
Joshua stared at the imp who waved back at him from the Disorganizer, "Al, come here and explain this to me." "Explain, how?" "Al?"
what's that Helena and Moist
Helena looked over Moist's shoulder to see if her needed more tea and then stared, "What's that?" "Oh, just some work." "Its mine."
mistaken Moist and Helena
Moist made his face as bland as possible while Helena stared at him as if she could make him speak the truth, "You're mistaken."
Charles-/Anyone:
last thing Charles and Erik
Just before Erik disappeared, Charles heard his voice in his head saying, "Remember this is a beginning not an ending, Charles."
whoops Charles and Joshua
He wasn't fully awake when he went to make his tea and heard Joshua say, "Whoops." "Joshua, can I drink my tea?" "Not just yet."
clear skies Charles and Helena
The sky was a clear blue as Helena read through his dissertation and occasionally ruffled his hair, "You do try to see far ahead."
science to do Charles and Joshua
By the time Claudia found them, they had changed the experiment twice and were deep into a discussion of the proper way to measure.
This entry is also posted at http://ceitfianna.dreamwidth.org/397468.html. Please comment wherever you'd like.
I'm pretty sure I know why I had such a dream, that was because last night I watched the season finale of Hannibal and then before going to bed finished reading The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie and there were unexpected parallels going on.
Now to start off, this parallel might not be that special, the idea of a careful framing of someone else but especially someone who is easily manipulated. Its just as I woke up and this morning, I kept wondering about it. I know people have probably made these connections but for now these are my thoughts.
To start off for those who don't remember the plot, in The A.B.C Murders, Poirot gets a series of letters to tell him about murders happening an alphabetical series of towns. At each of these murders an A.B.C guide is left at the scene to tie them together. A man is arrested for the murders, Alexander Napoleon Cust who seems like a stereotype of a certain kind of serial killer, the man that no one notices. With all of this, there's Christie delving into psychology but of that era and its in a mystery format, which means sometimes things are anvilish. This is all the lead up to the fact that Cust who actually has epilepsy and has points where he blacks out and doesn't remember things is being set up. One man wanted to commit the third murder and creates this series of murders as a way to hide it and uses Cust who is easily managed to take the blame. Poirot sees through it due to the type of personality that would commit one of the murders.
Last night, Hannibal ended with Will Graham being Hannibal's Cust, but Will spotted it just far too late. Hannibal used the tricks and knowledge of how investigators would look at various crime scenes to manipulate not just Will but the entire detective team. The murderer in The A.B.C Murders did the same thing, he knew that with a series of murders, people would search for a connection or even create one and thus not look at the obvious motives and suspects around the murder. Hannibal used the copy cat murders to not only hide his traces but to manipulate Will Graham to a point where no one saw what was truly in front of them. Will even doubted himself because due to his encephalitis has been having seizures and black outs combined with his empathy means he hasn't been trusting his sense of reality. The only thing is that the closest Will has to Poirot is Alana but Hannibal drew the trap around Will far tighter than what the murderer did around Cust. This is due to different eras and the needs and I look forward to seeing it play out. If Harris or Fuller took inspiration from Christie then the homage is slipped in alongside everything else and well done and honestly, she's one of the best to learn from. I'd love anyone else's thoughts on this, should I share this in more meta circles or is this just me seeing a coincidence where there might not be one?
Otherwise, I'm finding it weird to not be heading off to work and so am spending a lot of my time writing and preparing to head to the ALA conference in Chicago from June 27th to July 1st. I'm excited and scared as I know there's more I need to be doing to really be at my best for looking for a job. I have blog posts that I should get writing but mainly that words I keep getting at the moment are fandom ones. I did get some minicards made up for myself, which I love. They have all my pertinent information on them and as my Wordpress blog is pretty much my digital portfolio, they should work.
On Wednesday, I went to the Detroit Zoo and had an amazing time, it was wonderful to just wander around and enjoy the crowds of kids and the beautiful weather. The only annoying part was that when I was trying to get a picture of the prairie dogs, I missed where the concrete changed and skinned my elbow and acquired a nice bruise on my knee. I'm still a little sore since I didn't fall all the way down, I took a major bump. I think I might end up doing another post with just those pictures or at least some of my favorites for those who don't follow me elsewhere to see them.
In terms of fandom writing, I wrote a femslash piece for the Marvel Femslash Prompt Fest, its a little out of my normal round but the prompt clicked for me. Harder than Steel, which is Raven/Emma and explicit.
Today has also been a busy day as the DE was a prompt one and I wrote a number of fics, some of I might expand out and I'm still open for more prompts there.
It was also FicFriday over on Twitter and I'm still taking prompts there as well.
For @yakalskovich
The subject of fear for
Jane
She had given her book up to the publishers, it was still hers but in their control. Soon the public would decide her worth.
Charles
In the quiet of the night, he sometimes reaches for minds that aren't there anymore. Then how lonely the world is pressed down.
Moist
It wouldn't have been so bad to wait for his hanging if he'd had more space, but they kept him locked up in that box with time
For @quiverby
Moist/anyone:
wrong way Moist and Helena
Helena watched him calmly walk through the Warehouse and waited before saying in her sweetest voice, "Darling, wrong way, this way."
no such thing Moist and Joshua
Joshua stared at the imp who waved back at him from the Disorganizer, "Al, come here and explain this to me." "Explain, how?" "Al?"
what's that Helena and Moist
Helena looked over Moist's shoulder to see if her needed more tea and then stared, "What's that?" "Oh, just some work." "Its mine."
mistaken Moist and Helena
Moist made his face as bland as possible while Helena stared at him as if she could make him speak the truth, "You're mistaken."
Charles-/Anyone:
last thing Charles and Erik
Just before Erik disappeared, Charles heard his voice in his head saying, "Remember this is a beginning not an ending, Charles."
whoops Charles and Joshua
He wasn't fully awake when he went to make his tea and heard Joshua say, "Whoops." "Joshua, can I drink my tea?" "Not just yet."
clear skies Charles and Helena
The sky was a clear blue as Helena read through his dissertation and occasionally ruffled his hair, "You do try to see far ahead."
science to do Charles and Joshua
By the time Claudia found them, they had changed the experiment twice and were deep into a discussion of the proper way to measure.
This entry is also posted at http://ceitfianna.dreamwidth.org/397468.html. Please comment wherever you'd like.