A plot device in a story which entails the villain giving a convincing lecture to its interrogator, usually in an attempt to justify itself; often successfully convincing the hero of his or her own moral shortcomings.
"You'd like to quantify me, Officer Starling. You're so ambitious, aren't you? Do you know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. You're a well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Your eyes are like cheap birthstones - all surface shine when you stalk some little answer. And you're bright behind them, aren't you? Desperate not to be like your mother. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation out of the mines Officer Starling. Is it the West Virginia Starlings or the Okie Starlings, Officer? It was a toss-up between college and the opportunities in the Women's Army Corps, wasn't it? Let me tell you something specific about yourself, Student Starling. Back in your room, you have a string of gold add-a-beads and you feel an ugly little thump when you look at how tacky they are now, isn't that so? All those tedious thank-yous, permitting all that sincere fumbling, getting all sticky once for every bead. Tedious. Tedious. Bo-o-o-o-r-i-ing. Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn't it? And taste isn't kind. When you think about this conversation, you'll remember the dumb animal hurt in his face when you got rid of him. If the add-a-beads got tacky, what else will as you go along? You wonder don't you, at night?"
—The Hannibal Lecture by Hannibal Lecter, The Silence Of The Lambs (book)
—The Hannibal Lecture by Hannibal Lecter, The Silence Of The Lambs (book)
by Kontesa January 7, 2010
A term depicting a person who is constantly inclined to advise/lecture everyone about every little fact that they know in a pedantic manner.
by Swampybaby December 25, 2015
noun
1) Any university section lasting more than 2 consecutive hours on a subject that has no application whatsoever to your life, education or universe.
1) Any university section lasting more than 2 consecutive hours on a subject that has no application whatsoever to your life, education or universe.
by H Gross June 1, 2010
When either a coworker, or someone at the bar tries to get at you, summing you up by using cut rate psychology tactics, learned from that one semester at JC.
Every time I see Chad, he starts telling me what my problems are. Save the Hannibal Lecture, man, I'm just trying to get by.
by michelote April 29, 2019