Anxiety

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

  144 Lecture 27: Sir Thomas Malory, Morte d’Arthur has never been fi lled, the Siege Perilous. That seat had been designated for the person that God chose to fi nd the Holy Grail. Anyone else who attempts to fi ll that seat will be struck dead immediately, but when Galahad sits in it, a chalice appears. The knights decide that a young boy should not seek the Holy Grail by himself, and the entire Round Table sets off. Arthur is distraught. He believes that many of these men of honor, courage, and faith will die on this lonely journey. After many months of travel, Lancelot comes to a tiny chapel in a far-off place and sees once again the vision of the chalice in his sleep. Lancelot’s carnal love for Guinevere will prevent him from ever possessing the Holy Grail. Galahad has remained pure, and with his friends Sir Perceval and Sir Bors, he continues his quest to fi nd the Holy Grail. When they fi nd it, they travel to Sarras, the city from which Joseph of Arimathea came, to return it. Content to have achieved this goal, Galahad dies peacefully. Perceval stays with him and joins him in death. Sir Bors, after performing many wondrous deeds against the infi dels, makes his way back to tell Arthur and Lancelot of these events and about Galahad’s immediate ascension to heaven for his goodness. In Camelot, as King Arthur foresaw, all is coming to ruin. Lancelot and Guinevere have been overcome by lust, and their affair is an open secret in the court. Arthur shuts his ear to these rumors. Close advisers, such as Sir Modred, tell Arthur that he must show the world whether Guinevere is innocent or adulterous. Modred tells Arthur to test Lancelot by arranging a hunting trip. When Lancelot returns to Guinevere at nightfall, Arthur sees the truth. Guinevere and Lancelot go to Lancelot’s castle, the Joyous Gard. Arthur, who has been shamed, must wage war against Lancelot. Lancelot leaves Britain. Arthur, without Lancelot, faces the forces of revolt led by Modred. In a great battle between the forces of good, led by Arthur, and the forces of evil and rebellion, both Arthur and Modred are slain. As he is dying, Arthur requests that a knight throw his sword into the lake. When Arthur is told that a woman’s hand reached up to take the sword, Arthur says that he can die. According to Malory, many people believed that Arthur was taken away by queens to islands in the west, where he awaits the time when Britain needs him and he will return. Lancelot and Guinevere regret all the misfortune

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

  46 Lecture 8: Gilgamesh in search of eternal life and learns that he must die, but what matters is how he lives, what he achieves during his life, and the reputation that he leaves behind him. The story of Gilgamesh became a formative element in the early literature of the Middle East, leaving its echoes in the Old Testament story of the fl ood and, centuries later, shaping the image of Alexander the Great. Of all the literature that has come down from the early civilizations of Egypt and the Middle East, the epic of Gilgamesh speaks most directly to us today. Gilgamesh is an epic poem that also re fl ects no separation between the sacred and the secular. Gilgamesh deals with the second of the themes for this course, the question of fate, a question that has consumed the minds of thoughtful individuals ever since the fi rst days of civilization. The prophet Muhammad indicates that everything that befalls people has been destined by God. This message is also central to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Civilization was born in Egypt and in Mesopotamia. Around 3000 B.C., both areas experienced an astonishing burst of anonymous creativity. These early civilizations were characterized by systems of writing, complex government structures, and monumental architecture. Both the Tower of Babel and the pyramids represented monuments to the belief that no separation existed between the sacred and the secular. Mesopotamia, the land of two rivers, is today’s Iraq. Civilization there blossomed in the form of independent cities, including Uruk and Ur. A complex governmental structure evolved to regulate the irrigation of the land through the two rivers. Irrigation released the population of Mesopotamia (as well as that of the Nile Valley) from the vagaries of the weather. The large cities were able to feed themselves. This growth and harnessing of technology in the 3 rd century B.C. came about through absolute government control. The people of the Nile Valley accepted the belief that the pharaoh was god on earth and built pyramids to celebrate his eternity, the idea that the pharaoh would live forever. The Mesopotamian city-states along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were also based on the absolute power of the kingship. The king ruled because God had chosen him and placed him on the throne. Even the names of the rulers re fl ected this status.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  undermines what we have built.) A bout of distance engages the emotions whether anyone has ever further; instead of making us angry, it makes us insecure. Perhaps they seen the treasures which are don't really like us, perhaps we have lost their interest. Once our vanity is at revealed when he grows serious and exposes what stake, we succumb to the Coquette just to prove we are still desirable. Re-he keeps inside. • member: the essence of the Coquette lies not in the tease and temptation . . . Believing that he was but in the subsequent step back, the emotional withdrawal. That is the key serious in his admiration of my charms, I supposed that to enslaving desire. a wonderful piece of good To adopt the power of the Coquette, you must understand one other luck had befallen me; I quality: narcissism. Sigmund Freud characterized the "narcissistic woman" should now be able, in return for my favours, to (most often obsessed with her appearance) as the type with the greatest ef-find out all that Socrates fect on men. As children, he explains, we pass through a narcissistic phase knew; for you must know that is immensely pleasurable. Happily self-contained and self-involved, we that there was no limit to the pride that I felt in my have little psychic need of other people. Then, slowly, we are socialized and good looks. With this end taught to pay attention to others—but we secretly yearn for those blissful in view I sent away my early days. The narcissistic woman reminds a man of that period, and makes attendant, whom hitherto I him envious. Perhaps contact with her will restore that feeling of self-had always kept with me in my encounters with involvement. Socrates, and left myself A man is also challenged by the female Coquette's independence—he alone with him. I must tell wants to be the one to make her dependent, to burst her bubble. It is far you the whole truth; attend carefully, and do you, more likely, though, that he will end up becoming her slave, giving her in- The Coquette • 75 cessant attention to gain her love, and failing. For the narcissistic woman is Socrates, pull me up if not emotionally needy; she is self-sufficient. And this is surprisingly seduc- anything I say is false. I allowed myself to be alone tive. Self-esteem is critical in seduction. (Your attitude toward yourself is with him, I say, read by the other person in subtle and unconscious ways.) Low self-esteem gentlemen, and I naturally repels, confidence and self-sufficiency attract. The less you seem to need supposed that he would other people, the more likely others will be drawn to you. Understand the embark on conversation of the type that a lover

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  She did not say she was interested in another man, but his mere presence at her house, a look here and there, subtle gestures, made it seem that way. There is no more powerful way to hint that you are losing your desire. Make your interest in another too obvious, though, and it could backfire. This is not the situation in which you want to seem cruel; doubt and anxiety are the effects you are after. Make your possible interest in another barely perceptible to the naked eye. Once someone has fallen for you, any physical absence will create unease. You are literally creating space. The Russian seductress Lou Andreas-Salomé had an intense presence; when a man was with her, he felt her eyes boring into him, and often became entranced with her coquettish ways and spirit. But then, almost invariably, something would come up—she would have to leave town for a while, or would be too busy to see him. It was during her absences that men fell hopelessly in love with her, and vowed to be more aggressive next time they were with her. Your absences at this latter point of the seduction should seem at least somewhat justified. You are insinuating not a blatant brush-off but a slight doubt: perhaps you could have found some reason to stay, perhaps you are losing interest, perhaps there is someone else. In your absence, their appreciation of you will grow. They will forget your faults, forgive your sins. The moment you return, they will chase after you as you desire. It will be as if you had come back from the dead. According to the psychologist Theodor Reik, we learn to love only through rejection. As infants, we are showered with love by our mother— we know nothing else. But when we get a little older, we begin to sense that her love is not unconditional. If we do not behave, if we do not please her, she can withdraw it. The idea that she will withdraw her affection fills us with anxiety, and, at first, with anger—we will show her, we will throw Give Them Space to Fall— The Pursuer Is Pursued • 391 a tantrum. But that never works, and we slowly realize that the only way to keep her from rejecting us again is to imitate her—to be as loving, kind, and affectionate as she is. This will bond her to us in the deepest way. The pattern is ingrained in us for the rest of our lives: by experiencing a rejection or a coldness, we learn to court and pursue, to love.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  A month later Elvis gave his first public performance, outdoors in a Memphis park. He was as nervous as he had been at the recording session, and could only stutter when he had to speak; but once he broke into song, the words came out. The crowd responded excitedly, rising to peaks at certain moments. Elvis couldn't figure out why. "I went over to the manager after the song," he later said, "and I asked him what was making the crowd go nuts. He told me, 'I'm not really sure, but I think that every time you wiggle your left leg, they start to scream. Whatever it is, just don't stop.' A single Elvis recorded in 1954 became a hit. Soon he was in demand. Going onstage filled him with anxiety and emotion, so much so that he became a different person, as if possessed. "I've talked to some singers and they get a little nervous, but they say their nerves kind of settle down after they get into it. Mine never do. It's sort of this energy . . . something maybe like sex." Over the next few months he discovered more gestures and sounds—twitching dance movements, a more tremulous voice—that made the crowds go crazy, particularly teenage girls. Within a year he had become the hottest musician in America. His concerts were exercises in mass hysteria. Elvis Presley had a dark side, a secret life. (Some have attributed it to the death, at birth, of his twin brother.) This dark side he deeply repressed as a young man; it included all kinds of fantasies which he could only give in to when he was alone, although his unconventional clothing may also have been a symptom of it. When he performed, though, he was able to let these demons loose. They came out as a dangerous sexual power. Twitch- The Charismatic • 107 ing, androgynous, uninhibited, he was a man enacting strange fantasies be- He is their god. He leads fore the public. The audience sensed this and was excited by it. It wasn't a them like a thing \ Made by some other deity than flamboyant style and appearance that gave Elvis charisma, but rather the nature, \ That shapes man electrifying expression of his inner turmoil. better; and they follow him A crowd or group of any sort has a unique energy. Just below the sur- \ Against us brats with no less confidence \ Than boys face is desire, a constant sexual excitement that has to be repressed because pursuing summer butterflies it is socially unacceptable. If you have the ability to rouse those desires, the \ Or butchers killing crowd will see you as having charisma. The key is learning to access your flies. . . . own unconscious, as Elvis did when he let go. You are full of an excite- —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ment that seems to come from some mysterious inner source. Your unin-CORIOLANUS

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  People may be straining to remove restrictions on private behavior, to make everything freer, in the world today, but that only makes seduction more difficult and less exciting. Do what you can to reintroduce a feeling of transgression and crime, even if it is only psychological or illusory. There must be obstacles to overcome, social norms to flout, laws to break, before the seduction can be consummated. It might seem that a permissive society imposes few limits; find some. There will always be limits, sacred cows, behavioral standards—endless ammunition for stirring up the transgressive and taboo. 358 • The Art of Seduction Symbol: The Forest. The children are told not to go into the forest that lies just beyond the safe confines of their home. There is no law there, only wilderness, wild animals, and criminals. But the chance to explore, the alluring darkness, and the fact that it is prohibited are impossi- ble to resist. And once inside, they want to go farther and farther. Reversal The reversal of stirring up taboos would be to stay within the limits of acceptable behavior. That would make for a very tepid seduction. Which is not to say that only evil or wild behavior is seductive; goodness, kindness, and an aura of spirituality can be tremendously attractive, since they are rare qualities. But notice that the game is the same. A person who is kind or good or spiritual within the limits that society prescribes has a weak appeal. It is those who go to the extreme—the Gandhis, the Krishnamurtis—who seduce us. They do not merely expound a spiritual life-style, they do away with all personal material comfort to live out their ascetic ideals. They too go beyond the limits, transgressing acceptable behavior, because societies would find it hard to function if everyone went to such lengths. In seduction, there is absolutely no power in respecting boundaries and limits. Use Spiritual Lures Every- one has doubts and in- securities— about their body, their self-worth, their sexuality. If your seduction appeals exclusively to the physical, you will stir up these doubts and make your targets self-conscious. Instead, lure them out of their insecurities by making them fo- cus on something sublime and spiritual: a religious experience, a lofty work of art, the occult. Play up your divine qualities; affect an air of discontent with worldly things; speak of the stars, destiny, the hidden threads that unite you and the object of the seduction. Lost in a spiritual mist, the target will feel light and uninhibited. Deepen the effect of your seduction by making its sexual cul- mination seem like the spiritual union of two souls. Object of Worship Liane de Pougy was the reigning courtesan of 1890s Paris. Slender and androgynous, she was a novelty, and the wealthiest men in Europe vied to possess her. By late in the decade, however, she had grown tired of it all.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The Dandy's strength, but also the Dandy's problem, is that he or she often works through transgressive feelings relating to sex roles. Although this activity is highly charged and seductive, it is also dangerous, since it touches on a source of great anxiety and insecurity. The greater dangers will often come from your own sex. Valentino had immense appeal for women, but men hated him. He was constantly dogged with accusations of being perversely unmasculine, and this caused him great pain. Salomé was equally disliked by women; Nietzsche's sister, and perhaps his closest friend, considered her an evil witch, and led a virulent campaign against her in the press long after the philosopher's death. There is little to be done in the face of resentment like this. Some Dandies try to fight the image they themselves have created, but this is unwise: to prove his masculinity, Valentino would engage in a boxing match, anything to prove his masculinity. He wound up looking only desperate. Better to accept society's occasional gibes with grace and insolence. After all, the Dandies' charm is that they don't really care what people think of them. That is how Andy Warhol played the game: when people tired of his antics or some scandal erupted, instead of trying to defend himself he would simply move on to some new image—decadent bohemian, high-society portraitist, etc.—as if to say, with a hint of disdain, that the problem lay not with him but with other people's attention span. Another danger for the Dandy is the fact that insolence has its limits. Beau Brummel prided himself on two things: his trimness of figure and his acerbic wit. His main social patron was the Prince of Wales, who, in later years, grew plump. One night at dinner, the prince rang for the butler, and Brummel snidely remarked, "Do ring, Big Ben." The prince did not appreciate the joke, had Brummel shown out, and never spoke to him again. Without royal patronage, Brummel fell into poverty and madness. Even a Dandy, then, must measure out his impudence. A true Dandy knows the difference between a theatrically staged teasing of the powerful and a remark that will truly hurt, offend, or insult. It is particularly important to avoid insulting those in a position to injure you. In fact the pose may work best for those who can afford to offend—artists, bohemians, etc. In the work world, you will probably have to modify and tone down your Dandy image. Be pleasantly different, an amusement, rather than a person who challenges the group's conventions and makes others feel insecure. Child- hood is the golden paradise we are always consciously or unconsciously try- ing to re-create. The Natural embodies the longed-

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  Apparently they took a vote. He is telling them about islands when you slip away with the briefcase. Pas de sweat. You take a seat on the near side of the runway, in the middle of a middle row, thinking that once the show gets underway you want to be as inaccessible as possible. You stash the briefcase under the seat and cover it with your jacket. Your plan is beginning to congeal. An eddy in the crowd ripples out from the door, a sense of waters being parted. Flashbulbs ignite. Finally you see the cause of the excitement: a face that brings to mind a line of cosmetics, a Cola and recent shocking revelations in supermarket tabloids. It’s the famous actress/model on a busman’s holiday. She’s wearing faded jeans, a sweatshirt and a yachting cap, as if to say: “I can look terrific with both hands tied behind my back.” You know for a fact, or at least you have it on good authority from Amanda, who once did location work with her, that she is a martyr to the search for the perfect nose. She has had no less than seven reconstructive operations and she’s still not happy. She refuses to be photographed in profile. You can think of better ways to traumatize the nasal cartilage. From this distance, the nose looks unexceptional and the rest strikes you as bland. You judge her to be about five-five, not tall enough for runway work. She’s got too much chest for couture. Amanda is, or was, a perfect eight: hips thirty-four, waist twenty-three, bust thirty-three. You also know her shoe, glove and ring sizes. Clara would be proud. You have all the numbers. Factoring in the cheekbones, which a photographer once described as “neo-classical,” they add up to a hundred and fifty dollars an hour. People are taking their seats. A woman in a pink gown comes out onto the runway, apparently the mistress of ceremonies. She smiles and nods, mouthing little greetings, and walks out to the lectern at the runway’s edge. Your hands are beginning to shake and you decide on a booster shot. You buck the flow of the crowd and race for the bar. People are looking at you and you are afraid they know your every thought. You brace yourself with the fact that you looked at Amanda every day for almost three years and you don’t have the ghost of a clue what was going on in her mind. She showed all the vital signs and made all the right noises. She said she loved you. The lights are dimmed, and the woman in pink begins to explain the reason we are here today. She says something about a Revolution in Taste. This fashion designer has the same name as a famous Renaissance painter, and she thinks it is not too much to compare the impact of his work in couture with that of the Old Master in painting.

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  HOW IT’S GOING The apartment has become very small. Michael snores on the couch. Your head is pounding with voices of confession and revelation. You followed the rails of white powder across the mirror in pursuit of a point of convergence where everything was cross-referenced according to a master code. For a second, you felt terrific. You were coming to grips. Then the coke ran out; as you hoovered the last line, you saw yourself hideously close-up with a rolled twenty sticking out of your nose. The goal is receding. Whatever it was. You can’t get everything straight in one night. You are too excited to think any more and too exhausted to sleep. If you lie down you are afraid you will die. The phone goes off like a shrill alarm. You catch it on the second ring. Through the noise and cryptic epigrams you gather that it is Tad, that he wants you to meet him at Odeon. There is a party. Your presence is requested. You tell him you’ll be there in ten minutes. You throw a blanket over Michael and a jacket on yourself; check your nearly empty wallet, then close and lock the door. When you hit the street you begin to jog. At the door of the Sheridan Square all-hours bank office you insert the plastic card which a sign tells you is your passport to banking convenience. When the buzzer sounds, you pull the door open and step into a room the color of an illuminated swimming pool. A specimen in camouflage combat gear stands at the cash-machine as if he were playing a video game, body English in his every motion. If he doesn’t hurry up, you think, I will have to kill him. Finally he turns to you and throws up his hands. “Fucking computers. They ain’t gonna take over the world at this rate. This goddamned Citibank unit—it couldn’t take Staten Island on a Sunday morning. Go ahead, try your luck.” This neo-guerrilla sports a button which reads: I’M NOT AS THINK AS YOU STONED I AM. Not at all confident that your fellow late-night Citi-banker is capable

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  it over his head and brings it down gently on the driver’s shoulder, as if he were bestowing knighthood. He does this three times, saying, in a cheery falsetto voice, “Turn to shit, turn to shit, turn to shit.” At your apartment building you discover that you have no keys. They’re in the pocket of your jacket, which is back in the Department of Factual Verification. Much as you dislike your apartment, it has a bed in it. You want to sleep. You have attained that fine pitch of exhaustion which might make it possible. You’ve been thinking about that packet of instant cocoa in the kitchen, Family Feud on the TV. You were even thinking you might take some Dickens to bed with you. Run your mind over someone else’s pathetic misadventures for a change. An image of yourself curled up on the sidewalk next to a heat vent with the other bums yields to the slightly less grim prospect of asking the super for the spare set of keys. The super, a huge Greek, has glared at you ever since you forgot to pay the customary tribute of cash or booze for Christmas. His wife is no less formidable, being the one who wears the mustache in the family. Fortunately, the man who answers the door is one of the cousins, a young man whose lack of English and dubious visa status make him eager to oblige. You mime the problem and within minutes you are at your door with the spare set. An envelope with the logo of Allagash’s employer, an ad agency, is taped to the door. Inside, a note: Coach: Having this messengered to your digs after numerous calls to reputed place of employ. Don’t you keep office hours anymore? It’s tiresome, God knows, but one should try to keep up appearances and also be accessible in case of emergencies like present one. To be brief: A long-anticipated tryst with the libidinous Inge—pin-up Queen manquee—is endangered by visit of cousin from Boston branch of family. I know what you’re thinking: A Boston branch of the Allagash clan? But every family has its dark secrets. Said cousin is doing academic gig at NYU and laying over at the Allagash pad. Must be entertained in grand manner. A well-bred young woman, something of an intellect, who would not be charmed by some junior account exec with toothpaste market surveys on the brain. This assignment calls for nothing less than

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  “You’ve had a terrible time, haven’t you?” she says. You shrug. You are looking at her breasts, trying to determine whether or not she is wearing a bra. “I’ve been worried about you,” Megan says. You move from the table to the couch. Megan says that we all project our needs onto others, and that others aren’t always capable of fulfilling them. No bra, you decide. You excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. You switch on the light and close the door behind you. The bathroom has a cluttered, homey look. Dried flowers on the toilet tank, white sheepskin on the seat. You pull back the shower curtain. Inside the shower is a shelf loaded with bottles. Vitabath, Bath & Shower Gelée. You like the sound of that. Pantene Shampoo. Pantene Conditioner. Doubtless this should not make you think of panties, but it does. Lubriderm Lotion. You pick up a luffa and rub it against your cheek, then return it to the shelf. A pink disposable razor is cradled in the soap dish. You open the medicine cabinet over the sink: cosmetics, the usual assortment of noneuphoric home medicines. A tube of Gynol II Contraceptive Jelly. Odorless, Colorless, Flavorless. This is good news. On the top shelf there is a cache of prescription bottles. You remove one: “Megan Avery; Lithium Carbonate; four tablets daily.” The second bottle is tetracycline. So far as you know you are not suffering from bacterial infection. You replace it. You score on the third try: “Valium, as directed, for tension.” Tension you’ve got. You hold the bottle up to the light. Nearly full. After a brief struggle you master the childproof cap. You shake a blue tab onto your palm and swallow it. You consider. The last time you dropped a Valium you didn’t even feel it. You take another. Of course, the last time you took a V, you were wired on C. Anyway. You replace the bottle, take an L and flush. Megan is making noises with the dishes in the kitchen when you return. “Be right out,” she says. You sit on the couch and pour another glass from the bottle on the coffee table. A bouquet with a hint of migrant-worker sweat. “Just thought I’d get the dishes out of the way,” Megan says when she returns.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Finally, unable to take it any longer, he one day took her hand and confessed his love. Horrified, the countess told him to leave and never come back. Stendhal flooded Viscontini with letters, begging her to forgive him. At last, she relented: she would see him again, but under one condition—he could visit only once every two weeks, for no more than an hour, and only in the presence of company. Stendhal agreed; he had no choice. He now lived for those short fortnightly visits, which became occasions of intense anxiety and fear, since he was never quite sure whether she would change her mind and banish him forever. This went on for over two years, during which the countess never showed him the slightest sign of favor. Stendhal never found out why she had insisted on this arrangement—perhaps she wanted to toy with him or keep him at a distance. All he knew was that his love for her only grew stronger, became unbearably intense, until finally he had to leave Milan. To get over this sad affair, Stendhal wrote his famous book On Love, in which he described the effect of fear on desire. First, if you fear the loved one, you can never get too close or familiar with him or her. The beloved then retains an element of mystery, which only intensifies your love. Second, there is something bracing about fear. It makes you vibrate with sensation, heightens your awareness, is intensely erotic. According to Stendhal, the closer the loved one brings you to the edge of the precipice, to the feeling that they could abandon you, the dizzier and more lost you will become. Falling in love means literally falling—losing control, a mix of fear and excitement. Apply this wisdom in reverse: never let your targets get too comfortable 378 • The Art of Seduction with you. They need to feel fear and anxiety. Show them some coldness, a flash of anger they did not expect. Be irrational if necessary. There is always the trump card: a breakup. Let them feel they have lost you forever, make them fear that they have lost the power to charm you. Let these feelings sit with them for a while, then pull them back from the precipice. The reconciliation will be intense.

• From Story of the Eye (1928)

  O “wanted to believe.” Her drastic condition of total personal servitude to those who use her sexually is repeatedly described as a mode of salvation. With anguish and anxiety, she surrenders herself; and “henceforth there were no more hiatuses, no dead time, no remission”. While she has, to be sure, entirely lost her freedom, O has gained the right to participate in what is described as virtually a sacramental rite. The word “open” and the expression “opening her legs” were, on her lover’s lips, charged with such uneasiness and power that she could never hear them without experiencing a kind of internal prostration, a sacred submission, as though a god, and not he, had spoken to her. Though she fears the whip and other cruel mistreatments before they are inflicted on her, “yet when it was over she was happy to have gone through it, happier still if it had been especially cruel and prolonged.” The whipping, branding, and mutilating are described (from the point of view of her consciousness) as ritual ordeals which test the faith of someone being initiated into an ascetic spiritual discipline. The “perfect submissiveness” that her original lover and then Sir Stephen demand of her echoes the extinction of the self explicitly required of a Jesuit novice or Zen pupil. O is “that absent-minded person who has yielded up her will in order to be totally remade”, to be made fit to serve a will far more powerful and authoritative than her own. As might be expected, the straightforwardness of the religious metaphors in Story of O has evoked some correspondingly straight readings of the book. The novelist Mandiargues, whose preface precedes Paulhan’s in the American translation, doesn’t hesitate to describe Story of O as “a mystic work”, and therefore “not, strictly speaking, an erotic book”. What Story of O depicts “is a complete spiritual transformation, what others would call an ascesis ”. But the matter is not so simple. Mandiargues is correct in dismissing a psychiatric analysis of O’s state of mind that would reduce the book’s subject to, say, “masochism”. As Paulhan says, “the heroine’s ardour” is totally inexplicable in terms of the conventional psychiatric vocabulary. The fact that the novel employs some of the conventional motifs and trappings of the theatre of sadomasochism has itself to be explained. But Mandiargues has fallen into an error almost as reductive and only slightly less vulgar. Surely, the only alternative to the psychiatric reductions is not the religious vocabulary. But that only these two foreshortened alternatives exist testifies once again to the bone-deep denigration of the range and seriousness of sexual experience that still rules this culture, for all its much-advertised new permissiveness. My own view is that “Pauline Réage” wrote an erotic book.

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  You follow the kid into the park behind the library. Look both ways before you enter. His brother may be waiting with a baseball bat. Two elderly male civilians are throwing bread at the pigeons. The kid leads you over to a big tree where he tells you to wait. Then he runs to the other side of the park. You can’t believe you’re doing this. Encouraging juvenile delinquency. Wasting your money on street toot. The kid comes running out from behind the fountain. “I want a taste.” “Shit,” he says. “Who you think you are—John DeLorean? You be buying a half. I’m telling you it’s good.” The classic standoff. His salesman’s smile is disappearing. You suddenly realize you are about to be ripped off, but you hang onto the hope of a buzz. “Let me see it at least.” He walks behind the tree and opens the packet. You’re buying some kind of white powder and the weight looks about right, not that this means much. You give him the money. He stuffs it in his pocket and backs off, watching you as he retreats. As long as you are relatively secluded you figure you’ll try some. You use your office key for a spoon. The first taste is like Drano. The second time you’re ready for it, and it’s not so bad. Still, it feels like your nose is emitting sparks. Whatever the stuff is, you hope it’s not lethal. You hope there’s something South American in the mix. After bumping yourself up again you fold the packet. You think you can feel a lift coming on. You want to go somewhere, do something, talk to someone, but it’s only eleven-thirty in the morning and everyone else in the world has a job. Much later, near midnight, you return to the office. Tad Allagash is with you. You are both in high spirits. You have decided that you are better off without that piss-ant job, that it is a good thing you got out when you did. A longer tenure in the Department of Factual Verification would have eventually resulted in an incurable case of anal retentiveness. You’re well shut of the place. This conclusion does not absolve Clara Tillinghast of her many crimes against humanity, and particularly against you. Tad casts it as a matter of honor. In his part of the country these matters are settled with horsewhips and ivory-headed canes. He

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  408 • The Art of Seduction humble poacher to kill the meeting, and so, one late afternoon in Paris, Valmont found himself once stag where he has surprised again alone with Tourvel, in a room in her house. it in its hiding place; the true hunter will The Présidente was clearly on edge; she could not look him in the eye. bring it to bay. They exchanged pleasantries, but then Valmont turned harsh: she had —VICOMTE DE VALMONT, treated him cruelly, had apparently been determined to make him unhappy. IN CHODERLOS DE LACLOS, Well, this was the end, they were separating for good, since that was how D A N G E R O U S LIAISONS, she wanted it. Tourvel argued back: she was a married woman, she had no TRANSLATED BY P . W . K . STONE, IN M I C H E L FEHER, ED., choice. Valmont softened his tone and apologized: he was unused to having THE LIBERTINE READER such strong feelings, he said, and could not control himself. Still, he would never trouble her again. Then he laid on a table the letters he had come to return. Don't you know that Tourvel came closer: the sight of her letters, and the memory of all the however willing, however eager we are to give turmoil they represented, affected her powerfully. She had thought his de-ourselves, we must cision to renounce his libertine way of life was voluntary, she said—with a nevertheless have an touch of bitterness in her voice, as if she resented being abandoned. No, it excuse? And is there any more convenient than an was not voluntary, he replied, it was because she had spurned him. Then appearance of yielding to he suddenly stepped closer and took her in his arms. She did not resist. force? As for me, I shall "Adorable woman!" he cried. "You have no idea of the love you inspire. admit that one thing that most flatters me is a lively You will never know how I have worshipped you, how much dearer my and well-executed attack, feelings have been to me than life! . . . May [your days] be blessed with all when everything happens of the happiness of which you have deprived me!" Then he let her go and in quick but orderly turned to leave. succession; which never puts us in the painfully Tourvel suddenly snapped. "You shall listen to me. I insist," she said, embarrassing position of and grabbed his arm. He turned around and they embraced. This time he having to cover up some waited no longer, picking her up, carrying her to an ottoman, overwhelm-blunder of which, on the contrary, we ought to be ing her with kisses and sweet words of the happiness he now felt. Before taking advantage; which

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  importance of this in all relationships and you will find your neediness usually addresses to his easier to suppress. But do not confuse self-absorption with seductive narcis- darling when they are sism. Talking endlessly about yourself is eminently anti-seductive, revealing tête-à-tête, and I was glad. Nothing of the kind; not self-sufficiency but insecurity. he spent the day with me The Coquette is traditionally thought of as female, and certainly the in the sort of talk which is strategy was for centuries one of the few weapons women had to engage habitual with him, and then left me and went and enslave a man's desire. One ploy of the Coquette is the withdrawal of away. Next I invited him sexual favors, and we see women using this trick throughout history: the to train with me in the great seventeenth-century French courtesan Ninon de l'Enclos was desired gymnasium, and I accompanied him there, by all the preeminent men of France, but only attained real power when believing that I should she made it clear that she would no longer sleep with a man as part of her succeed with him now. He duty. This drove her admirers to despair, which she knew how to make took exercise and wrestled worse by favoring a man temporarily, granting him access to her body for a with me frequently, with no one else present, but I few months, then returning him to the pack of the unsatisfied. Queen need hardly say that I was Elizabeth I of England took coquettishness to the extreme, deliberately no nearer my goal. Finding arousing the desires of her courtiers but sleeping with none of them. that this was no good either, I resolved to make a Long a tool of social power for women, coquettishness was slowly adapted direct assault on him, and by men, particularly the great seducers of the seventeenth and eighteenth not to give up what I had centuries who envied the power of such women. One seventeenth-century once undertaken; I felt that I must get to the bottom of seducer, the Duc de Lauzun, was a master at exciting a woman, then sud- the matter. So I invited denly acting aloof. Women went wild over him. Today, coquetry is gender- him to dine with me, less. In a world that discourages direct confrontation, teasing, coldness, and behaving just like a lover who has designs upon his selective aloofness are a form of indirect power that brilliantly disguises its favourite. He was in no own aggression. hurry to accept this The Coquette must first and foremost be able to excite the target of his invitation, but at last he agreed to come. The first

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  create a wound in your victim, aiming at their soft spot, the chink in their THE LIBERTINE, TRANSLATED BY self-esteem. If they are stuck in a rut, make them feel it more deeply, "in-J O H N O Z E L L , IN OSCAR nocently" bringing it up and talking about it. What you want is a wound, M A N D E L , ED., THE THEATRE OF DON JUAN an insecurity you can expand a little, an anxiety that can best be relieved by involvement with another person, namely you. They must feel the wound before they fall in love. Notice how Lawrence stirred anxiety, always hitting For I stand tonight facing at his victims' weak spot: for Jessie Chambers, her physical coldness; for Ivy west on what was once the last frontier. From the Low, her lack of spontaneity; for Middleton-Murry, his lack of gallantry. lands that stretch three Cleopatra got Julius Caesar to sleep with her the first night he met her, thousand miles behind me, but the real seduction, the one that made him her slave, began later. In their the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort, ensuing conversations she talked repeatedly of Alexander the Great, the and sometimes their lives to hero from whom she was supposedly descended. No one could compare to build a new world here in him. By implication, Caesar was made to feel inferior. Understanding that the West. They were not beneath his bravado Caesar was insecure, Cleopatra awakened in him an the captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of anxiety, a hunger to prove his greatness. Once he felt this way he was easily their own price tags. Their further seduced. Doubts about his masculinity was his tender spot. motto was not "every man When Caesar was assassinated, Cleopatra turned her sights on Mark for himself— but "all for the common cause." They Antony, one of Caesar's successors in the leadership of Rome. Antony were determined to make loved pleasure and spectacle, and his tastes were crude. She appeared to him that new world strong and first on her royal barge, then wined and dined and banqueted him. Every-free, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, thing was geared to suggest to him the superiority of the Egyptian way of to conquer the enemies that life over the Roman, at least when it came to pleasure. The Romans were threatened from without boring and unsophisticated by comparison. And once Antony was made to and within. . . . • Today feel how much he was missing in spending his time with his dull soldiers some would say that those struggles are all over— that and his matronly Roman wife, he could be made to see Cleopatra as the inall the horizons have been carnation of all that was exciting. He became her slave. explored, that all the

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl had been covering the campaign, and as Election Day neared, she had an uneasy feeling. It wasn't so much that Reagan had focused on emotions and moods rather than hard issues. It was more that the media was giving him a free ride; he and his election team, she felt, were playing the press like a fiddle. They always managed to get him photographed in the perfect setting, looking strong and presidential. They fed the press snappy headlines along with dramatic footage of Reagan in action. They were putting on a great show. Stahl decided to assemble a news piece that would show the public how Reagan used television to cover up the negative effects of his policies. The piece began with a montage of images that his team had orchestrated over the years: Reagan relaxing on his ranch in jeans; standing tall at the Nor-mandy invasion tribute in France; throwing a football with his Secret Service bodyguards; sitting in an inner-city classroom. . . . Over these images Stahl asked, "How does Ronald Reagan use television? Brilliantly. He's Appendix B: Soft Seduction: How to Sell Anything to the Masses • 451 been criticized as the rich man's president, but the TV pictures say it isn't so. At seventy-three, Mr. Reagan could have an age problem. But the TV pictures say it isn't so. Americans want to feel proud of their country again, and of their president. And the TV pictures say you can. The orchestration of television coverage absorbs the White House. Their goal? To emphasize the president's greatest asset, which, his aides say, is his personality. They provide pictures of him looking like a leader. Confident, with his Marlboro man walk." Over images of Reagan shaking hands with handicapped athletes in wheelchairs and cutting the ribbon at a new facility for seniors, Stahl continued, "They also aim to erase the negatives. Mr. Reagan tried to counter the memory of an unpopular issue with a carefully chosen backdrop that actually contradicts the president's policy. Look at the handicapped Olympics, or the opening ceremony of an old-age home. No hint that he tried to cut the budgets for the disabled and for federally subsidized housing for the elderly." On and on went the piece, showing the gap between the feel-good images that played on the screen and the reality of Reagan's actions. "President Reagan," Stahl concluded, "is accused of running a campaign in which he highlights the images and hides from the issues. But there's no evidence that the charges will hurt him because when people see the president on television, he makes them feel good, about America, about themselves, and about him." Stahl depended on the good will of the Reagan people in covering the White House, but her piece was strongly negative, so she braced herself for trouble. Yet a senior White House official telephoned her that evening:

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  In 1953, just out of high school, Elvis recorded his first song, in a local studio. The record was a test, a chance for him to hear his own voice. A year later the owner of the studio, Sam Phillips, called him in to record two blues songs with a couple of professional musicians. They worked for hours, but nothing seemed to click; Elvis was nervous and inhibited. Then, near the end of the evening, giddy with exhaustion, he suddenly let loose and started to jump around like a child, in a moment of complete self- abandon. The other musicians joined in, the song getting wilder and wilder. Phillips's eyes lit up—he had something here. A month later Elvis gave his first public performance, outdoors in a Memphis park. He was as nervous as he had been at the recording session, and could only stutter when he had to speak; but once he broke into song, the words came out. The crowd responded excitedly, rising to peaks at certain moments. Elvis couldn't figure out why. "I went over to the man- ager after the song," he later said, "and I asked him what was making the crowd go nuts. He told me, 'I'm not really sure, but I think that every time you wiggle your left leg, they start to scream. Whatever it is, just don't stop.' A single Elvis recorded in 1954 became a hit. Soon he was in demand. Going onstage filled him with anxiety and emotion, so much so that he became a different person, as if possessed. "I've talked to some singers and they get a little nervous, but they say their nerves kind of settle down after they get into it. Mine never do. It's sort of this energy . . . something maybe like sex." Over the next few months he discovered more gestures and sounds—twitching dance movements, a more tremulous voice—that made the crowds go crazy, particularly teenage girls. Within a year he had become the hottest musician in America. His concerts were exercises in mass hysteria. Elvis Presley had a dark side, a secret life. (Some have attributed it to the death, at birth, of his twin brother.) This dark side he deeply repressed as a young man; it included all kinds of fantasies which he could only give in to when he was alone, although his unconventional clothing may also have been a symptom of it. When he performed, though, he was able to let these demons loose. They came out as a dangerous sexual power. Twitch- By its very nature, the existence of charismatic authority is specifically unstable.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  To seduce this type, be ready to provide a lot of distraction—new places to visit, novel experiences, color, spectacle. You will have to maintain an air of mystery, continually surprising your target with a new side to your character. Variety is the key. Once Pampered Royals are hooked, things get easier for they will quickly grow dependent on you and you can put out less effort. Unless their childhood pampering has made them too difficult and lazy, these types make excellent victims——they will be as loyal to you as they once were to mommy or daddy. But you will have to do much of the work. If you are after a long relationship, disguise it. Offer long-term security to a Pampered Royal and you will induce a panicked flight. Recognize these types by the turmoil in their past—job changes, travel, short-term relationships—and by the air of aristocracy, no matter their social class, that comes from once being treated like royalty. The New Prude. Sexual prudery still exists, but it is less common than it was. Prudery, however, is never just about sex; a prude is someone who is excessively concerned with appearances, with what society considers ap- 152 • The Art of Seduction propriate and acceptable behavior. Prudes rigorously stay within the boundaries of correctness because more than anything they fear society's judgment. Seen in this light, prudery is just as prevalent as it always was. The New Prude is excessively concerned with standards of goodness, fairness, political sensitivity, tastefulness, etc. What marks the New Prude, though, as well as the old one, is that deep down they are actually excited and intrigued by guilty, transgressive pleasures. Frightened by this attraction, they run in the opposite direction and become the most correct of all. They tend to wear drab colors; they certainly never take fashion risks. They can be very judgmental and critical of people who do take risks and are less correct. They are also addicted to routine, which gives them a way to tamp down their inner turmoil.