Romance and a Mad Bavarian King

"Happiness is the experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude." - wrapper from the Dove chocolate I just ate

King Ludwig II, king of Bavaria (1845-1886) used to sleep from 3 pm to midnight every day, instead of all night like most of us do. At the end of his life this was seen as further evidence of his supposed madness, but personally I think it just points to his genius. 3 in the afternoon is the start of Julie's sleepy time - you'll find me more sleepy at that time than almost any other period of the day. But no matter how tired I get, I always stay awake, rendering the late afternoon and early evening hours of every day effectively useless. I come back alive around midnight every night - my creativity is most awake then, I have some of my favorite friend experiences around that time - but by then I'm so tired from staying awake all day that I only get a few magical hours before I collapse into my bed. But I don't just want to sleep in because I actually kind of like mornings, provided I've had enough sleep. Especially misty mornings touched with dew. Man, I can't believe it took me this long to figure out how backwards I had everything! Now I just have to convince everyone else to adopt my schedule so that I won't sleep through all my rehearsals and performances. Hm.

So lately - well, tonight, mostly, though the idea has been simmering for quite some time - I've been thinking that my life needs to be more romantic. Not romantic in the John Cusack way (not that I'd mind that), but in the fairy tale kind of way. More adventurous. More fantasy-like. You know what I'm saying? I am not, however, totally sure how I am to accomplish this. I'm already spending at least 6 hours per week swordfighting by virtue of my job as a stage combat TA*. So that's a good start. And I'm thinking I should also choose my clothes a bit more carefully. Definitely I should start wearing more dresses. This one in particular. Seriously. Does that not just scream "Romantic!"? And the model even has super short, dark brown hair, just like I do! It's perfect. My dream life is obviously imminent. Once I've secured my new wardrobe, it's just a matter of finding a devastatingly handsome man with a castle, a fortune, and an accent. Who will fall in love with me, obviously. Bonus points if he has some deep, dark secret (a family curse, for example) that I can discover so we can deal with it together and then live happily ever after.

Tying back to Ludwig II**, his life serves as a cautionary tale against taking your fantasy life a little too far. He was called the "Dream King" or the "Fairy Tale King" in Bavaria because he pretty much preferred fairy tales to his own life. He was obsessed with Wagner, both the man himself and the romantic stories in his operas. A major focus of his life - an extraordinarily expensive hobby that led to the crushing debt that contributed to his betrayal and overthrow - was building castles. His most famous, now called Neuschwanstein, was the inspiration for Cinderella's castle at Disneyland. Check out that picture. Beautiful, right? Imagine if I walked into that castle wearing the dress from above. Perfection***. The interiors are just as lovely. Many of his castles also include other fantasy elements, such as a fantastically-lit grotto or oriental pavilions. At least one included a water-filled catacomb where Ludwig would ride in a boat while musicians performed for him. Just incredible.

The problem, of course, is that Ludwig became so caught up in his imaginary life that he completely withdrew from the real world. By the end he was hardly seen outside his castle, where he allowed almost no visitors. He spent his time having midnight picnics and moonlit sleighrides, going to private concerts and other performances where he could be the only audience member, and planning new castles for which he had no money to finance construction. He fell deeper and deeper into debt. His people loved him (he rather liked talking to farmers and other commoners during his various outings, which certainly helped), but no one seems to have really known him outside his trusted servants and the one or two close friends that he corresponded with throughout his life.

Finally he ignored and irritated his cabinet so much that they, suspicious that he was going to replace them, conspired to have him deposed. A former-friend-turned-enemy collected gossip and stories from a few of the king's friends and many more of his disgruntled former employees, wrote a report, and got four prominent psychiatrists to sign a recommendation that the king be removed from office due to insanity (without having the psychiatrists examine him at any point). Then the cabinet's delegation went to Neuschwanstein, where they were thwarted by a combination of the king's personal guard, a large group of Bavarian commoners, and one eccentric lady who beat them with an umbrella. The king imprisoned them, threatened their lives, and released them. It was said that if he would go to Munich and make public appearances to curry favor, Ludwig could maintain his throne. He was advised to do so, or to flee to Austria. But Ludwig did neither. Perhaps he just wasn't used to coping with reality anymore. Anyway, in the end, Ludwig lost favor with his people and the cabinet succeeded in imprisoning him at one of his smaller castles - the same place he first entertained Wagner, in fact. Now it had been converted into an asylum. Peepholes were drilled in the walls and most of the artwork was removed so the walls could be painted clinical white. They didn't let him keep his brilliant 3 pm - midnight sleep schedule anymore. And all his most trusted assistants were gone.

A day or so later, he went for a walk with his psychiatrist and never returned. Both men were found drowned in the nearby lake, circumstances unknown. In a way it's kind of nice that Ludwig got to end his life both tragically and mysteriously. Pretty impressive from the "dramatic life" perspective. But the actual experience of living it has got to have been pretty sucky.

Stories like these make me grateful for my art, because I can live a fantasy life for a while, but in a constructive way that eventually allows me to return to normal life. I'm also really glad that I wasn't born into royalty, because for all that fairy tales make it look pretty great to be a princess, most of those people were (and in many cases, are) deeply and profoundly screwed up. But beyond that, I think Ludwig's life demonstrates the importance of balancing an active imaginary life with a very fulfilling real life. It's okay to go on a days-long writing binge, for example; just don't do it so often that your family forgets your first name. Or to spend 14 hours a day in rehearsals and performances, so long as you can spend some time on you and yours at the end of the day. And spend an entire weekend reading your favorite book series if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it for all-day-every-day for the rest of your life. Because the thing that Ludwig forgot, I think, is that life - regular life, the ordinary, day-to-day existence that we're all experiencing right now - is much more beautiful and complex and intriguing than it can sometimes appear from the inside. And it's terribly, wonderfully worth living.

I can still want to wear the pretty dresses, though, right? And while we're at it, where's that man with the castle?

*Seriously guys, I love that they pay me for this.
**You know you're having a strange day when everything seems to lead back to Ludwig II.
***Except not in the summer. Apparently they get up to 6,000 visitors a day in the summer.

Related reading:
Wikipedia article on Ludwig II - always a good place to start. The Schwangau tourism site also has a pretty good, rather biased biography. You can find your way to more information from there.
That gorgeous dress was from Nordstrom. I don't know if they sell that exact dress there anymore, though.
Picture of Neuschwanstein shamelessly downloaded from Desk Picture.