Jesse’s Reviews > The Episodes of Vathek > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 63 of 208
“The Story of Prince Alasi and the Princess Firouzkah”
Most of this story consists of injustices overlooked by Alasi due to his intense love for the young, wicked prince who is placed in his charge. Beckford dissolves the homoerotic tension to reveal (the spoiler is in the title!) that Firouz is actually the princess Firouzkah. She has been raised with a philosophy of hedonism and Alasi is her heart’s desire.
— May 14, 2024 10:25AM
Most of this story consists of injustices overlooked by Alasi due to his intense love for the young, wicked prince who is placed in his charge. Beckford dissolves the homoerotic tension to reveal (the spoiler is in the title!) that Firouz is actually the princess Firouzkah. She has been raised with a philosophy of hedonism and Alasi is her heart’s desire.
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Jesse’s Previous Updates
Jesse
is on page 206 of 208
“The Story of the Princess Zulkais and the Prince Kalilah”
In this story, twins are the unwitting pawns of their pagan intellectuals who encourage their incestuous affections. It’s really gross but the story is unfinished and the twins never get a chance to consummate their burgeoning relationship within the prose. I can see why C.A. Smith picked it up, since the end promises his kind of alien travelogue.
— May 20, 2024 10:29AM
In this story, twins are the unwitting pawns of their pagan intellectuals who encourage their incestuous affections. It’s really gross but the story is unfinished and the twins never get a chance to consummate their burgeoning relationship within the prose. I can see why C.A. Smith picked it up, since the end promises his kind of alien travelogue.
Jesse
is on page 183 of 208
Imma just say that this chapter would be Cassandra Clare’s favorite
— May 20, 2024 09:24AM
Jesse
is on page 169 of 208
“The Story of Prince Barkiarokh”
Barkiarokh is a horrid miscreant, a man seemingly composed of nothing but appetites, who chafes at the counsel of a virtuous (but naive) spirit, even if she would put him on a throne. The dude’s list of crimes includes prompting fratricide and patricide, rape, adultery, murder, and contemplating (but not consummating) incest with his daughter.
— May 20, 2024 08:59AM
Barkiarokh is a horrid miscreant, a man seemingly composed of nothing but appetites, who chafes at the counsel of a virtuous (but naive) spirit, even if she would put him on a throne. The dude’s list of crimes includes prompting fratricide and patricide, rape, adultery, murder, and contemplating (but not consummating) incest with his daughter.
Jesse
is on page 137 of 208
Alasi let a lot of horrible stuff go that Firouz was doing but Barkiarokh is so much worse, maybe even worse than Firouz. It’s a tough race but from what I know I have some 20 pages left and I know that it only gets nastier from here.
— May 20, 2024 05:00AM
Jesse
is on page 100 of 208
The second tale isn’t instantly marked by something taboo that marked Vathek’s and Alasi / Firouz’s stories, and it feels more like an Arabian Nights narrative in how many other substories have been told. I have completely forgotten the name of the Prince since we are long into his wife’s story, her being some kind of exiled Djinn.🧞♀️
— May 15, 2024 09:40AM
Jesse
is starting
The next (4th) volume of Clark Ashton Smith stories has Vathek fanfiction that finishes the third and final of these collected debaucheries, so it’s time to confront the Episodes of Vathek. These stories were meant to be published as nested narratives told by the damned in Muslim Hell, with there being a place in Vathek set aside for this very purpose.
— May 14, 2024 08:27AM
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May 14, 2024 10:31AM
There are a lot of cool elements that you could tweak to make this a more palatable fantasy story, but this tale primarily reflects Beckford’s ambiguous relationship with his own sensual obsessions, as did Vathek. Beckford the man was responsible for if not the violence perpetrated by these impious Muslim characters then some of the character of the hedonistic displays that his tragic protagonists enjoyed. He wrote them into Eblis, to suffer eternal torment for the unabashed pursuit of their passions.
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Alasi’s story isn’t nearly as tumultuous as Vathek’s bizarre journey toward Hell. He is given charge of a young prince who he instantly falls in love with but who is an iconoclast who works lethal mischief in the court. Eventually the jealous prince sabotages Alasi’s impending marriage, to the point where Alasi is waging war alongside him in order to destroy his former fiance and her country. When Firouz is unconscious after suffering a wound in battle and it is being treated, that’s when Alasi finds out that his soul-partner is actually a princess. Vathek was always bouncing between several schemes as his wickedness led him around. Alasi is led solely by Firouzkah and his love for him/her as he follows her father’s campaign in overthrowing the Muslim faith and teaching his sort of Zoroastrian faith, until they are eventually forced to flee the kingdom toward the “Palace of Subterranean Fire”.
Alasi is a more complex protagonist, I think, which makes this more of a tragedy than whatever was going on with Vathek. He has Doubts. He allows his feelings for the prince(ss) to overrule his conscience, time and time again, and it doesn’t really matter if you have misgivings while you continue to do the bad things.
The intro to the edition of Vathek that I read had a lot of fascinating information regarding the Episodes while not actually having them included. The most important thing as far as the subject matter of this particular tale is that this is a revision of the story. Firouz was originally male through the entire narrative! In this way it is a largely autobiographical tale of Beckford’s own predations. I am morbidly interested in how the original story played out, given how Alasi marries Firouzkah and she rules alongside him.
