In part 20, it was suggested that Hannibal Lecter's prisoner number in Baltimore, 'B1329-0', is a reference to Saint Augustine's Confessions, 13.29 (Book 13, chapter 29). Prior to introducing chapter 29, however, it was observed that the immediately preceding chapter, 13.28, with its talk of God creating a whole from parts, is reminiscent of Gumb making a complete suit of women's skin from various pieces. Quoted below is Book 13.29 of the Confessions (Outler translation):
"And I looked attentively to find whether it was seven or eight times that you saw your works were good, when they were pleasing to you; but I found that there was no 'time' in your seeing which would help me to understand in what sense you had looked so many times at what you had made. And I said: Lord, is not this your scripture true, since you are true, and your truth sets it forth? Why, then, do you say to me that in your seeing there are no times, while this scripture tells me that what you had made each day you saw to be good; and when I counted them I found how many times? To these things, you replied to me, for you are my god, and you speak to your servant with a strong voice in his inner ear, my deafness, and crying, 'Man, what my scripture says, I say. But it speaks in terms of time, whereas time does not affect my word - my word which exists coeternally with myself. Thus the things you see through my spirit, I see; just as what you say through my spirit, I say. But while you see those things in time, I do not see them in time; and when you speak those things in time, I do not speak them in time.' "
Book 13.29 is a continuation of the discussion of creation from 13.28 (quoted in the previous post), and it contains a reference to the number of days of creation ("what you had made each day you saw to be good; and when I counted them I found how many times"). One of the underlying themes of the movie is this: Jame Gumb, in attempting to make himself a woman by assembling parts into a whole, represents Satan's pupil/evil Freemasons attempting to 'usurp' God's power of creation. In upcoming posts in the analysis, we'll try to determine whether Gumb's formation of his suit can truly be considered to be an act of creation, and we'll also verify that 'B1329' is, in fact, a reference to Augustine.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine (Outler)
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