#the claiming of sleeping beauty

[ladisgarde]

Following the post about the [Japanese edition of The Vampire Armand], here are the other Anne Rice novels that have a cover illustration by manga artist Azumi Moka (who I believe did all of them).

Pandora; and Cry to Heaven, volumes 1 and 2.

The Sleeping Beauty series, volumes 1–3.

Anyone who wants to collect these but doesn't live in Japan can use a proxy shopping service, there are several for Japanese websites.

[monstersinthecosmos]

May I ask you at what point it's clear Anne wrote/decided that Armand was physically a teenager? He doesn't seem to be written specifically as one during IWTV (especially) or even QOTD -- possibly why he's portrayed as a grown man in the early comic books and in the 1994 film?

Okay hahah full disclosure I’m writing this at work instead of working and I don’t have books with me to pull quotes so use your imagination or if anyone wants to jump in with some quotes please feel free!

So in IWTV he’s just described as a young man, and Louis doesn’t go crazy telling us too much about what he looks like. I have a few thoughts about this, and about how it influenced the movie and other incarnations of Armand:

Louis has spent most of his vampire life with a grown woman who looks like a 5 year old, so BIG FUCKIN DEAL LOL, wow ur 17? Get in line.

The movie specifically made him older & more spooky old world looking for the visual contrast, also to sidestep Louis’s rebound love interests both being children/young.

I don’t think we should get too nitpicky about the comic books like let’s, just. Lmao. Let’s leave that one.

By the time he shows up in TVL is when he goes from being described as “young man” to “young boy”.

I lied I do have this one quote:

This was a boy, as I had said, and he had a head of long curly hair, and he walked very straight and very simply through the silvery light and into the church. He hesitated for a moment. And by the tilt of the head, it seemed he was looking up. And then he came on through the nave and towards us, his feet making not the faintest sound on the stones. He moved into the glow of the candles on the side altar. His clothes were black velvet, once beautiful, and now eaten away by time, and crusted with dirt. But his face was shining white, and perfect, the countenance of a god it seemed, a Cupid out of Caravaggio, seductive yet ethereal, with auburn hair and dark brown eyes.

So there’s like, 12 years or whatever that she took between books and that gives her a lot of time to let her mental image and idea of the character to evolve, but also just her writing style is so different. I remember Anne saying that she also had Stella from The Tales of Hoffmann in mind when she wrote Armand, so he evolved from “ageless & androgynous” to “gleaming manikin of a young boy” !

For a visual reference, this is Moira Shearer as Stella, which Anne said was Armand in her mind:

And this is the painting Lestat mentioned:

But I think we are all aware of the tonal shift phenomenon between IWTV & TVL where IWTV is this like, heavy melancholy Gothic tome and then Lestat just shows up and fucking wrecks the place.  I don’t recall ever hearing her talk about this aspect of Armand and I don’t know if she had it in her mind the whole time, even if Louis didn’t take the time to describe it in detail the way Lestat does. I’d love to know how much of this was in her mind the whole time and if anyone has clues please let us know!!!!!!!

TLDR to answer your question, it’s ambiguous in IWTV and obvious in TVL.

HOWEVER.

I have this crack theory lmfao. !!!!!!!!!! About how Prince Alexi in The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is also an auburn haired teenager, and how it was written in between the two VC books.

I mean like. Anne can say anyone has auburn hair but it’s just such a staple for Armand 2 ICONIC so how are you NOT gonna wonder about it when she’s writing BDSM porn? Idk.

There’s really no evidence for this except me with my Charlie Day board but sometimes I wonder if that break between books influenced her idea of him at all, and what impact it had on her prose for when she returned to Lestat, and I always wonder if they’re connected at all. IT JUST SEEMS SUSPICIOUS TO ME.

Like I mean. I think, there’s lots of teenagers in her books, so maybe this isn’t really much of a coincidence. But. I must wonder!

[formerdino]

When the fucked up erotica I'm reading is excellent 🥵😳 and I have no one to talk about it with 🤐😶

[rainydaysaretheshiniest]

okay guys so I bought 'The claiming of Sleepiny Beauty' by Anne Rice and I honestly don't know what I expected. Like I'm 50 pages in and it is almost unbearable to read. Not because I don't like erotica, but because I'm not a fan of bdsm and the non-con (which she presents as if they like it, even tho they're clearly in pain and crying??) It is just written as if the characters have no depth which is maybe the point? I think its just a big shock since I'm used to her very deep and heartfelt characters and stories that are very erotic but not explicit and brass as this.. Thoughts??? Whats your guys's opinion on these books? Should I continue reading or not?

[crisis-of-identity]

9/10

Couldn’t put it down and already bought the next one because I have so many questions still

[sititran]

Rereading this for the first time since the 90s.

I am genuinely intrigued to see how spicy it is in comparison to my 2022 tastes....

[rhisardthewizard]

The same Anne Rice who literally wrote an underage, noncon sex slavery Sleeping Beauty TRILOGY ? That Anne Rice? The Anne Rice whose most famous books are literally a straight white woman's gay vampire fantasy? THAT Anne Rice?

I have to wonder how long it's going to be until an anti says something to the effect of "Anne Rice and her stance on fanfic was right, actually", if they haven't already

pretty sure I’ve already seen that

[vaguely-concerned]

more for the garashir fairytale grab bag AU I am never going to actually write: garak knows exactly what would break his curse from the start, he just never tells anyone for the longest time b/c he's so sure it could never happen

(it's asking forgiveness, of course. he thinks it's tain's forgiveness he needs, and tain is fucking dead and knew he would be by the time garak woke up so it seems the perfect unbreakable parting fuck-you revenge curse. and garak would expect nothing less from his father than that, so he's resigned to dwindling away painfully. enter julian bashir and his fierce force-of-nature compassion (and also secret illicit immense magical powers) with a steel chair!!! to go 'OH YEAH??? we'll see about that', as you might expect. oh. OH necromancer-ish julian calling tain's ghost up to ask him about what the hell he did and how to undo it, ala his gambit to go see him the wire? and the knowledge he gains from that is what confirms garak's suspicions as to what is Up with this handsome young healer mage because it could be known only by those long dead. cue east of the sun west of the moon part of the narrative once julian understands his game is up and runs away??

anyway getting some true love's kissing in by the end of it all is just a nice bonus it's not needed like strictly magically for either of their situations lol)

[nickblaine]

plushondo jumpscare

[fiveredlights]

this might be the post surgery drugs talking but i believe everyone will get what they deserve and max will be showing up in australia for christmas this year with at least 12 dirt bikes for daniel and they’ll live their best aussie summer holidays forever and daniel will be so so happy and we will also be so so happy

[raycatz]

I'm not including a situation where someone might be injured because in that case I'm thinking the bed goes to them by default or they are nominated for it. anyone who wants to be chatty goes to join the living room floor gang.

What are your thoughts and headcanons? Do you have thoughts on how the boys tend to approach assigning beds in inns? Who do the chain choose to sleep near when camping and why? What are their dynamics like when settling down for the night and getting ready for the day?

In "Mirror Vs Open Closet Door: Fight!" by Gintrinsic (here) Four refers to the chain's decision on how to split up between inn rooms as the "Link-per-room ratio" which I find very funny. He, Sky, and Time also talk about their thought process behind why they do or don't want to sleep in a room with some of the others which I find fun and interesting.

So! If you have thoughts and want to share them! *gestures to the post!*

[formerdino]

I'm really enjoying The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice but I wouldn't reccomend it if you aren't a fan of fucked up erotica. You aren't going to like it just because you like Interview With The Vampire. If you don't want to read about noncon or BDSM don't read a book where the entire plot is sex slavery. Spend your time doing and watching and reading things that you would like instead of that.

[moonchild-in-blue]

Thank you for the tag @dearscone!! This was due a million years ago and got lost on my drafts oof.

Share the first 10 songs of your On Repeat playlist

(i don't use Spotify so i'm taking these from my Replay Mix on YT)

(apologies for the lack of variety. you see i have a serious case of Brain Rot)

10 songs so let me tag 10 people lmao (no pressure though): @corviisquire (is this the right blog? should i tag the other one?? hm) @hookedhobbies @lifemod17 @polteergeistt @elkkiel @sleep-token @sleeby-vessel @eepymonstrr @murderofcrow @whataboutyouisamascot

[monstersinthecosmos]

lmao there's Anne with the Sleeping Beauty refs again :D

i love waking up and remembering that armand got canonically compared to two disney princesses like he's an insect he's a satanic cult leader he's cinderella revealed at the ball and sleeping beauty opening her eyes under a mesh of cobwebs and wiping them all away with one sweep of her warm hand truly nobody's doing it like him

[dallonwrites]

16. 29. & 48. for the ship ask game!! 🙏🏿

16. Would they ever get matching tattoos? If yes, what would these look like?

Omggg I actually don't think they would seriously like I think if they actually did it would be an impulsive drunk decision in their shared ~reckless~ era with not much thought put into it 😭 they'd wake up together and realise they both have some shit like just MADONNA <3 tattooed on their wrists

29. Describe their nighttime routine.

Okayy one thing I am excited for with RR book 3 that I haven't fully figured out yet is that Beau and Felix live together then and! The potentials for domestic night routines!! I don't know what it looks like but I feel like it's quiet. I need to know their dish cleaning routine and what shows they're watching. But in lieu of a specific answer for that here's Beau wandering about routine in a Lover Boy flashback of the first night they spent together (cw for sex but I don't think it's NSFW just ~sensual):

Felix fell asleep first, and Beau knew he wouldn’t sleep much, the room still unfamiliar even in its welcoming, but he found himself content to lay there like this, cuddled against the coolness, his fingers curled into Felix’s hair. He found it easy to lay there, familiarise himself with the rhythm of it, and wonder if this was all going to be a routine, going home together. Going out together knowing they would then go home. The wine and the new records, soft arguments over which song was better, Felix’s animated excitement over a bridge, an arrangement of synth. Making each other laugh in that sharp way, where you’ll never remember what it was all about but just the laughter, collapsing into one another. The kissing, all the kissing, across their hushed bodies, finding new ways to press together, the quiet fucking amongst the ambience of this carbonated city, where they can hear the outside but the outside can’t hear them, can’t hear Felix’s breath hot and urgent at his ear, whispering God, you’re everything, you’re everything I’ve ever wanted. He’d kept his window open, cool air gauzed around them, because he must have known, how Beau falls asleep better with the window open, and he must have remembered being told that, found it important, even though Beau does not remember admitting it.  

48. Do they talk about their future together? Why or why not?

In RR it is a very important point that they do NOT talk about it, not intentionally avoiding it but like, in RR their relationship is a lot more intense and obsessive and very present driven, especially because they're also leaning on each other as a means to try and avoid all the things happening around them + in the future that they can't control. Meanwhile in Lover Boy all the things they were scared of happening back then have already happened and being on the other side of all that + knowing how they behaved before has them. a bit more considerate of these things! So there's probably going to be a lot of dialogue just talking about future possibilities and I think it'll contrast RR in that they actually find it comforting/grounding to do so

ship ask game

[puffdenlilledragen]

sleep procrastination? nah gurl i have the sheet terrors