Hannibal aux aguets: On the Lookout for New Rencontres

In L’Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze, a 1988-9 video interview, Deleuze discusses with Claire Parnet the crucial link between creativity, the very possibility of thinking, and animality, through the practice of “être aux aguets” (being on the lookout) for rencontres. This chapter considers how this constitutes the essential practice of the character of Hannibal Lecter, created by Thomas Harris in several novels (Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Hannibal Rising) and, more recently, portrayed in the commercial television series “Hannibal” by Mads Mikkelsen. Hannibal is portrayed as a highly refined individual who not only can sense physically the presence of any threat through extraordinary olfactory powers, but can also categorize, store and then recall any such scents/essences through a Memory Museum. In the television series, Hannibal as highly skilled culinary artist combines the results of his being “on the lookout” with an efficient and often gruesome taste for fine dining, with strategically selected guests usually uninformed about the courses on the menu. The chapter thus considers the concepts of the animal, “être aux aguets” and “refrains” in the light of fictional production, both in print and televisual form, in order to open the Deleuzian concepts to an alternate, creative reading.