Admiration

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2009)

  among the all-white Assemblies. ‘Oneness’ Pentecostalism still flourishes; it may represent about a quarter of avowedly Pentecostal Churches worldwide.92 And the emphasis on Jesus continues to resound through Pentecostal and Charismatic hymnody generally. Mainstream Evangelicals who took a poor view of speaking in tongues noticed approvingly that the Assemblies of God had at least kept themselves true to Trinitarianism. That would be a help when later the two parties inched together. That result was not inevitable: there was an interesting problem here. In Pentecostalism’s early years, Pentecostals met with extreme detestation and name-calling from more established conservative Evangelicals, perhaps all the more so because Pentecostalism’s rhetorical style was unmistakably familiar. Like Evangelicalism, it combined a suspicion of modern city ways with a relish for capturing modernity from Satan. It was a leading Pentecostal Church founder, the swashbuckling Aimee Semple McPherson, who hurled handbills for God from an aeroplane in 1920, and presided over the first-known Church radio station. Taking their cue from (the sometime) Mrs McPherson’s genius for showbiz, Pentecostals from Los Angeles to Seoul have subsequently shown a talent for staging worship in ways which would stand creditably beside the great Hollywood musicals of the twentieth century (see Plates 50 and 68).93 Yet while Pentecostalism’s roots were Evangelical, there was much in it which was not a natural partner for biblically based Protestantism, particularly for Protestants who looked to the Five ‘Fundamentals’: verbal inerrancy, Jesus Christ’s divinity, the Virgin Birth, penal substitution and the physical resurrection of Christ. Pentecostalism was inclined to look instead for ‘new revelation’: it was intuitive, spontaneous, whereas conservative Evangelicalism was rationalist, word-based. It was also apt to give scope to female leadership, in a fashion which had always been common in the radical beginnings of nineteenth-century Protestant movements, but which in Pentecostalism showed every sign of growing rather than diminishing. Another movement within Pentecostalism caused alarm for those Evangelicals who cared: it stood at an absolute polarity to the ‘Social Gospel’ of contemporary liberal Protestantism. In the American heartland, as years of catastrophic economic depression painfully inched towards recovery at the end of the 1930s, there developed a form of Pentecostalism referring to itself as the ‘Word of Faith’ movement. Like some earlier American denominations, it stressed the importance of prayer in healing, but there was much more to its vision of Christian success than that, causing detractors to refer to it as the ‘health and wealth’ movement, or the ‘Prosperity Gospel’. One of its earliest exponents, Kenneth E. Hagin, developed his ministry in Texas among the

• From Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (2005)

  158 Lecture 30: Henry David Thoreau, Walden After two years, Thoreau left Walden Pond; he had other paths to follow. As individuals, we do not have to stay at the same thing or have the same ideals for all our lives. We should not be afraid to contradict ourselves. Thoreau stated that he had only started to explore himself and that he could continue to do so wherever he was. Thoreau believed that the beauty of nature could not be surpassed by a work of art in a museum. The Bhagavad Gita points out that the sun is the morning star and that every morning is new, allowing the individual to begin again. The idea that the sun is a morning star concludes Walden. Thoreau believed that American democracy was not perfect. Slavery was a stain on all of America. Boston merchants, for example, depended too much on trade with the South to truly want to abolish slavery. The soul of the South was too corrupt to rid itself of slavery. Thoreau decided that he would not pay taxes to support a country that supported slavery. He believed that in a country with true freedom, people should have the freedom not to pay taxes. Thoreau greatly admired John Brown. His essay on Brown states that Brown was a man of conscience who had come to understand that slavery was a great wrong and could be abolished only through bloodshed and civil war. If you want to be a person of the world, Thoreau said, do it the way that John Brown did: Fight and die for something with true meaning—freedom. Thoreau’s legacy is to encourage people to love nature, because in nature, the individual can fi nd a way to truth. ■ Thoreau, Walden. Thoreau, Political Writings. Thoreau decided that he would not pay taxes to support a country that supported slavery. Essential Reading Supplementary Reading 159 1. Where might you fi nd your own Walden? 2. Contrary to Thoreau, it might be argued that all human progress is based on the conquest of nature. What do you think? We might start by asking what we mean by progress. That is what Thoreau challenges us to do. Questions to Consider

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  woman to make Ignazia jealous). protesters of the 1960s who wanted to change all The Ideal Lover is rare in the modern world, for the role takes effort. the ills of society, the self- You will have to focus intensely on the other person, fathom what she is absorbed "me" people missing, what he is disappointed by. People will often reveal this in subtle sought to improve their bodies and to "get in ways: through gesture, tone of voice, a look in the eye. By seeming to be touch" with their own what they lack, you will fit their ideal. feelings. They cared To create this effect requires patience and attention to detail. Most passionately about their appearance, health, life-people are so wrapped up in their own desires, so impatient, they are inca- style, and bank accounts. pable of the Ideal Lover role. Let that be a source of infinite opportunity. Andy catered to their self-Be an oasis in the desert of the self-absorbed; few can resist the temptation centeredness and inflated of following a person who seems so attuned to their desires, to bringing to pride by offering his services as a portraitist. By life their fantasies. And as with Casanova, your reputation as one who the end of the decade, he gives such pleasure will precede you and make your seductions that much would be internationally recognized as one of the leading portraitists of his era. . . . • Warhol offered The cultivation of the pleasures of the senses was ever my his clients an irresistible principal aim in life. Knowing that I was personally calcu-product: a stylish and lated to please the fair sex, I always strove to make myself flattering portrait by a famous artist who was agreeable to it. himself a certified celebrity. —CASANOVA Conferring an alluring star presence upon even the most celebrated of faces, he transformed his subjects The Beauty Ideal into glamorous apparitions, presenting their faces as he thought they wanted to be In 1730, when Jeanne Poisson was a mere nine years old, a fortune-teller seen and remembered. By predicted that one day she would be the mistress of Louis XV. The pre- filtering his sitters' good diction was quite ridiculous, since Jeanne came from the middle class, and features through his silkscreens and it was a tradition stretching back for centuries that the king's mistress be exaggerating their vivacity, chosen from among the nobility. To make matters worse, Jeanne's father he enabled them to gain was a notorious rake, and her mother had been a courtesan. entree to a more mythic and rarefied level of Fortunately for Jeanne, one of her mother's lovers was a man of great existence. The possession wealth who took a liking to the pretty girl and paid for her education. of great wealth and power Jeanne learned to sing, to play the clavichord, to ride with uncommon skill, might do for everyday life,

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Germain painted the strangest paintings anyone had ever seen—the colors BRIAN SINGER 128 • The Art of Seduction If you want to know all were so vibrant that when he painted jewels, people thought they were real. about Andy Warhol, just Painters were desperate to know his secrets but he never revealed them. He look at the surface of my would leave town as he had entered, suddenly and quietly. His greatest ad-paintings and films and me, and there I am. mirer was Casanova, who met him and never forgot him. When he died, There's nothing behind it. no one believed it; years, decades, a century later, people were certain he — A N D Y W A R H O L , QUOTED I N was hiding somewhere. A person with powers like his never dies. STEPHEN K O C H , STARGAZER: The count had all the Star qualities. Everything about him was ambigu-THE LIFE, WORLD & FILMS OF ANDY WARHOL ous and open to interpretation. Colorful and vibrant, he stood out from the crowd. People thought he was immortal, just as a star seems neither to age nor to disappear. His words were like his presence—fascinating, diverse, strange, their meaning unclear. Such is the power you can command by transforming yourself into a glittering object. Andy Warhol too obsessed everyone who knew him. He had a distinctive style—those silver wigs—and his face was blank and mysterious. People never knew what he was thinking; like his paintings, he was pure surface. In the quality of their presence Warhol and Saint-Germain recall the great trompe l'oeil paintings of the seventeenth century, or the prints of M. C. Escher—fascinating mixtures of realism and impossibility, which make people wonder if they are real or imaginary. A Star must stand out, and this may involve a certain dramatic flair, of the kind that Dietrich revealed in her appearances at parties. Sometimes, though, a more haunting, dreamlike effect can be created by subtle touches: the way you smoke a cigarette, a vocal inflection, a way of walking. It is often the little things that get under people's skin, and make them imitate you—the lock of hair over Veronica Lake's right eye, Cary Grant's voice, Kennedy's ironic smile. Although these nuances may barely register to the conscious mind, subliminally they can be as attractive as an object with a striking shape or odd color. Unconsciously we are strangely drawn to things that have no meaning beyond their fascinating appearance.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Two more un- likely associates could not be imagined: Disraeli, who was Jewish by birth, had dark skin and exotic features by English standards; as a young man he had been a dandy, his dress bordering on the flamboyant, and he had writ- ten popular novels that were romantic or even Gothic in style. The queen, on the other hand, was dour and stubborn, formal in manner and simple in and as they are women you will not be offended. Nothing is of so much importance and of so much use to a young man entering life as to be well criticised by women." —ANDRÉ MAUROIS, DISRAELI, TRANSLATED BY HAMISH MILES You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question. —ALBERT CAMUS A speech that carries its audience along with it and is applauded is often less suggestive simply because it is clear that it sets out to be persuasive. People talking together influence each other in close proximity by means of the tone of voice they adopt and the way they look at each other and not only by the kind of language they use. We are right to call a good conversationalist a charmer in the magical sense of the word. —GUSTAVE TARDE, L'OPINION ET LA FOULE, QUOTED IN SERGE MOSCOVICI, THE AGE OF THE CROWD 84 • The Art of Seduction taste. To please her, Disraeli was advised, he should curb his natural ele- gance; but he disregarded what everyone had told him and appeared before her as a gallant prince, falling to one knee, taking her hand, and kissing it, saying, "I plight my troth to the kindest of mistresses." Disraeli pledged that his work now was to realize Victoria's dreams. He praised her qualities so fulsomely that she blushed; yet strangely enough, she did not find him comical or offensive, but came out of the encounter smiling. Perhaps she should give this strange man a chance, she thought, and she waited to see what he would do next. Victoria soon began receiving reports from Disraeli—on parliamentary debates, policy issues, and so forth—that were unlike anything other minis- ters had written. Addressing her as the "Faery Queen," and giving the monarchy's various enemies all kinds of villainous code names, he filled his notes with gossip. In a note about a new cabinet member, Disraeli wrote, "He is more than six feet four inches in stature; like St. Peter's at Rome no one is at first aware of his dimensions. But he has the sagacity of the ele- phant as well as its form." The minister's blithe, informal spirit bordered on disrespect, but the queen was enchanted. She read his reports voraciously, and almost without her realizing it, her interest in politics was rekindled.

• From Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (2005)

  169 of the actions of such murderers as Alexander the Great. Acton wrote to Bishop Creighton: “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Very few great men are good men.” Acton’s fi nancial situation degenerated. Gladstone intervened, and Andrew Carnegie bought Acton’s library but allowed him to use it for the rest of his life. Acton was a man of great moral courage, fortitude, and purity. Acton’s History of Liberty was falsely derided as “the greatest book never written.” In fact, Acton’s ideas, as evidenced by his notes and occasional papers, still speak with compelling immediacy. Acton understood the dangers of nationalism and socialism. Acton was not a conservative, but his legacy has been usurped by conservatism. He believed that conservatism was about not educating the conscience. Acton admired Gladstone and his ideal of democratic liberty. He supported Gladstone’s idea of beginning a welfare state. Acton, Gladstone, and Churchill all believed that there must be basic welfare for all citizens if a democracy is to fl ourish. Acton believed that uncontrolled capitalism was a force of evil. For Acton, the idea of a free-market economy is a form of determinism, and he hated all forms of determinism. Acton believed that racism was evil because it denied the ability of conscience to redeem the individual. Nationalism, Acton thought, was a primitive idea that represented the worst kind of racism. He believed that nationalism, which most people thought to be progress, would lead to ethnic cleansing. According to Acton, socialism would help nationalism along. He saw socialism as determinism that reduces people to economic objects. The notion that ideas are products of economic and social forces destroys the conscience of mankind. Acton believed that dismissing the idea of federalism was wrong. Federalism was a way to bring various units together, while maintaining their uniqueness and resisting the soulless destructive power of a centralized, bureaucratic government. Acton distinguished between British liberals, such as Gladstone—who believed in God, conscience, and the individual—and liberals of the continent, such as Cavour, who believed not in the individual but in the state. These European liberals argued that the state should intervene in every Acton was a man of great moral courage, fortitude, and purity.

• From Middlesex (2002)

  sixteen hours, with unflagging concentration, his sandals leaving prints in the flour dust on the floor. An artist of bread baking. Stephanides, an American, grandchild of Greeks, admires this Turk- ish immigrant to Germany, this Gastarbeiter, as he bakes bread on Hauptstrasse here in the year 2001. We're all made up of many parts, other halves. Not just me. The bell on the door of Ed's Barbershop in the Scranton bus station merrily rang. Ed, who had been reading the newspaper, lowered it to greet his next customer. 440 There was a pause. And then Ed said, "What happened? You lose a bet?" Standing inside the door but looking as though he might flee back out of it was a teenage kid, tall, stringy, and an odd mix if ever Ed saw one. His hair was a hippie's and came down past his shoul- ders. But he was wearing a dark suit. The jacket was baggy and the trousers were too short, riding high above his chunky tan, square- toed shoes. Even from across the shop Ed detected a musty, thrift- store smell. Yet the kid's suitcase was big and gray, a businessman's. "I'm just tired of the style," the kid answered. "You and me both," said Ed the barber. He directed me to a chair. I— the easily rechristened Cal Stephanides, teen runaway— set my suitcase down and hung my jacket on the rack. I walked across the room, concentrating as I did on walking like a boy. Like a stroke victim, I was having to relearn all the simple motor skills. As far as walking went, this wasn't too diffi- cult. The time when Baker & Inglis girls had balanced books on their heads was long gone. The slight gracelessness of my walk, which Dr. Luce had commented on, predisposed me to join the graceless sex. My skeleton was a male's, with its higher center of gravity. It pro- moted a tidy, forward thrust. It was my knees that gave me trouble. I had a tendency to walk knock-kneed, which made my hips sway and my back end twitch. I tried to keep my pelvis steady now. To walk like a boy you let your shoulders sway, not your hips. And you kept your feet farther apart. All this I had learned in a day and a half on the road.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  him to one and all. If anyone argued, she would say that they did not know him the way she did. Sukarno was well pleased, and had the book distributed far and wide. It helped gain sympathy for him in Indonesia, where he My sixth brother, he who was now being threatened with a military coup. And Sukarno was not had both his lips cut off, surprised—he had known all along that Adams would do a far better job Prince of the Faithful, is called Shakashik. • In his with his memoirs than any "serious" journalist. youth he was very poor. One day, as he was begging in the streets of Interpretation. Who was seducing whom? It was Sukarno who was doing Baghdad, he passed by a splendid mansion, at the the seducing, and his seduction of Adams followed a classical sequence. gates of which stood an First, he chose the right victim. An experienced journalist would have re-impressive array of sisted the lure of a personal relationship with the subject, and a man would attendants. Upon inquiry my brother was informed have been less susceptible to his charm. And so he picked a woman, and Enter Their Spirit • 223 one whose journalistic experience lay elsewhere. At his first meeting with that the house belonged to Adams, he sent mixed signals: he was friendly to her, but hinted at another a member of the wealthy and powerful Barmecide kind of interest as well. Then, having insinuated a doubt in her mind (Per- family. Shakashik haps he just wants an affair?), he proceeded to mirror her. He indulged her approached the door-every mood, retreating every time she complained. Indulging a person is a keepers and solicited alms. form of entering their spirit, letting them dominate for the time being. • "Go in," they said, "and our master will give Perhaps Sukarno's passes at Adams showed his uncontrollable libido at you all that you desire." • work, or perhaps they were more cunning. He had a reputation as a Don My brother entered the Juan; failing to make a pass at her would have hurt her feelings. (Women lofty vestibule and proceeded to a spacious, are often less offended at being found attractive than one imagines, and marble-paved hall, hung Sukarno was clever enough to have given each of his four wives the im- with tapestry and pression that she was his favorite.) The pass out of the way, he moved fur- overlooking a beautiful garden. He stood ther into her spirit, taking on her casual air, even slightly feminizing himself bewildered for a moment, by adopting her hair color. The result was that she decided he was not what not knowing where to turn she had expected or feared him to be. He was not in the least threatening, his steps, and then advanced to the far end of

• From The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History (2013)

  134 o The author of the letter provides graphic accounts of the tortures infl icted on those who refused to give up their beliefs. o Christian authors celebrated the martyrdoms of other Christians to emphasize the idea that the pleasures—and pains—of this world are nothing in comparison with the joys of heaven.  Persecutions came and went through the early centuries of Christianity. Radical, sporadic persecutions came to a climax with the emperor Decius, who declared an empire-wide persecution of Christians in 249.  Over the course of the next 60 years, various imperial decrees urged persecution at different times and in different places. In about the year 312, the emperor Constantine converted and made Christianity a legal religion, but it did not become the state religion of Rome until the end of the century, in the year 380, under the emperor Theodosius. The ultimate shift from being a persecuted, to a favored, to an of fi cial religion changed everything, not only for Christianity itself but for the history of Western civilization for centuries to come. Ehrman, After the New Testament. Eusebius, The History of the Church. 1. Summarize the leading reasons Christians were persecuted in the early centuries of the church. 2. How do you explain the widespread animosity against early Christians among their Jewish and pagan neighbors? Lecture 20: Was Christianity an Illegal Religion? Suggested Reading Questions to Consider

• From Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (2005)

  214 Bibliography Horne, A. The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916. Harmondsworh: Penguin, 1978. Vivid account of the battle that for many epitomized the folly of World War I. Huizinga, Johan. The Waning of the Middle Ages . Mineola: Dover, 1998. A brilliant discussion of the values that lay at the heart of the Morte d’Arthur. A classic of historiography. Kallen, H. The Book of Job as a Greek Tragedy . New York: Hill and Wang, 1959. Originally published in 1918, this is a provocative comparison of Job and Greek tragedy. Few have accepted its thesis, but the book encourages thought about how we compare great books. Kitcher, K. “Exodus, The.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary , D. Freedman, ed., vol. II, pp. 700–708. New York: Doubleday, 1992. A good introduction to recent scholarly views on the historical context of the Book of Exodus. Kramer, N. History Begins at Sumer . Garden City, N.Y .: Doubleday, 1959. An engaging discussion of Sumerian civilization and the historical context of Gilgamesh. Lewis, R. W. B. Dante: A Life. New York: Viking, 2001. A recent biography of the great poet. Manchester, William. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Visions of Glory 1874-1932. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1983. ———. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Alone 1932 -1940. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988. Matthews, John. King Arthur, Dark Age Warrior, Mythic King . New York: Random House, 2003. A recent study of the historical background of the legend of King Arthur. Mill, John Stuart, The Autobiography of John Stuart Mill . New York: New American Library, 1964. Mill’s account of his intellectual development.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  humans are social creatures who are always imitating one another. At cer-from taking precautions. " tain points in history it may be fashionable to be different and rebellious, — C . J . B U L L I E T , but if a lot of people are playing that role, there is nothing different or re-VENUS CASTINA bellious about it. We should never complain about most people's slavish conformity, however, for it offers untold possibilities of power and seduction to those Beau Brummell was who are up for a few risks. Dandies have existed in all ages and cultures (Al-regarded as unbalanced in cibiades in ancient Greece, Korechika in late-tenth-century Japan), and his passion for daily wherever they have gone they have thrived on the conformist role playing ablutions. His ritualistic morning toilet took upward of others. The Dandy displays a true and radical difference from other peo-of five hours, one hour ple, a difference of appearance and manner. Since most of us are secretly spent inching himself into oppressed by our lack of freedom, we are drawn to those who are more his skin-tight buckskin fluid and flaunt their difference. breeches, an hour with the hairdresser and another two Dandies seduce socially as well as sexually; groups form around them, hours tying and "creasing their style is wildly imitated, an entire court or crowd will fall in love down" a series of starched with them. In adapting the Dandy character for your own purposes, re-cravats until perfection was achieved. But first of all member that the Dandy is by nature a rare and beautiful flower. Be differ-two hours were spent ent in ways that are both striking and aesthetic, never vulgar; poke fun at scrubbing himself with current trends and styles, go in a novel direction, and be supremely uninter-fetish zeal from head to toe in milk, water and eau de ested in what anyone else is doing. Most people are insecure; they will Cologne. . . . Beau wonder what you are up to, and slowly they will come to admire and imi-Brummell said he used tate you, because you express yourself with total confidence. only the froth of champagne to polish his The Dandy has traditionally been defined by clothing, and certainly Hessian boots. He had most Dandies create a unique visual style. Beau Brummel, the most famous 365 snuff boxes, those Dandy of all, would spend hours on his toilette, particularly the inimitably suitable for summer wear styled knot in his necktie, for which he was famous throughout early-being quite unthinkable in winter, and the fit of his nineteenth-century England. But a Dandy's style cannot be obvious, for gloves was achieved by Dandies are subtle, and never try hard for attention—attention comes to entrusting their cut to two them. The person whose clothes are flagrantly different has little imagina-firms—o ne for the fingers, the other for the thumbs. tion or taste. Dandies show their difference in the little touches that mark The Dandy • 49

• From Middlesex (2002)

  Along with everyone else, I looked up. Standing in the doorway was a redheaded girl. Two clouds bumped up above, skidding past each other, and let down a beam of light. This beam struck the glass roof of the greenhouse. Passing through the hanging geraniums, it picked up the rosy light which now, in a kind of membrane, en- veloped the girl. It was also possible that the sun wasn't doing this at all, but a certain intensity, a soul ray, from my eyes. "We're in the middle of class, dear." "I'm supposed to be in this class," said the girl, unhappily. She held out a slip of paper. Mr. da Silva examined it. "Are you sure Miss Durrell wants you transferred into this class?" he said. "Mrs. Lampe doesn't want me in her class anymore," replied the girl. "Take a seat. You'll have to share with someone. Miss Stephanides has been reading from Book Three of The Iliad for us." I started reading again. That is, my eyes kept tracing over the sen- tences and my mouth kept forming the words. But my mind had stopped paying attention to their meaning. When I finished I didn't toss my hair back. I let it stay hanging over my face. Through a key- hole in it I peeked out. The girl had taken a seat across from me. She was leaning toward Reetika as though to look on with her, but her eyes were taking in the plants. Her nose wrinkled up at the mulchy smell. Part of my interest was scientific, zoological. I'd never seen a crea- ture with so many freckles before. A Big Bang had occurred, origi- nating at the bridge of her nose, and the force of this explosion had sent galaxies of freckles hurtling and drifting to every end of her curved, warm-blooded universe. There were clusters of freckles on her forearms and wrists, an entire Milky Way spreading across her forehead, even a few sputtering quasars flung into the wormholes of her ears. Since we're in English class, let me quote a poem. Gerard Manley Hopkins's "Pied Beauty," which begins, "Glory be to God for dap- pled things." When I think back about my immediate reaction to that redheaded girl, it seems to spring from an appreciation of natural beauty. I mean the heart pleasure you get from looking at speckled leaves or the palimpsested bark of plane trees in Provence. There was 323 something richly appealing in her color combination, the ginger snaps floating in the milk-white skin, the gold highlights in the straw- berry hair. It was like autumn, looking at her. It was like driving up north to see the colors.

• From Holy Ghost Girl (2012)

  Allen, William Branham, Jack Coe, and Oral Roberts.Brother Terrell styled himself, consciously or not, after the preachers he admired most. He emulated the meek persona that was the hallmark of Branham, a mystic who often stared into space and frustrated his backers by walking off the stage when he didn’t feel the spirit. As Brother Terrell’s ministry grew he exhibited the flamboyance of Coe and Allen. Coe was famous for socking people with stomach ailments in the belly as he pronounced them healed. From Allen came the practice of passing out anointed handkerchiefs.Brother Terrell pitched his first tent in his late teens or early twenties. It was an old army tent canvas, shot through with so many holes that it let more rain in than it kept out. In the early days he sat at the front of the tent strumming his guitar and singing “ I Saw the Light” before an audience that consisted of his wife and infant son and thirty-six borrowed, empty chairs. The odds of him becoming a successful tent preacher were long. Many of the well-known revivalists had died, quit, or succumbed to scandal by the early nineteen-sixties, victims of the backbreaking labor, grueling schedules, and emotional grind that defined their way of life. A few, like Oral Roberts, had enough education and savvy to establish institutions and transform the notoriety of the sawdust trail into a more mainstream, and more bankable, respectability.By the time my mother joined the team, Brother Terrell’s tents were full most nights and he was considered a comer on the revival circuit. Still, it took a lot of poor people giving their last dollar to support a big tent operation. The crowds he attracted were a fragment compared with the earlier revivalists. Older preachers counseled him to find another way to make a living. The days of the great revivals were over, they said. With radio and movies and now television, the devil could distract people without much effort. Brother Terrell understood what they were saying, but he didn’t believe it applied to him. The Lord would make a way. Meanwhile, he stood in front of his audiences, held a white gallon cardboard bucket in each hand, and begged for money for more than an hour at a time.“I haven’t paid my team in weeks. We done everything we can to cut costs. We need five thousand dollars just to make payments on the equipment. I can’t do this on my own. I need your help.”People trickled up in ones and twos. Pam, Randall, and I dropped in the quarter or dime we had earned polishing Brother Terrell’s shoes and the shoes of the other preachers who traveled with us.“There’s a lost, dying world out there. A world that hasn’t heard the gospel. If you don’t help us, they’ll die and never hear it.”A cry entered his throat. I felt sorry for Brother Terrell, sorry that he had to cry and plead for money.

• From Story of the Eye (1928)

  But the two narratives are organized on very different principles. “Jean de Berg” describes how something came to be known that was not known by the narrator; all the pieces of action are clues, bits of evidence; and the ending is a surprise. Bataille is describing an action that is really intrapsychic: three people sharing (without conflict) a single fantasy, the acting out of a collective perverse will. The emphasis in The Image is on behaviour, which is opaque, unintelligible. The emphasis in Histoire de l’Oeil is on fantasy first, and then on its correlation with some spontaneously “invented” act. The development of the narrative follows the phases of acting out. Bataille is charting the stages of the gratification of an erotic obsession which haunts a number of commonplace objects. His principle of organization is thus a spatial one: a series of things, arranged in a definite sequence, are tracked down and exploited, in some convulsive erotic act. The obscene playing with or defiling of these objects, and of people in their vicinity, constitutes the action of the novella. When the last object (the eye) is used up in a transgression more daring than any preceding, the narrative ends. There can be no revelation or surprises in the story, no new “knowledge”, only further intensifications of what is already known. These seemingly unrelated elements really are related; indeed, all versions of the same thing. The egg in the first chapter is simply the earliest version of the eyeball plucked from the Spaniard in the last. Each specific erotic fantasy is also a generic fantasy—of performing what is “forbidden”—which generates a surplus atmosphere of excruciating restless sexual intensity. At times the reader seems to be witness to a heartless debauched fulfillment; at other times, simply in attendance at the remorseless progress of the negative. Bataille’s works, better than any others I know of, indicate the aesthetic possibilities of pornography as an art form: Histoire de l’Oeil being the most accomplished artistically of all the pornographic prose fictions I’ve read, and Madame Edwarda the most original and powerful intellectually. To speak of the aesthetic possibilities of pornography as an art form and as a form of thinking may seem insensitive or grandiose when one considers what acutely miserable lives people with a full-time specialized sexual obsession usually lead. Still, I would argue that pornography yields more than the truths of individual nightmare. Convulsive and repetitious as this form of the imagination may be, it does generate a vision of the world that can claim the interest (speculative, aesthetic) of those who are not erotomanes. Indeed, this interest resides in precisely what are customarily dismissed as the limits of pornographic thinking. 5 The prominent characteristics of all products of the pornographic imagination are their energy and their absolutism.

• From Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (2005)

  96 Lecture 18: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar evil because he is destroying the political liberty of the Roman people. But Shakespeare understands human nature far too well to make this tragedy into a simple morality play. The motives of all the conspirators, including Brutus, are complex and cloudy. The consequence of their assassination of Caesar is not the restoration of liberty but further death and destruction for their country and the emergence of a new tyrant. Shakespeare was a master of human reality. He did not present people as ideals but portrayed their true behavior and motivations. In Othello, the motivating forces are jealousy and love, but in Julius Caesar , they are honor, duty, courage, and ambition. Julius Caesar was fi rst produced in 1599. The play marked the end of Shakespeare’s concern with English history and the beginning of the plays based on Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, which was one of the most in fl uential works ever composed. Although Shakespeare based Julius Caesar on Plutarch’s Lives, he added qualities to the story to turn it into a monumental statement of values that remain with us today. Julius Caesar was a man of genius. Julius Caesar composed works of history, his Commentaries, to describe his victories in Gaul; these are the fi nest examples of Latin prose ever written. He was a military genius who did not begin to command until he was 39 years old and then never lost a battle. He was a statesman who envisioned Rome not as a narrow republic, ruling an empire for its own grati fi cation, but as a world state, ruling from Britain to Iraq and from the Sahara to the North Sea. Every inhabitant of this empire enjoyed personal liberty, the freedom to live as they chose, and the freedom to pursue their own occupations. Julius Caesar was a world historical force and, as such, cannot be judged by the values of ordinary lives. He believed that Gaul had to be invaded because the demands of empire justifi ed it. Some saw Caesar differently—as a man of cunning and deceit, a petty politician who would do anything to achieve his ambition of dictatorship. He would even destroy Roman liberties and the constitution that was based on a Shakespeare was a master of human reality. He did not present people as ideals but portrayed their true behavior and motivations.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The Dandy figure has a place in politics as well. John F. Kennedy was a strange mix of the masculine and feminine, virile in his toughness with the Russians, and in his White House lawn football games, yet feminine in his graceful and dapper appearance. This ambiguity was a large part of his appeal. Disraeli was an incorrigible Dandy in dress and manner; some were suspicious of him as a result, but his courage in not caring what people thought of him also won him respect. And women of course adored him, for women always adore a Dandy. They appreciated the gentleness of his manner, his aesthetic sense, his love of clothes—in other words, his feminine qualities. The mainstay of Disraeli's power was in fact a female fan: Queen Victoria. Do not be misled by the surface disapproval your Dandy pose may elicit. Society may publicize its distrust of androgyny (in Christian the-ology, Satan is often represented as androgynous), but this conceals its fascination; what is most seductive is often what is most repressed. Learn a playful dandyism and you will become the magnet for people's dark, unrealized yearnings. The key to such power is ambiguity. In a society where the roles everyone plays are obvious, the refusal to conform to any standard will excite interest. Be both masculine and feminine, impudent and charming, subtle and outrageous. Let other people worry about being socially acceptable; those types are a dime a dozen, and you are after a power greater than they can imagine. Symbol: The Orchid. Its shape and color oddly sug- gest both sexes, its odor is sweet and decadent — it is a tropical flower of evil. Delicate and highly cultivated, it is prized for its rarity; it is unlike any other flower. 52 • The Art of Seduction Dangers

• From Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (2005)

  125 in his own day as a teacher, also engaged in this search for wisdom as the way to truth. The word education comes from a Latin root meaning “to lead out from.” Jesus, Socrates, and Confucius wanted to bring out from their students, or disciples, the truth that was already there but had been hidden by the falsity of the world. They sought to reroute the individual from wandering aimlessly through life to following the true path. None of the three great teachers wrote a book because each was a true searcher after truth and knew that the search is a lifelong pursuit. Jesus, Socrates, and Confucius were united in their messages. They believed that the true teacher is a moral guide and that the true purpose of education is to make the individual a better person. Confucius saw goodness in those who practiced truth and benevolence and treated others as they would wish to be treated; in doing so, these would be good citizens. All three teachers believed that separating private morality from one’s duty as a citizen is impossible. A good, moral individual would also be a good, moral citizen. The three teachers also shared the notion of redemption. They believed that people can make many mistakes in life, but those who stay on the path will, in the end, be justi fi ed. They were willing to admit contradictions and give every individual a chance to change and learn. Both teachers and students must be willing to grow intellectually. For Confucius, the real key to life was encapsulated in his stages of learning. All three teachers carried their messages into the world. All three understood their own limits. They did not impart expertise but helped their students come up with their own ideas. Jesus, Socrates, and Confucius were willing to give their lives for truth. When threatened with assassination, Confucius said that the would-be assassin could kill him but could not take away that truth that was in him. The lives of these three teachers were their messages, and their lives epitomized the truth to which they wished to lead others. ■ Confucius, The Analects. Essential Reading 126 Lecture 23: Confucius, The Analects Carrithers et al., Founders of Faiths. Yao, Encyclopedia of Confucianism. 1. Confucius taught that a harmony must exist between our personal actions, our family life, and our government. Do you agree? 2. Do you think our politicians have or even should have the qualities that Confucius sought in a “good, benevolent” person and that were his qualifi cations for leadership? Supplementary Reading Questions to Consider

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  And dependence is the source of the Charmer's power. People who are physically beautiful, and who play on their beauty to create a sexually charged presence, have little power in the end; the bloom of youth fades, there is always someone younger and more beautiful, and in any case people tire of beauty without social grace. But they never tire of feeling their self-worth validated. Learn the power you can wield by making the other person feel like the star. The key is to diffuse your sexual presence: create a vaguer, more beguiling sense of excitement through a generalized flirtation, a socialized sexuality that is constant, addictive, and never totally satisfied. 88 • The Art of Seduction 3. In December of 1936, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese Nation- alists, was captured by a group of his own soldiers who were angry with his policies: instead of fighting the Japanese, who had just invaded China, he was continuing his civil war against the Communist armies of Mao Ze- dong. The soldiers saw no threat in Mao—Chiang had almost annhilated the Communists. In fact, they believed he should join forces with Mao against the common enemy—it was the only patriotic thing to do. The sol- diers thought by capturing him they could compel Chiang to change his mind, but he was a stubborn man. Since Chiang was the main impediment to a unified war against the Japanese, the soldiers contemplated having him executed, or turned over to the Communists. As Chiang lay in prison, he could only imagine the worst. Several days later he received a visit from Zhou Enlai—a former friend and now a lead- ing Communist. Politely and respectfully, Zhou argued for a united front: Communists and Nationalists against the Japanese. Chiang could not begin to hear such talk; he hated the Communists with a passion, and became hopelessly emotional. To sign an agreement with the Communists in these circumstances, he yelled, would be humiliating, and would lose me all honor among my own army. It's out of the question. Kill me if you must. Zhou listened, smiled, said barely a word. As Chiang's rant ended he told the Nationalist general that a concern for honor was something he understood, but that the honorable thing for them to do was actually to forget their differences and fight the invader. Chiang could lead both armies. Finally, Zhou said that under no circumstances would he allow his fellow Communists, or anyone for that matter, to execute such a great man as Chiang Kai-shek. The Nationalist leader was stunned and moved. The next day, Chiang was escorted out of prison by Communist guards, transferred to one of his own army's planes, and sent back to his own headquarters.

• From Middlesex (2002)

  etroit was always made of wheels. Long before the Big Three and the nickname "Motor City"; before the auto factories and the freighters and the pink, chemical nights; before anyone had necked in a Thunderbird or spooned in a Model T; previous to the day a young Henry Ford knocked down his workshop wall because, in devising his "quadricycle," he'd thought of everything but how to get the damn thing out; and nearly a century prior to the cold March night, in 1896, when Charles King tiller-steered his horseless carriage down St. Antoine, along Jefferson, and up Woodward Avenue (where the two-stroke engine prompdy quit); way, way back, when the city was just a piece of stolen Indian land located on the strait from which it got its name, a fort fought over by the British and French until, wearing them out, it fell into the hands of the Americans; way back then, before cars and cloverleaves, Detroit was made of wheels. I am nine years old and holding my father's meaty, sweaty hand. We are standing at a window on the top floor of the Pontchartrain Hotel. I have come downtown for our annual lunch date. I am wear- ing a miniskirt and fuchsia tights. A white patent leather purse hangs on a long strap from my shoulder. 79 The fogged window has spots on it. We are way up high. I'm go- ing to order shrimp scampi in a minute. The reason for my father's hand perspiration: he's afraid of heights. Two days ago, when he offered to take me wherever I wanted, I called out in my piping voice, "Top of the Pontch!" High above the city, amid the business lunchers and power brokers, was where I wanted to be. And Milton has been true to his promise. De- spite racing pulse he has allowed the maitre d' to give us a table next to the window; so that now here we are— as a tuxedoed waiter pulls out my chair— and my father, too frightened to sit, begins a history lesson instead. What's the reason for studying history? To understand the present or avoid it? Milton, olive complexion turning a shade pale, only says, "Look. See the wheel?" And now I squint. Oblivious, at nine, to the prospect of crow's- feet, I gaze out over downtown, down to the streets where my father is indicating (though not looking). And there it is: half a hubcap of city plaza, with the spokes of Bagley, Washington, Woodward, Broadway, and Madison radiating from it.

• From Looking for Alaska (2005)

  So give me a few of those cigarettes you’ll never smoke anyway, and I’ll see you later.” I decided to hang out on the swing for a while, half because the heat had finally dissipated into a pleasant, if muggy, eighty-something, and half because I thought Alaska might show up. But almost as soon as the Colonel left, the bugs encroached: no-see-ums (which, for the record, you can see) and mosquitoes hovered around me in such numbers that the tiny noise of their rubbing wings sounded cacophonous. And then I decided to smoke. Now, I did think, The smoke will drive the bugs away. And, to some degree, it did. I’d be lying, though, if I claimed I became a smoker to ward off insects. I became a smoker because 1. I was on an Adirondack swing by myself, and 2. I had cigarettes, and 3. I figured that if everyone else could smoke a cigarette without coughing, I could damn well, too. In short, I didn’t have a very good reason. So yeah, let’s just say that 4. it was the bugs. I made it through three entire drags before I felt nauseous and dizzy and only semipleasantly buzzed. I got up to leave. As I stood, a voice behind me said: “So do you really memorize last words?” She ran up beside me and grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back onto the porch swing. “Yeah,” I said. And then hesitantly, I added, “You want to quiz me?” “JFK,” she said. “That’s obvious,” I answered. “Oh, is it now?” she asked. “No. Those were his last words. Someone said, ‘Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you,’ and then he said, ‘That’s obvious,’ and then he got shot.” She laughed. “God, that’s awful. I shouldn’t laugh. But I will,” and then she laughed again. “Okay, Mr. Famous Last Words Boy. I have one for you.” She reached into her overstuffed backpack and pulled out a book. “Gabriel García Márquez. The General in His Labyrinth. Absolutely one of my favorites. It’s about Simón Bolívar.” I didn’t know who Simón Bolívar was, but she didn’t give me time to ask. “It’s a historical novel, so I don’t know if this is true, but in the book, do you know what his last words are? No, you don’t. But I am about to tell you, Señor Parting Remarks.” And then she lit a cigarette and sucked on it so hard for so long that I thought the entire thing might burn off in one drag. She exhaled and read to me: “‘He’—that’s Simón Bolívar—‘was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. “Damn it,” he sighed. “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!”’” I knew great last words when I heard them, and I made a mental note to get ahold of a biography of this Simón Bolívar fellow.