The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty

The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty

Beauty is awakened from her hundred-year sleep by the Prince, not with a simple kiss, but with an initiation into a Satyricon-like world of sexual adventures. He takes her to his kingdom, ruled by his mother, the Queen, and Beauty is stripped naked and trained as a slave and a plaything. The rest of the naked slaves, dozens of them, in the Queen's palace are princes and princesses sent by their royal parents from the surrounding kingdoms as tributes. In this palace they spend several years learning to become obedient and submissive sexual property, accepting being spanked, being publicly displayed, crawling around on their hands and knees, servicing their masters and mistresses, until they return to their own lands "being enhanced in wisdom".

In the palace Beauty meets another slave, Prince Alexi, with whom she copulates passionately. After that he tells her the long adventurous journey he had in the palace. Alexi previously had been a stubborn prince who fought back all the attempts to break him, until the Queen sent him to the kitchen to get him tortured by crude kitchen servants. The punishment Alexi received there was so savage and merciless he began to lose his senses and, after some particularly humiliating training at the hands of a strong stable boy, Alexi became a totally surrendered slave, playing various sexual games at the Queen's commands.
 

Sleeping Beauty, Claiming a depressive's tale

I know I took my Effexor last night, and yet today I still feel as if I'm on Effexor withdrawal, with a buzzing head full of fluff and iron filings.

Lying in bed, trying to make myself get out of it and up, I recalled that I once wrote a poem using Sleeping Beauty as a metaphor for depression. It's pretty much got it all. I was pricked on the finger in early adolescence, and have never fully woken up. The struggle of trying to hack your way through the briars leaves you bloody and covered in scars, then exhausted so you fall back into your sleep. The briar hedge grows so fast you never seem to make any significant progress before you're torn down and worn out, and it's hung with the corpses of others who've tried to escape. Most people who try to hack their way through from the other side give up, or pretend it's not there and stand there shouting at you to just damn well walk through it.

So you sleep. It's the sanest choice - sleep, or maybe throw yourself out of the tower, because there's no point ripping yourself to shreds again on the briars.

Perhaps you are waiting for the kiss of the prince that will wake you, a magic pill from the lips of a psychiatrist or therapist, that one miraculous person who fights their way through the briar and saves you.

Or perhaps you've read the original story. There was no briar, just isolation, and there was no perfect prince kissing anyone awake. There was a king on his annual hunting trip, who came across a comatose beauty in a castle in the forest, and like any good college frat boy, raped her. Each year he came back for a bit of rape, until the beauty gave birth to twins. She was only woken when one of the babies, seeking milk, suckled her fingertip and sucked out the thorn that sent her into her sleep. The king, on his next visit, takes her and his new children home with them, because she really has no other choice but to go off with her rapist. Happily ever after? His mother is an ogre who wants to eat her babies, and the story turns into something akin to Snow White.

This is why I have always prefered the old tales, the fairy stories from before Perrault and co prettied them up. So much more true to life.

Claming The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy

A society of hypocrisy and mock-Puritanism forces a person at times to go to great lengths to truly express herself. This was the case when Anne Rice took up the pseudonym of A.N. Roquelaure, translated literally under a cloak, so that she could pen the Sleeping Beauty trilogy. She feared alienation from her loyal readers as well as the criticism that would come from those who were shocked and offended by her erotic twist on a child's tale. This would be especially upsetting to those acquainted primarily with the version of the story which Disney had redefined to be so clean and innocent. So under the guise of the mysterious A.N. Roquelaure, the master authoress wove her tales, free from fear of persecution and the need to defend her image. The result was a gift to lovers of erotica everywhere. By name they are The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment and Beauty's Release.

To briefly summarize the premise of these novels is to revisit a favorite tale of childhood. The story's central figure, a lovely princess named Beauty, lies sleeping in a castle where she awaits the kiss of the prince to awaken her. Many try and fail to claim her until a Prince from a faraway land succeeds in accessing the castle spire in which she rests. From this point, however, the familiar story takes a dramatic erotic turn. Rather than simply kissing Beauty, the prince claims her virginity on the spot and takes her away to his kingdom as his naked slave. Once in the kingdom, Beauty is handed over to various mistresses and masters to experience the relationship between pleasure and pain in its rawest state. Joining her in her dark journey of discipline and servitude are countless other princes and princesses who have been claimed as well to learn the ways of the submissive sexual bondservant. It is soon seen that none is equal in grace and splendor to Beauty, however and this works to both her advantage and dismay in that special attention is always paid her. Ultimately, through her experience as a slave, Beauty comes to an understanding of who she really is and what drives her.

I first heard about the trilogy when I heard comparisons made between it and Cinderella by a favorite author of mine, Titian Beresford. A particular fetish of mine is reading and writing erotic fairy tales, so naturally I picked up the first installment of the trilogy the next chance I got. From the first page, I was drawn in. The character of Beauty captivated me. Beginning life in wealth and luxury as a princess then to be suddenly being stripped of your virginity, clothing and dignity is bound to make you do some heavy thinking. Simply reading about it does as well. A great many reviews have been written, I'm sure, on this modern classic and I'm sure each amateur critic took something else away from their reading. For me, the central message of the book had to do with the joy of sacrifice and servitude.

At first, Beauty is stricken with fear of nearly everything. She fears the Queen especially. Soon Beauty learns, however, that the Queen and others like her in this new kingdom need Beauty just as much as Beauty is supposed to need them. She is made to serve them with her lips, tongue and body and by performing certain feats of dexterity and endurance which at first fill her heart with resentment. Once she understands that the goal of these tasks is to please her masters and mistresses, however, Beauty's outlook changes. The need to serve and please those who command her becomes paramount. Nothing else matters.

When I was reading this and reflecting on Anne Rice's portrayal of Beauty's dedication to selflessly pleasuring others, I was led back in thought to the teachings of the Christian religion. We should do unto others as we would like them to do unto us, the Golden Rule states. We also should put others before ourselves according to Christ. The last shall be first and blessed are the meek. I sensed undertones from Rice that Beauty's experience was not just physical, as in the whippings she suffered and intercourse she reveled in. Nor was her experience just emotional as when her tears streamed endlessly after first being taken. Hers was also a spiritual awakening, one that taught her that her actions deeply impacted the lives of others, even at her lowliest. She lived to serve and in that, she found illumination and inner peace.

Having said all that in praise of the Beauty trilogy, I do have a bone or two to pick with the novels. For one, the scenes are often a little too brutal for my liking. There is much spanking and abusing of flesh in these novels. There are also descriptions and events that may fail to arouse but succeed in nauseating, such as one naughty Princess who is hung doubled by her hands and feet so that her snatch is exposed plainly and smeared with honey so the flies will plague her. I found this a little distasteful. Also, there are occasions when you got the sinking feeling that you had read this passage earlier in the novel. As was previously mentioned, there is a lot of spanking in these novels which tends to create a sense of redundancy. I found myself skipping some paragraphs after reading the first sentence, knowing where it was headed. Yeah, yeah, I know. The prince is spanking her again.

In spite of its few faults, the trilogy remains an erotic classic from an excellent author. It stands as a testament to what a writer can produce when she feels safe from persecution over content or ideas expressed. I highly recommend it to any fan of erotica and would place it upon the required reading list for any upstart erotic authors interested in reviewing the classics.

Dance Claiming 'The Sleeping Beauty'

No one does the classics like the Maryinsky, at least not when the proper combination of talent, coaching and maturity combine to form a promising young star in one of the theater's repertoire staples. Friday night's performance of the reconstructed version of "The Sleeping Beauty" did just that, attesting to Olesya Novikova's place in the company and the Kirov's own hold on classical traditions.

The "1890" as many call it, is a reconstruction of the original version of Petipa's "Sleeping Beauty" based on historical notes housed in the Harvard Theatre Collection. It differs significantly from Konstantine Sergeev's beloved version in both choreography and sets. The restored version is almost like the shift from black and white to color, so lush are its hues and so vibrant the contrasts in the palette.

For this performance, Olesya Novikova's Aurora was the perfect depiction of refined royalty, youthful grace and yes, beauty, alongside Andrian Fadeev's ever-consistent Prince. Her superb coaching under the strong eye of Olga Moiseeva was apparent through the perfection of her port de bras, adjusted to reflect the style of an old epoch. Softly dipped elbows and delicate fingertips met an erect carriage in Novikova's stage presence which, combined with her flawless legwork, created a young ballerina in every sense of the word. Her dramatic delivery was exemplary: the first entrance on her 20th birthday displayed innocence and near disbelief at the fanfare around her. When the suitors were presented to her, with a confused look she asked her mother (through gesture) what she was to do. Relieved that only dancing was required, she engaged the four gentlemen equally. Likewise, technically Novikova is beyond reproach. Of note were the promenades, in which she managed to lift her arm completely overhead to fifth en avant after each suitor, and, confirming her strength, needed very little support before the allonge extensions into arabesque on her own.

Andrian Fadeev's Prince is, as mentioned before, as perfect as they come. His mime in the first act made clear the emptiness in his heart as much as his first encounter with the vision of Aurora imported his feelings of love at first sight. Even after Aurora awakened from her long sleep, his eyes did not leave her, so completely entranced was he with this new princess bride. Technically Fadeev offered fireworks, especially in the last act. (Indeed, it is not until then that we're able to enjoy his real dancing in this longer version of the ballet.) Here he paused after each perfect double tour, looked at the audience, and repeated the sequence again. He also partnered Olesya faultlessly. Would that every Prince were a Fadeev.

As much as the Novikova-Fadeev partnership pleased the audience, Yulia Makhalina as the Lilac Fairy both frightened and disappointed them. Despite this being her second performance of the role this month, and despite its comparative lack of serious technical challenges and the preponderance of mime, Makhalina was ill-placed in the role. While her upper body was acceptable, no amount of smiles - and this ballet requires four hours of them - could compensate for her weak legs. Both visually and technically, she was an abhorrence to behold, her legs absent of any normal musculature that would indicate recent movement. Technically she could not stand on pointe, her feet seemingly devoid of arches, which interrupted rather than continued the line of an extended leg. Moreover, even when straightened, her legs appeared continuously bent. One hopes that this is not a sign of a significant health problem - from the waist up Makhalina was every bit the gracious fairy. But at the Kirov the standards are higher.

Luckily, there were other fairies in the ballet ready to confer upon us their impish charms. Of the five fairies bestowing gifts on Princess Aurora, Daria Vasnetsova drew the most attention as Flair de Farin for her quick footwork, bright expression and accurate style. Yana Selina incorporated her usual sparkle and flair as the "Canary" fairy, her flashes of leg always articulately placed. Ksenia Ostreikovskaya portrayed the Fairy Candide languorously, her movements lush and purely classical. Only Yulia Kasenkova and Elena Vaskiovitch appeared slightly less up to par, both with stiff port de bras.

The final act offered some unexpected delights as well. The Jewels section is always a snappy beginning for the parade of dancing to follow, and here Ekaterina Osmolkina led the way with Yana Serebriakova (Sapphire), Yulia Kasenkova (Gold) and Ksenia Dubrovina (Silver) alongside. While not as cold as a diamond, Osmolkina was just as sharp - with added grace. Of the three gemstones Serebriakova stood out from the rest for her own expression and poise.

As Princess Florina, Yulia Bolshakova enchanted with her light touch, self-confidence and accuracy. Here, although the enveloppes en pointe were performed at half time, no wobbly footwork was to be found. Despite claiming perhaps one extra bow, Bolshakova's performance proved that someday she may rise within the ranks of the company. As her partner, Bluebird Anton Korsakov appeared only slightly winded after his variation, his brisés nonetheless bright. He finished with a triple pirouette although typically is capable of much more.

Finally, an under-accoladed Igor Petrov as Carabosse deserves mention for indulging both the audience and himself with his evil role, loving every minute of his sinister malevolence, and we loving him for it right back.
 

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