Add your review
Avg. Rating: 3.61
Control and Compliance in a more Exotic Locale
The third and concluding chapter in Anne Rice's erotic retelling of the sleeping beauty fairy tale, sees Beauty, Tristan, Laurent, and some secondary slaves from the village kidnapped and whisked away to more sensual adventures in an unnamed Arabian kingdome. Armed with first person dialogue and reflection through Laurent [the rebellious, willful fugitive slave from book 2], and a more exotic locale/plot, this chapter in the story was considerably more interesting than the second, which I gave 3 stars. Part of the allure of this version for me was a release from the utter crudity of the European castle and village. Beauty's escapades with the Sultan's harem and his main wife were presented with a lot more sublime sensuality than the whipping and paddling of the previous books. Laurent's transformation from slave to master mentality and his ability to exist moving seamlessly between the two are also compelling aspects. The slaves eventually relish their time with the Sultan above all else, having even their higher reason sublimated. They are told not to talk, nor to express anything other than the most rudimentary understanding as they are used as sex toys, or living sculptures to line the Sultan's gardens, bed, bath, etc. It is this complete abasement and personality disintegration that Tristan, the most philosophical of the group, touches on when asked why he loves it so. Religious and philosophical thoughts of the region combine to show them that they are simply cogs in a grander scheme, and they take pleasure and freedom in this anonymity. Further plot break-down would lead to spoilers, so suffice it to say there is eventually closure for each of the characters. Upon completing the series I feel better about it than after the second book, it helped to think of it anthropologically as if these strange undercurrents were the results of a completely different culture. In that respect it was quite interesting to observe the push for control, compliance, dominance, and love, and question whether that can be squared with ideas of entwined aggression and tenderness. Anne Rice provides the framework and fairy tale, but readers must ultimately decide that answer for themselves.
Resilience and slavery
The first moment of their sultanic experience is to be degraded even more. Their being transformed into sexual toys is considered by their captors as destroying their intellect. They thus become mute animals that have no other level of existence than this very sexual drive and desire to satisfy all sexual and also cruel pulses in the sultan and his court. But this third volume shows the metaphoric or even allegorical dimension of the trilogy. Beyond the erotic speculation in the book, Anne Rice shows how degrading a human being leads to the « discovery » she says, the building of a new consciousness that will have a lasting existence. Human beings are emerging in their humanity or even humaneness through the difficulties and the challenges they encounter, and first of all the degrading and enslaving situations. The more overpowered one is, the greater his psychological strength. This is kind of optimistic because many human beings are destroyed through these experiences and experiments. But it is based on the concept of « resilience » in human beings : their capacity to resist degredation, not by rebelling, but by reinforcing their psyche. The world today shows many situations in which human beings are thus abased and tortured and downtrodden, and it also shows how many of them can emerge from these experiences with a reinforced psyche. Yet it is not that simple, and this resilience does not allow any human being to do such things to other human beings. Anne Rice is an optimist when she deals with humanity. But be sure that the erotic matter of this trilogy will become banal very fast. It will become a decor, a backdrop and nothing else. You will only see, after a while, the degredation and the psychological resilience of the characters. A last remark is to be made : slaves can be made to love slavery, and that is the worst part of it : a slave is not necessarily conscious that he can change the situation, and what's more he is not necessarily willing to do so because he comes to the point where his dependence is a necessity to survive, or at least he sees it like that.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
BDSM is its own reward.
Punishment is its own reward. The third book of the series declines a little as Rice tries to find new erotic adventures for our heroine, Beauty. She and Tristan are captured by Arabs and taken to some far off land where their torments continue. However, that isn't part of the bargain that the Kingdom of torment makes with their parents, so they are rescued back and returned to their village slavery. Tristan is just returning to his life as a carriage horse when he receives word that his father has died and he is now King. He is immediately released from bondage and sent home. Beauty eventually also goes home as a properly trained young princess, but finds life in her parent's castle boring. She's beginning to find interesting things to do with candles when Prince Tristan, now King Tristan comes to ask for her hand in marriage. She agrees, but only if he holds her in erotic bondage, a life of torment and eroticism. They ride off into the sunset together with her being forced to endure a deliberatly painful ride just because.
Review this book
|
