These People Thanked The Animal

What do you think our souls 

owe to ancient myths?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, the ancient myths were designed to put the minds, the mental system, into accord with this body system, with this inheritance of the body.

BILL MOYERS: 

A harmony?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL:

 To harmonize. The mind can ramble off 

in strange ways, and want things 

that the body does not want. 

And the myths and rites were means 

to put the mind in accord with the body, 

and the way of life in accord with the way 

that nature dictates.

BILL MOYERS: 

So in a way these old stories live in us.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

They do indeed, and the stages of a human development are the same today as they were in the ancient times. 

And the problem of a child brought up in a world of discipline, of obedience, and of his dependency on others, 

has to be transcended when one comes to maturity so that you are living now 

not in dependency but with 

self-responsible authority. 

And the problem of the transition from childhood to maturity, and then from maturity and full capacity to losing those powers and acquiescing in the natural course of, you might say, the autumn-time of life and the passage away, myths are there to help us go with it, accept nature’s way and not hold to 

something else.

BILL MOYERS: 

The stories are sort of to Me 

like messages in a bottle 

from shores Someone Else 

has visited first.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes, and you’re visiting those shores now.

BILL MOYERS: And these myths tell me how others have made the passage, and how I can make the passage.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

And also what the beauties are of the way. I feel this now, moving into my own last years, you know, the myths help me to go with it.

BILL MOYERS: What kind of myth? Give me one that has actually helped you.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, the tradition in India, for instance, of actually changing your whole way of dress, even changing your name, as you pass from one stage to another. When I retired from teaching, I knew that I had to create a new life, a new way of life, and I changed my manner of thinking about my life just in terms of that notion, moving out of the sphere of achievement into the sphere of enjoyment and appreciation and relaxing into the wonder of it all.

BILL MOYERS: And then there is that final passage through the dark gate?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, that’s no problem at all. The problem in middle life, when the body has reached its climax of power and begins to lose it, is to identify yourself, not with the body, which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. And when you can do that, and this is something learned from my myths, What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle? And this body is a vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this thing go, like an old car there goes the fender, there goes this. But it’s expectable, you know, and then gradually the whole thing drops off and consciousness rejoins consciousness. I mean, that’s it’s no longer in this particular environment.

BILL MOYERS: And the myths, the stories have brought this consciousness to ours.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, I live with these myths and they tell me to do this all the time. And this is the problem which can be then metaphorically understood as identifying with the Christ in you, and the Christ in you doesn’t die. The Christ in you survives death and resurrects. Or it can be with Shiva. Shiva hung, I am Shiva. And this is the great meditation of the yogis in the Himalayas. And one doesn’t have even to have a metaphorical image like that, if one has a mind that’s willing to just relax and identify itself with that which moves it.

BILL MOYERS: You say that the image of death is the beginning of mythology. What do you mean? How is that?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, all I can say to that is that the earliest evidence we have of anything like mythological thinking is associated with grave burials.

BILL MOYERS: And they suggest what, that men, women, saw life and then they didn’t see it, and they wondered about it?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: It must have been, I mean, one has only to, you know, imagine what one’s own experience would be. The person was alive and warm before you and talking to you, is now lying there, getting cold, beginning to rot. Something was there that isn’t there, and where is it? Now, animals have this experience, certainly, of their companions dying and so forth, but mere’s no evidence that they’ve had any further thoughts about it. Also before the time of Neanderthal man it’s in his period that the first burials appeared of which we have evidence people were dying and they were just thrown away. But here this, a concern.

BILL MOYERS: Have you ever visited any of these burial sites?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: I’ve been to Le Moustier, that was one of the earliest burial caves that were found.

BILL MOYERS: And you find there what they buried with the dead?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes. These grave burials with grave gear, that is to say weapons and sacrifices round about, certainly suggest the idea of the continued life beyond the visible one. The first one that was discovered, the person was put down resting as though asleep, a young boy, with a beautiful hand ax beside him. Now, at the same time we have evidence of shrines devoted to animals that have been killed. The shrines specifically are in the Alps, very high caves, and they are of cave bear skulls. And there is one very interesting one with the long bones of the cave bear in the cave bear’s jaw.

BILL MOYERS: What does that say to you?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Burials. My friend has died and he survives. 

The animals that I’ve killed must also survive. I must make some kind of atonement relationship to them. The indication is of the notion of a plane of being that’s behind the visible plane, and which is somehow supportive of the visible one to which we have to relate. I would say that’s the basic theme of all mythology.

BILL MOYERS: That there is a world?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

That there is an invisible plane supporting the visible one. 

Now, whether it is thought of as a world or simply as energy, that differs from time and time and place to place.

BILL MOYERS: What we don’t know supports what we do know.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: That’s right. The basic hunting myth, I would say, is of a kind of covenant between the animal world and the human world, where the animal gives its life willingly. They are regarded generally as willing victims, with the understanding that their life, which transcends their physical entity, will be returned to the soil or to the mother through some ritual of restoration. And the principal rituals, for instance, and the principal divinities are associated with the main hunting animal, the animal who is the master animal, and sends the flocks to be killed, you know. To the Indians of the American plains, it was the buffalo. You go to the northwest coast, it’s the salmon. The great festivals have to do with the run of salmon coming in. When you go to South Africa, the eland, the big, magnificent antelope, is the principal animal to the Bushmen, for example.

BILL MOYERS: And the principal animal, the master animal

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Is the one that furnishes the food.

BILL MOYERS: So there grew up between human beings and animals, a bonding, as you say, which required one to be consumed by the other.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: That’s the way life is.

BILL MOYERS: 

Do you think this troubled early man, too

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Absolutely, that’s why you have the rites, 

because it did trouble him.

BILL MOYERS: What kind of rites?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Rituals of appeasement to the animals, of thanks to the animal. A very interesting aspect here is the identity of The Hunter with the animal.

BILL MOYERS: 

You mean, after the animal has been shot.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

After the animal has been killed, the hunter then has to fulfill certain rites in a kind of “participation mystique,” a mystic participation with the animals whose death he has brought about, and whose meat is to become his life. 

So the killing is not simply slaughter, at any rate, 

it’s a ritual act. It’s a recognition of your dependency and of the voluntary giving of this food to you by the animal who has given it. It’s a beautiful thing, and it turns life into a mythological experience.

BILL MOYERS: The hunt becomes what?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: It becomes a ritual. The hunt is a ritual.

BILL MOYERS: Expressing a hope of resurrection, that the animal was food and you needed the animal to return.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And some kind of respect for the animal that was killed; that’s the thing that gets me all the time in this hunting ceremonial system.

BILL MOYERS: Respect for the animal.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The respect for the animal and more than respect, I mean, that animal becomes a messenger of divine power, do you see.

BILL MOYERS: And you wind up as the hunter killing the messenger.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Killing the god.

BILL MOYERS: What does this do? 

Does it cause guilt, does it cause

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Guilt is what is wiped out by the myth. 

It is not a personal act; you are performing 

The Work of Nature, 

For example, in Japan, in Hokkaido in northern Japan among the Ainu people, whose principal mountain deity is the bear, when it is killed there is a ceremony of feeding the bear a feast of its own flesh, as though he were present, and he is present. He’s served his own meat for dinner, and there’s a conversation between the mountain god, the bear and the people. They say, “If you’ll give us the privilege of entertaining you again, we’ll give you the privilege of another bear sacrifice. ”

BILL MOYERS: If the cave bear were not appeased, the animals wouldn’t appear, and these primitive hunters would starve to death. So they began to perceive some kind of power on which they were dependent, greater than their own.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And that’s the power of the Animal Master. 

Now, when we sit down to a meal, we thank God, you know, or our idea of God, for having given us this — 

These People Thanked The Animal.

BILL MOYERS: And is this the first evidence we have of an act of worshipó

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Yes.

BILL MOYERS: 

— of Power superior to man?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: And the animal was superior, because the animal provided food.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, now, in contrast to our relationship to animals, 

where we see animals as a lower form of life, 

and in the Bible we’re told, you know, 

we’re the masters and so forth, 

early hunting people don’t have that relationship to the animal. 

The animal is in many ways superior, 

He has powers that the human being doesn’t have.

BILL MOYERS: 

And then certain animals take on a persona, 

don’t they the buffalo, the raven, the eagle.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Oh, very strongly. 

Well, I was up on the northwest coast back in 1932, a wonderful trip, 

and the Indians along the way were still carving totem poles. 

The villages had new totem poles, still. And there we saw the ravens and we saw the eagles and we saw the animals that played roles in the myths. 

And they had the character, the quality, of these animals. It was a very intimate knowledge and friendly, neighborly, relationship to these creatures. And then they killed some of the. You see.

The animal had something to do with the shaping of the myths of those people, just as the buffalo for the Indians of the plains played an enormous role. 

They are the ones that bring the tobacco gift, 

the mystical pipe and all this kind of thing, 

it comes from A Buffalo. 

And when the animal becomes the giver of ritual and so forth, 

they do ask the animal for advice, 

and the animal becomes the model for how to live.

BILL MOYERS: You remember the story of the buffalo’s wife?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

That’s a basic legend of the Blackfoot Tribe, 

and is the origin legend of their buffalo dance rituals, 

by which they invoke the cooperation of the animals in this play of life.

When you realize the size of some of these tribal groups, 

to feed them required a good deal of meat. 

And one way of acquiring meat for the winter would be to drive a buffalo herd, to stampede it over a rock cl

Your Life May Depend on Your Complete Honesty

There are •some• things 

(or at least, so it is generally •supposed•) 

that you simply just cannot say 

to A Nun.

BELLS CHIME

FLY BUZZES

Van Helsing :

Are you hungry, 

Mr Harker?

HARKER :

No, I'm...

..I'm fine.

DOOR UNLOCKS

Van Helsing :

Thank you.

Then perhaps we can talk.

I'm Sister Agatha.

HARKER :

Hm. I thought I'd met all The Sisters.

Van Helsing :

I have been sequestered.

HARKER :

In prayer?

Van Helsing :

In study, Mr Harker.

Of you.

I've read your account of your 

most interesting stay in Transylvania.

HARKER :

It's The Truth. 

All of it.

Van Helsing :

And what a lot of Truth there is.

Sister Angela tells me you wrote 

all day and all night for a whole week.

Please...sit with me.

Is The Sun a little bright for you?

HARKER :

No.

Van Helsing :

Good.

It's good, isn't it?

DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES

Van Helsing :

Ah, My Dear. Come in.

We are to be observed.

Apparently, I cannot be trusted

alone with A Man.

Consider yourself chaperoned.

Mr Harker, I intend no impertinence, 

but WHY are You Still Alive?

HARKER :

I-I fled.

I was trapped. I escaped.

Van Helsing :

Escaped, yes.

HARKER :

I fled that place in terror of My Life.

He is A Monster.

I-I swear to you...

...he is The Devil Himself.

Van Helsing :

Then why have you stopped?

HARKER :

Stopped what?

Van Helsing :

Fleeing.

You've been here nearly a month.

HARKER :

I'm Safe with you.

Van Helsing :

Why?

HARKER :

This is A House of God.

Van Helsing :

A House of God, is it?

That's Good. 

We could do with 

A Man about The Place, eh, Sister?

Two years ago, a church in this town collapsed.

The Roof fell on The Congregation, 

killed everyone as they prayed, 

including the children.

The Priest was the only Survivor.

Priests are like that.

He said to me afterwards that,

even in moments like these, 

he was able to maintain his Faith.

I told him 

He should have maintained His Roof.

Look to your own Protection,

Mr Harker.

FLY BUZZES

God Doesn’t Care.

HARKER :

The way you talk...

It's unusual in someone of Your Calling.

Van Helsing :

My Calling was a very long time ago.

What's wrong?

You have something in your eye.

[ It's a live fly, walking across his eyeball. ]

HARKER :

Is it gone?

Van Helsing :

Yes.

Van Helsing :

Your fiancee, Mina.

You mentioned her a lot when you first arrived. 

Mina Murray.

HARKER :

Oh, er... Yes.

I need to contact her.

Van Helsing :

You must love her very much.

HARKER :

Of course.

Van Helsing :

Perhaps, in time, 

you will let her read this account.

HARKER :

If she wishes, yes.

Van Helsing :

So, out of kindness, 

you have omitted 

from your writings

 anything that would 

alarm or disturb her.

HARKER :

Well, I didn't want to...

Van Helsing :

So now you may tell me everything 

that occurred in the time you spent 

with The Count at his castle.

Your Dinners. 

Your Conversations.

Your Intimate Moments.

Your LIFE may depend

on your complete Honesty.

Do you understand 

What I'm Asking You?

HARKER :

I think so.

Van Helsing :

I'm asking, Mr Harker, 

if you had sexual intercourse 

with Count Dracula.

VERGER

MASON VERGER :

 Cordell, to you, does that look like a wave 

‘Goodbye’, or ‘Hello’? 

So, What Do You Think? 

Does Lecter wanna fuck her, 

or kill her, or eat her, or what? 

CORDELL: 

Probably all three, 

though I wouldn't wanna predict in what order. 

[VERGER CHUCKLES] 

VERGER :

Here's What I Think — 

No matter how Barney might wanna romanticise it, 

or make it 

"Beauty and the Beast" -- 

Lecter's Object, 

as I know from personal experience, has always been 

degradation and suffering. 

Yes, but She is A Policeman —

You are a Pig.

As was Richard of Gloucester —Swine.

She’s a bold and plucky chaste and righteous  champion-protector of The Weak and defender of The Innocent —

You’re a cruel and boastful sado-masochistic  billionaire pervert and Rapist of Children —

Mason Verger doesn’t seem to understand how that makes the two of them any different as people in Lecter’s eyes...

Cordell, get this damn thing off me, 

I can't breathe in this thing. 

He comes in 

The Guise of A Mentor, 

as he did with me, and her, 

but it's distress that excites him. 

To draw him, she needs to be distressed. 

To make her attractive to him, 

let him see her distressed. 

Let The Damage He Sees suggest 

The Damage He Could Do. 

[ No, that’s not him, that’s you. ]

[SMACKING LIPS] 

[SLURPS] 

When The Fox hears The Rabbit scream, 

he comes a-running —

But not to help. 

KRENDLER: 

I don't understand. 

VERGER OVER PHONE: 

Well, there's nothing to understand, Paul. 

All you have to understand is 

What it's Worth to You. 

KRENDLER: 

No, no. 

I don't understand why she didn't turn this over. 

I mean, she's such a Straight Arrow. 

VERGER :

She didn't turn it over, 

Because she didn't receive it. 

She didn't receive it, 

Because it was never sent. 

It was never sent, 

Because Lecter didn't write it. 

He didn't write it, 

Because I did. 

KRENDLER: 

Oh! 

[LAUGHING]

VERGER :

So, what do you think? 

KRENDLER: 

I think you'd have been better off 

if you never got her out of Trouble in the first place. 

VERGER :

Oh, woulda, shoulda, coulda. 

I meant what do you think about The Money? 

KRENDLER: 

....Five. 

[LAUGHS] 

VERGER :

Oh, let's just toss it off, like, 

"Five." 

Let's Say it with 

The Respect it Deserves. 

KRENDLER: 

[ENUNCIATING] 

$500,000. 

VERGER :

That's better, but not much.

And will it work?

KRENDLER: 

It'll work.

It won't be pretty.

VERGER :

What ever is?

 

[CHUCKLES]

[DIAL TONE DRONING] 

Cocksucker

The Russian General

 

“I’m a 500 Year-Old War Lord.”

 

 

That is just so damn funny — because you notice that they have given him a toilet, but NO Privacy.

 

He’s not ALLOWED to have any Dignity.

 

Like that moment in Spock’s Death scene where, blind, utterly ravaged by enough deadly radiation to kill an elephant stone dead inside of 3 seconds, with every part of his physical being unravelling and turning to cancerous, malignant, undifferentiated mush, after he SOMEHOW pulls himself upright and staggers to his feet — he takes a moment to straighten his tunic before turning around, just in case anybody can see him.

 

If he shits (and he doesn’t), he has to take a shit in front of Other People, watching his every move. Because They Don’t Trust Him.

 

There is a story that James Joyce’s father told him, about The Russian General in some damned war or another — presumably Crimea — where he spotted A General (of The Enemy), walk out into a field and he was preparing to shoot him.... When all of a sudden he unfastened his belt, pulled down his pants and squatted down in the middle of The Empty Field to take a crap. 

 

And Joyce’s Father told him “It made him

look So Human, that I couldn’t do it.”

 

Of course, once he had stood up and hitched his pants back into place, THEN he stopped seeming like a Human Being and became again A General of The Enemy, his scruple evaporated and Joyce Sr. happily shot him dead without so much as second’s thought.

CLARICE

You fell in love with 

The Bureau, The Institution, 

only to discover, after giving it 

everything you've got,

That it Does Not Love You Back.

That, in fact, it resents you.

Resents you more than 

the Husband and Children

 you gave up to it.

You Serve 

The Idea of Order, Clarice —

They Don't.

You Believe in 

The Oath You Took —

They Don't.

You feel it is 

Your Duty to Protect The Sheep — 

They Don't.

They Don't Like You

Because You're Not Like Them.

They Hate You 

and 

They Envy You.

They're Weak and Unruly,

and 

Believe in Nothing.

What is Her Name?

Clarisse

fem. proper name, often a diminutive of Clara and its relatives. Also, "a nun of the order of St. Clare" (1790s); the Franciscan order also known as the Poor Clares (c. 1600).

MOTHER SUPERIOR: 

We face Danger, 

we face Evil, which stands at 

The Gate 

of our Most Holy Sanctuary.

God is with us, as we know.

God's love is Eternal.

This we know too.

Tonight, in our most deadly hour 

Do We Think Our God Will Remember us?

Will He Reach Down 

and 

Save Us 

from Death's Shadow?

NO.

No, He will NOT.

Where, in Our World 

is God to be found?

In Our Prayer?

No.

In our song?

No.

In Our Suffering, 

in Our Endurance?

No.

Faith is Not a Transaction.

You do not barter with The Infinite.

You ALIGN With It.

So, then, 

Where Do We Find Our God?

Sisters, I will tell you.

When you stand in The Deepest Pit, alone, 

without Hope or Help, 

and yet still know 

Right from Wrong...

When there is only 

Darkness and Despair 

and yet you feel 

humming in your blood, 

the difference between 

Good and Bad...

When you are 

beyond rescue or reward or judgment...

And you STILL look 

Evil in The Face and Say, 

"No! This far but no further.”

"No!"

Whose Voice is that 

who is with you in 

That Darkness...?

Whose Voice keeps you to The Path?

Darkness and Evil may seem 

compelling to us all, 

and I believe it is because, 

in THEIR Presence, 

we can FEEL God in Our Hearts.

No, He will not reach down to Save Us.

We will RISE to meet Him.

Let us pray.

PRAYS SOFTLY

MOTHER SUPERIOR: 

Ahem. Ahem.

BLADE SLICES

She was clearing her throat.

NUNS GASP AND QUIVER

I think it's fine now.

Oh, ladies, who's next? Boo!

"I regard the two major male archetypes in 20th Century literature as Leopold Bloom and Hannibal Lecter.

M.D. Bloom, the perpetual victim, the kind and gentle fellow who finishes last, represented an astonishing breakthrough to new levels of realism in the novel, and also symbolized the view of humanity that hardly anybody could deny c. 1900-1950. History, sociology, economics, psychology et al. confirmed Joyce’s view of Everyman as Victim. Bloom, exploited and downtrodden by the Brits for being Irish and rejected by many of the Irish for being Jewish, does indeed epiphanize humanity in the first half of the 20th Century. And he remains a nice guy despite everything that happens…

Dr Lecter, my candidate for the male archetype of 1951-2000, will never win any Nice Guy awards, I fear, but he symbolizes our age as totally as Bloom symbolized his. Hannibal’s wit, erudition, insight into others, artistic sensitivity, scientific knowledge etc. make him almost a walking one man encyclopedia of Western Civilization. As for his “hobbies” as he calls them — well, according to the World Game Institute, since the end of World War II, in which 60,000,000 human beings were murdered by other human beings, 193, 000,000 more humans have been murdered by other humans in brush wars, revolutions, insurrections etc.

What better symbol of our age than A Serial Killer? Hell, can you think of any recent U.S. President who doesn’t belong in the Serial Killer Hall of Fame? 

And their motives make no more sense, and no less sense, than Dr Lecter’s Darwinian one-man effort to rid The Planet of those he finds outstandingly loutish and uncouth.

Robert Anton Wilson, 

at rawilson.com

PHONE RINGS

PHONE RINGS

VAN HELSING :

Get in The Box.

DRACULA :

How did you find me?

VAN HELSING :

It's not difficult to follow a trail of devastation.

The Sun is up.

You need to get in The Box.

DRACULA :

Um, you may not have noticed, but there's 

A Roof over My Head.

VAN HELSING :

I've noticed.

THE ROOF CAVES IN

DRACULA :

Whoa! Oh!

VAN HELSING :

Get in The Box.

Did you hear me?

Are you in The Box?

Dear Clarice,

I have followed with enthusiasm the course of your disgrace and public shaming.

My own never bothered me, except for the inconvenience of being incarcerated, but you may lack perspective.

In our discussions down in The Dungeon, it was apparent to me that Your Father, The Dead Night Watchman, figures largely in your value system.

I think your success in putting an end to Jame Gumb's career as a couturier pleased you most because you could imagine your father being pleased.

But now, alas, you're in bad odour with the FBI.

Do you imagine your daddy being shamed by your disgrace?

Do you see him in his plain pine boxcrushed by your failure?

The sorry, petty end of a promising career?

What is worst about this humiliation, Clarice?

Is it how your failure will reflect on your mommy and daddy?

Is your worst fear that people will now and forever believe they were, indeed, just good old trailer-camp, tornado-bait, white trash, and that perhaps you are, too?

Mmm?

By the way, I couldn't help noticing on the FBI's rather dull public website, that I have been hoisted from the Bureau's archives of the common criminal, and elevated to the more prestigious Ten Most Wanted list.

Is this coincidence, or are you back on the case?

If so, goody, goody, 'cause I need to come out of retirement and return to Public Life.

I imagine you sitting in a dark basement room, bent over papers and computer screens.

Is that accurate? Please tell me truly, Special Agent Starling.

Regards, your old pal,

Hannibal Lecter, M.D.

 

 

P.S., clearly this new assignment is not your choice.

Rather, I suppose it is part of the bargain, but you accepted it, Clarice.

Your job is to craft my doom, so I am not sure how well I should wish you, but I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun.

Ta-ta. 

"H."

[PHONE RINGING]

Hello?

LECTER: 

The power in that battery is low, Clarice.

I would have changed it,

but I didn't wanna wake you.

You're gonna have to use the other one in the charger.

Hopefully, the light on it is green by now.

Because this is gonna be a long call, and I can't let you off, because even though you've been stripped of your duties, I know you wouldn't abandon them.

You'll try to put on a trace.

So, we'll disconnect long enough for you to exchange the battery in the phone for the one in the charger.

Shall we say three seconds?

Are you ready?

Yes.

Go.

[PHONE RINGING]

Very good.

Thank you.

Remember, Clarice, if you get caught with a concealed, unlicensed firearm in the District of Columbia, the penalty is pretty stiff.

But bring the guns if you have to.

Now get in your car.

The reason we're doing it like this, Clarice, is because I like to watch you as we speak, with your eyes open.

No, it does not excite me, it pleases me.

You have very shapely feet.

Where are we now? 

Call it out.

 Massachusetts Avenue.

Take it.

I thought, to begin with, you might tell me how you're feeling.

About what?

The Masters you Serve, and how they've treated you.

Your career, such as it is.

Your Life, Clarice.

I thought we might talk about yours.

What's the next cross street?

Capitol Street.

In two blocks, make a left into Union Station. Park.

My Life? What is there to say about mine?

I have been in a state of hibernation for some time.

A little inactive, but now I'm back Home,

I'm very happy and very healthy.

You, though, it's you I'm worried about.

I'm fine.

No, you're certainly not fine, Clarice.

You fell in love with The Bureau, The Institution, 

only to discover, after giving it everything you've got,

That it Does Not Love You Back.

That, in fact, it resents you.

Resents you more than the husband and children you gave up to it.

Why is that, do you think?

Why are you so resented, Clarice?

Tell me.

Tell you? God bless you.

Well, isn't it clear?

You Serve The Idea of Order, Clarice —

They Don't.

You Believe in The Oath You Took —

They Don't.

You feel it is Your Duty to Protect The Sheep — 

They Don't.

They Don't Like You

Because You're Not Like Them.

They Hate You and They Envy You.

They're Weak and Unruly,

and Believe in Nothing.

Mason Verger wants to kill you, Dr Lecter.

Turn yourself in to me, and I promise no one will hurt you.

Will you stay with me in my prison cell and hold my hand, Clarice?

We could have some fun.

No, Mason Verger does not want to kill me, any more than I want to kill him.

He just wants to see me suffer in some unimaginable way.

He is rather twisted, you know.

Have you had the pleasure of meeting him?

I have.

Face to Face, so to speak?

Yes.

Attractive, isn't he?

Dr Lecter?

Dr Lecter?

Okay, back to you.

 

I want to know what it is you think you will do, now that Everything in The World you've ever cared about has been taken away from you.

-

I don't know, Dr Lecter.

Tell me, Clarice, do you think you'll work as a chambermaid at a motel on Route 66, just like your mommy?

Huh?

What are you thinking now?

Are you paying attention to me, ex-Special Agent Starling?

Are you, by any chance, trying to trace my whereabouts?

I'm being followed, Dr Lecter.

I know, I've seen them.

And now you're in a real dilemma, aren't you?

Do you continue to try to find me, 

knowing that you're leading them to me?

Do you have so much faith in your abilities, Clarice, that you honestly believe you could somehow simultaneously arrest me and them?

It could get very messy, Clarice, like the fish market.

Hey, Clarice.

Yeah?

What if I did it for you?

Did what?

Harmed them, Clarice.

The ones who have harmed you.

What if I made them scream apologies?

No, I shouldn't even say it, because you'll feel,

with your perfect grasp of Right and Wrong, that you were somehow accompli.

Don't help me.

No. Of course not.

Forget I said it.

Clarice, you were very, very warm.

You were so close.

And now you're getting colder again.

Yeah, warmer again.

Well, I think I've been generous enough with you, and The Clues.

You're on your own now, Clarice.

Dr Lecter.

Hope you like Them, Clarice. Ta-ta.

DRACULA :

So tell me, 

What is The Jonathan Harker Foundation?

VAN HELSING :

I can't seem to penetrate The  Skin.

DRACULA :

Oh?

Give it to me.

Take this.

Hold this.

HE SIGHS

Johnny was a fine man.

What has this place got to do with him?

VAN HELSING :

Oh, you remember Harker, then?

DRACULA :

Mm.

VAN HELSING :

This foundation was set up by Mina Murray, his fiancee.

Do you remember her?

[SHE SCREAMS]

DRACULA :

Barely.

Insipid little thing.

Flavourless, one imagines.

But you left her alive.

Go! Now!

VAN HELSING :

When her father died, she inherited his Fortune and with the cooperation of Sister Agatha's extended family, they set up this foundation

in Jonathan's name.

DRACULA :

So you run The Family Firm.

I've always approve of Inherited Power.

Democracy is The Tyranny of The Uninformed.

Only in blood... do we find The Truth, Zoe.

VAN HELSING :

Our primary purpose is medical research, but with the stipulation that, were you ever to be found, you would be trapped, studied, understood, and humanely fed.

You're a unique specimen. 

DRACULA :

No.

I'm a 500-year-old warlord.

And I know mercenaries when I see them.

Who's funding This Place?

Because people who can afford mercenaries are very rarely interested in Medicine....

You're withholding information.

I'm giving you everything.

Blood is Lives.

Everything is in The Blood, Zoe, 

if you know How to READ it.

Do you know How to Read it?

VAN HELSING :

You couldn't read mine.

You choked on it.

DRACULA :

I remember the flavour, though.

Um... what IS that?

You're...

You're fast, you're clever, driven.

But driven by what?

Agatha was always trying to Save Everybody, but you...

You hold yourself apart.

Friendless.

Loveless.

Childless.

Compromised. Corrupt, even.

Ahh!

Zoe Helsing, there's a Shadow on Your Heart.

I've sampled this bitter bouquet before, and these days, I believe, you call it...

SHE HISSES

..cancer.

That's why your blood was poison to me.

You're Dying

 

 

 

 

 Loser #1 :

No Fair. You lured Him with Produce.

Loser #2 :

Tough noogies. Still My Turn. 

Nice and Slow, baby.

Clarice :

If The Beetle moves One of Your Men, does that still count?

Loser #2 : 

Of Course it Counts. 

How Do YOU Play?

 

 

JACK :

 Starling. When - 

When I told That Sheriff we shouldn't talk in front of A Woman, that really burned you, didn't it?

It was just Smoke, Starling.
I had to get rid of him.

 

CLARICE :

It Matters, Mr. Crawford.
Cops Look to You to See How to Act.
It Matters.

 

 JACK :

Point Taken.

CBS has given a series commitment to a drama that will follow Clarice Starling after the events of “The Silence of the Lambs,” Variety has learned.

Titled “Clarice,” the series hails from writers and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. Set in 1993, a year after the events of “The Silence of the Lambs,” the show is a deep dive into the untold personal story of Starling as she returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C.

“After more than 20 years of silence, we’re privileged to give voice to one of America’s most enduring heroes – Clarice Starling,” said Kurtzman and Lumet. “Clarice’s bravery and complexity have always lit the way, even as her personal story remained in the dark. But hers is the very story we need today: her struggle, her resilience, her victory. Her time is now, and always.”

Kurtzman will executive produce under his Secret Hideout banner, which is currently under a five-year deal at CBS Television Studios. Heather Kadin of Secret Hideout will also executive produce with Aaron Baiers co-executive producing. MGM And CBS Television Studios will serve as the studios.

In addition to “Clarice,” Kurtzman and Lumet are currently prepping a series adaptation of “The Man Who Fell to Earth” for streaming service CBS All Access.

The character of Starling originated in the novel “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris, which was subsequently adapted into the film of the same name in 1991. Jodie Foster played Starling in that film, for which she won the best actress Oscar — one of five such statuettes the film took home, including best picture. The character then appeared in Harris’ follow up novel “Hannibal,” which was adapted into a film in 2001 with Julianne Moore taking over the role from Foster.

This marks the second time such a TV series has been in the works, with Lifetime originally developing their own “Clarice” back in 2012 with MGM, though that project did not move forward. Bryan Fuller also previously stated that if his NBC series “Hannibal” had run long enough, it would have likely featured the character.

Lumet wrote the screenplay for the critically-acclaimed film “Rachel Getting Married.” She is currently an executive producer on “Discovery” and a consulting producer on “Picard” in addition to co-writing and co-showrunning “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”

Kurtzman and Secret Hideout currently oversee the expanding “Star Trek” TV universe through their deal with CBS TV Studios. At All Access, Season 3 of “Star Trek: Discovery” is due out this year, while Sir Patrick Stewart will reprise his iconic role in the upcoming series “Star Trek: Picard.” The animated series “Star Trek: Lower Decks” is also set to debut this year, with several other projects in the works. Kurtzman is also an executive producer on the “Hawaii Five-O reboot” at CBS.

“Superhero stories were written to be universal and inclusive, but often they’ve been aimed, it must be said, at boys and young men. Perhaps that’s why a mainstream myth has developed in which comic-book superheroines are all big-breasted Playboy girls with impossibly nipped waists and legs like jointed stilts in six-inch heels. But while it’s true that superhero costumes allow artists to draw what is effectively the nude figure in motion, there have in fact been more female superhero body types than male.

  The first superheroine, you may be surprised to learn, was not a voluptuous cutie in thigh boots but a raw-faced middle-aged housewife called Ma Hunkel, who wore a blanket cape and a pan on her head in her debut appearance, All-American no. 20, 1940. A harridan with the build of a brick shithouse she was the first “real-world” superhero—with no powers, a DIY outfit, and a strictly local beat—and the first parody of the superhero genre all in one. Ma Hunkel, aka the Red Tornado, was a Lower East Side lampoon of Siegel and Shuster’s lofty idealism. The mainstream has forgotten Ma Hunkel, although, like all the rest, she’s still a part of the DC universe and now has a granddaughter named Maxine Hunkel, a talkative, realistically proportioned, and likeable teenage girl who also challenges the superbimbo stereotype.

  But, of course, the comic-book industry in the throes of the war machine did churn out its fair share of pinup bombshells and no-nonsense dames with names like Spitfire and Miss Victory, or the strangely comforting Pat Parker, War Nurse. With no particular ax to grind against the Axis forces, Pat Parker was driven only by her desire to dress up like a showgirl and take to the battlefields of Western Europe on life-threatening missions of mercy. She was prepared to take on entire tank divisions with a refugee quivering under each arm. What made her tank-battling activities especially brave was the fact that this war nurse had no special powers and wore a costume so insubstantial, there could be nothing secret about her lunch, let alone her identity. But, absurd as she may seem, she did her best to exemplify the can-do, Rosie the Riveter spirit of those women who were “manning” the home front.”

It is your turn to tell me, Clarice.

You don't have any more vacations to sell.

Why did you leave that ranch?

Doctor, we don't have any more time for any of this now.

But we don't RECKON time The Same Way, do we, Clarice?

This is all the time you'll ever have.

Later. Now, please, Listen to Me.

We've only got five -

NO! I Will Listen NOW.

After Your Father's Murder, you were orphaned.

You were 10 years old.

You went to live with Cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana.

And?

And one morning, I just ran away.

Not "just," Clarice. What set you off?

You started at what time?

Early. Still Dark.

Then Something Woke you, didn't it?

Was it a Dream?

What was it?

I heard a Strange Noise.

What was it?

It was. . . screaming.

Some kind of screaming, like a Child's Voice.

What Did You Do?

I went downstairs, outside.

I crept up into the barn house.

I was so scared to look inside, but I HAD to.

What Did You SEE, Clarice?

What Did You See?

Lambs.

They were screaming.

They were slaughtering The Spring Lambs?

And they were screaming.

And you ran away?

No.

First I tried to free them. I -

I opened The Gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run.

They just stood there, confused.

They Wouldn't Run.

But you could, and you DID, didn't you?

Yes.

I took one lamb and I ran away as fast as I could.

Where were you going, Clarice?

I don't know. I didn't have any food, any water, and it was very cold.

It was very cold.

I thought -

I thought if I could Save Just One, but. . .

He was so HEAVY.

He was so heavy.

I didn't get more than a few miles when The Sheriff's Car picked me up.

The Rancher was so angry, he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman.

I never saw The Ranch again.

What became of Your Lamb, Clarice?

They Killed Him.

You still wake up sometimes, don't you?

Wake up in The Dark and hear The Screaming of The Lambs.

Yes.

And you think if you Saved poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don't you?

You think, if Catherine Lives, you won't wake up in The Dark ever again. . . to that awful Screaming of The Lambs.

I don't know. I don't know.

Thank You, Clarice.

Thank You.

Tell me his name, Doctor.

Dr. Chilton, I presume?

I think you know each other.

Okay.

- We found her.

- Let's go.

It's your turn, Doctor.

-Out.

-Tell me his name.

Sorry, ma'am, I've got orders.

Have to put you on a plane.

Come on now.

Brave Clarice.

You will let me know when those lambs

stop screaming, won't you?

Tell me his name, Doctor.

Clarice!

Your case file.

Good-bye, Clarice