Thomas Harris's Genius Geniuses

If you’ve seen the film Red Dragon, you’re at least briefly aware of Will Graham’s story. Like most films, the source material is much different than the screen version but it still gives you a cursory understanding of the story.  And like most of us (I suspect), I’ve seen more of Thomas Harris’s stories on the screen than I have on the page.  In fact, Red Dragon is the first of his stories I’ve seen on the page and I found it to be as complex and compelling as its characters. 

In this novel, there are many things Harris does exceptionally well but none compare to his characters.  From a writer’s perspective, characters are what we love to create but  it is difficult to create characters that readers will love.  And after reading Harris’s Red Dragon, I recognize he is a master at it.  His hero, Will Graham is not your typical hero, which is ironically typical of heroes yet this one still stands out.  Will’s neurotic and easily manipulated.  He’s also a genius law enforcement investigator.  Dr. Alan Bloom describes Will as having pure empathy (almost a super power in this context) in which Will is able to empathize with a person so much that he sees through their eyes with near perfect understanding.  As you would guess because of this gift (or curse) he has a proven track record of finding serial killers.  While his ability sounds a little farfetched, Harris presents Will in such a way that we not only believe it, but it’s as fascinating to us as it is to the characters in the novel.  And that’s where Harris’s true talent lies.  I don’t know how many stories I’ve read where the author forces a character on the reader and tries to make them feel or believe certain things about them.  They might tell us he’s a genius inventor, or the cool kid at school, and so we’re supposed to accept it but it’s not supported in the text.  It’s the author’s intrusion and not genuine.  And yet Harris never falls into that.  He does tell us how to think about certain characters, but where other authors fail, Harris delivers.  From the very beginning we are told Will Graham is (or was) the best at what he does: solving strange murders.  And while that’s a little on the cliché side, the next scene we see it for ourselves and instantly I’m a believer.  Harris writes his genius characters as geniuses; something many authors fall short on.  From Will’s first walkthrough of the Leeds house, and the way he reconstructs the crime, almost becoming the killer himself, I believe it.  He walks through the house, reconstructing the murders with stark clarity, reliving them as if he was there.  He thinks about the bodies and immediately picks up on two fingerprints the police may have missed since the rest of the scene was clean.  Nothing about Will’s investigating or character is logical.  It’s easy for a writer to show a smart character, especially a cop, by having them discover aspects of crime first by jumping on logical conclusions but that’s not what Harris does.  His murders, and characters, are complex and I’m left as impressed as the characters in the novel.

Dolarhyde is much the same way.  The villain of the novel, Dolarhyde is clearly a psychopath.  And like most psychos he believes he is right, that he is above other people, that his murders are creating something that other people are too base to appreciate.  He compares himself to Michaelangelo in that his murders, and the films and pictures he takes of them, are art of the highest caliber.  While disturbing, it is believable that someone could be so disillusioned they could slip into that mentality.  And again, Harris could get off with showing us the killer in certain lights and we’d be fine with it.  We’re not supposed to like the killer so we expect not to.  But Harris gives Dolarhyde the same treatment as Will.  He gives us all of Francis.  We see his meticulous genius perhaps even more than Will (and from many different povs), as well as his human and demonic sides.  Though one of my biggest issues with the novel is from his back-story (I think it was both illuminating and interesting, but largely unnecessary), Dolarhyde, like Will, is both weak and strong.  He’s publicly weak as Francis fears ridicule about his physical appearance.  Yet, he’s privately strong, both physically and mentally.  His coworkers know him as a quiet, timid man and he is.  He wears his work goggles at all times at the office, even in the cafeteria so people are not able to glimpse his deformity.  He wears masks.  He is at times Francis Dolarhyde, the quiet darkroom photography tech, and at times the Red Dragon, a deranged serial killer.  Both (they almost become separate characters) are shown with such vivid, interesting detail we not only believe his character, but we are left like Will, empathizing with it as well.  He’s a genius in the way he constructs his crimes.  And his interaction with Hannibal Lecter is integral yet almost a side note but it is still presented as two geniuses corresponding and we believe it.  The characters, like us, scramble to figure out what their letters mean to each other and when they discover the truth, like them, we are left in shock and awe.  Each one of Dolarhyde’s murders are masterfully written into his character, and are masterfully written crimes. 

And as a side note, while this is of no fault or achievement of Harris’s, I enjoyed how small Hannibal Lecter’s role was in this story.  Of all of Harris’s interesting, complex characters, Lecter is the one that will stand the test of time.  He has become synonymous with villains-you-just-hate-to-love and I have to admit it was refreshing to see that Harris’s character had humble roots in his stories.  I don’t mean humble as in Lecter’s background, but his presence.  His cameo, while integral, was brief and does not leave a long lasting impression, which only speaks to Harris’s ability to create compelling, complex characters as the series continues.