Cannibals of Two Canons

 Ah, how times have changed. Or not.

This past Saturday, Heather Holloway and Crystal Noll delivered one of the finest presentations on history and Conan Doyle that I've heard in a while, exploring the racism and British empire mindset reflected in "The Adventure of the Wisteria Lodge." In the next to the last paragraph of that tale, there is mention of cannibalism, that marker for calling anyone out as the lowest of humans. And when I found myself in a hotel with free Showtime the very next night, I started a semi-binger of Yellowjackets, the series about a high school girls soccer team that descends into cannibalism. And that put me in mind of two things:

First, the Andaman islander Tonga from The Sign of the Four, who gets referred to as a cannibal from a cannibal tribe multiple times.

And, second, that most modern of our fictional cannibals, Hannibal Lechter, the cultured psychiatrist and serial killer.

Tonga performs in side shows. Lechter goes to the opera.

Tonga is a sidekick. Lechter makes the hero his sidekick, more than once.

Appearing in books a hundred years apart, it would seem that cannibals have come a long way . . . well, except that Hannibal Lechter is . . . Lithuanian. Is Lithuania as far off and strange to a modern American as the Andaman Islands were to a Briton of the 1880s?

Hannibal Lechter has certainly been a much more popular cannibal than poor Tonga, getting several books and even an origin-style prequel. It's not surprising that there are racist differences in cannibals, like everywhere else, that sort of "Yeah, but he's our cannibal!" tribalism.

Which is just one weird statement. It's been a long day, so I think I'm shutting this one down early.

Don't eat people. It's a good rule to live by.