Awe

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 Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  That was a secret message from Susan to Frank. Long ago, he’d told her, “You worry about the custard and I’ll worry about the flying”— separating their duties was the only way to survive the toll a test pilot’s career exacted from a marriage and family. She’d wanted to let him know that all was good at home at a time he might need to hear it most. “No comprendo,” Borman told Carr. Susan couldn’t tell whether Frank hadn’t understood the words or had forgotten the reference. All she knew for sure was that she couldn’t reach him. Two minutes remained until the spacecraft, now moving at 5,125 miles per hour, went behind the Moon. Since lift-off, Apollo 8 had traveled 240,000 miles, and the Moon had traveled 150,000 miles, to make this rendezvous. “One minute to LOS [loss of signal],” Carr radioed to Apollo 8. “All systems Go.” “We’ll see you on the other side,” Lovell said. Outside Anders’s window, any trace of sunlight had disappeared, and as his eyes adapted to the intense darkness he began to see stars, it seemed like a million of them, so many he couldn’t even pick out constellations. The sight took his breath away. He looked to his right, through the window beside him, hungry for more, but suddenly there were no stars anymore—all of them had gone dark. There was just a giant black hole, as if part of the universe had vanished. The hair on the back of Anders’s neck stood up, and for a moment it felt as if his heart had stopped, until he realized that he wasn’t looking at a missing piece of the universe at all. He was looking at the Moon. A few seconds after that, Apollo 8 disappeared behind it. Chapter Eighteen

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

  The image of a menagerie presenting a collection of bizarre objects to the enthroned Saviour in the Last Days is not what Watts was invoking, pleasing thought though it is. Watts in his eighteenth-century English wanted to talk about the glorious particularity of individual religious experience, the appropriateness of one Christian manifestation to one situation; yet all of them fixed intently on that which is outside space. So often what in one age seems bizarre – the property of a derided or persecuted sect – becomes the respected norm or variant in other, later circumstances: the abolition of slavery, the ordination of women, the avoidance of meat-eating or tobacco.114 Hans Urs von Balthasar reflected wisely on an aspect of the Church’s history which might give some contenders in present battles pause when he stressed the ultimate individuality of spiritual experience: ‘Nothing has ever borne fruit in the Church without emerging from the darkness of a long period of loneliness into the light of the community.’115 Most of Christianity’s problems at the beginning of the twenty-first century are the problems of success; in 2009 it has more than two billion adherents, almost four times its numbers in 1900, a third of the world’s population, and more than half a billion more than its current nearest rival, Islam.116 At least Christian history offers plenty of sobering messages for overconfidence. The more interesting conundrum for Christianity is a society in which polite indifference has replaced the battles of the twentieth century: Europe, which is not so much a continent as a state of mind, to be found equally in Canada, Australasia and a significant part of the United States. Can there be a new Christian message of tragedy and triumph, suffering and forgiveness to Europeans and those who think like them? Does secularism have to be an enemy of Christian faith, as Nazism and Soviet Communism were enemies, or does it offer a chance to remould Christianity, as it has been remoulded so often before? Can the many faces of Christianity find a message which will remake religion for a society which has decided to do without it? Original sin is one of the more plausible concepts within the Western Christian package, corresponding all too accurately to everyday human experience. One great encouragement to sin is an absence of wonder. Even those who see the Christian story as just that – a series of stories – may find sanity in the experience of wonder: the ability to listen and contemplate. It would be very surprising if this religion, so youthful, yet so varied in its historical experience, had now revealed all its secrets.

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  THE SPACE RACE On the morning of Saturday, October 5, 1957, the world awoke to headlines announcing that the Soviet Union had launched the world’s first satellite. The shiny silver ball, a little more than twice the size of a basketball, was called Sputnik, Russian for “satellite” or “fellow traveler.” It was launched by a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and orbited Earth every ninety-six minutes at altitudes between about 140 and 590 miles. Never before had human beings managed to hurl an object out of Earth’s atmosphere with such speed that it became part of the cosmic realm. It hardly seemed real. Man had made his own moon. At first, Americans marveled at the accomplishment, and the best part was that they could witness it for themselves. The Soviets provided radio frequencies on which Sputnik broadcast a beep every three-tenths of a second, along with the satellite’s overhead location. Anyone with a shortwave radio could listen to Sputnik. Anyone with a pair of binoculars (or good eyes) could see it, or more likely its carrier rocket, streaking overhead. Millions of Americans gathered outside or by their radios to take in this flash from the future. But as Monday came, America’s weekend of wonderment gave way to darker realities. The United States was the most technologically advanced nation in the world; twelve years earlier, it had helped end World War II in dramatic fashion when it used the nuclear bomb it developed in strikes against Japan. It should have been the first to put a satellite into orbit. Instead, on the same night that Sputnik launched, CBS aired the debut episode of Leave It to Beaver, a sitcom about a squeaky-clean family living in picket-fenced suburbia with all the modern conveniences. To many, it seemed America had been caught fat and happy—becoming Cleavers—while the Soviets had leaped ahead.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The dangers of political charm are harder to handle: your conciliatory, shifting, flexible approach to politics will make enemies out of everyone who is a rigid believer in a cause. Social seducers such as Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger could often win over the most hardened opponent with their personal charm, but they could not be everywhere at once. Many members of the English Parliament thought Disraeli a shifty conniver; in person his engaging manner could dispel such feelings, but he could not address the entire Parliament one-on-one. In difficult times, when people yearn for something substantial and firm, the political charmer may be in danger. As Catherine the Great proved, timing is everything. Charmers must know when to hibernate and when the times are ripe for their persuasive powers. Known for their flexibility, they should sometimes be flexible enough to act inflexibly. Zhou Enlai, the consummate chameleon, could play the hard-core Communist when it suited him. Never become the slave to your own powers of charm; keep it under control, something you can turn off and on at will. Charisma is a presence that excites us. It comes from an inner quality—s elf-confi- dence, sexual energy, sense of purpose, content- ment—t hat most people lack and want. This quality radiates outward, permeating the gestures of Charismatics, making them seem extraordinary and superior, and making us imagine there is more to them than meets the eye: they are gods, saints, stars. Charismatics can learn to heighten their charisma with a piercing gaze, fiery oratory, an air of mystery. They can seduce on a grand scale. Learn to create the charismatic illusion by radiating intensity while remain- ing detached. Charisma and Seduction Charisma is seduction on a mass level. Charismatics make crowds of people fall in love with them, then lead them along. The process of making them fall in love is simple and follows a path similar to that of a one-on-one seduction. Charismatics have certain qualities that are powerfully attractive and that make them stand out. This could be their self-belief, their boldness, their serenity. They keep the source of these qualities mysterious. They do not explain where their confidence or contentment "Charisma" shall be understood to refer to an comes from, but it can be felt by everyone; it radiates outward, without the extraordinary quality of a appearance of conscious effort. The face of the Charismatic is usually ani- person, regardless of mated, full of energy, desire, alertness—the look of a lover, one that is in- whether this quality is actual, alleged or stantly appealing, even vaguely sexual. We happily follow Charismatics presumed. "Charismatic because we like to be led, particularly by people who promise adventure or authority," hence, shall prosperity. We lose ourselves in their cause, become emotionally attached refer to a rule over men, to them, feel more alive by believing in them—we fall in love. Charisma whether predominately ex tern al or p redominately

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Miracles and saintliness aside, Joan of Arc had certain basic qualities that made her exceptional. Her visions were intense; she could describe them in such detail that they had to be real. Details have that effect: they lend a sense of reality to even the most preposterous statements. Furthermore, in a time of great disorder, she was supremely focused, as if her strength came from somewhere unworldly. She spoke with authority, and she predicted things people wanted: the English would be defeated, prosperity would return. She also had a peasant's earthy common sense. She had surely heard descriptions of Charles on the road to Chinon; once at court, she could 104 • The Art of Seduction "How peculiar have sensed the trick he was playing on her, and could have confidently [ Rasputin's] eyes are," picked out his pampered face in the crowd. The following year, her visions confesses a woman who abandoned her, and her confidence as well—she made many mistakes, had made efforts to resist his influence. She goes on leading to her capture by the English. She was indeed human. to say that every time she We may no longer believe in miracles, but anything that hints at met him she was always strange, unworldly, even supernatural powers will create charisma. The psy-amazed afresh at the power of his glance, which it was chology is the same: you have visions of the future, and of the wondrous impossible to withstand for things you can accomplish. Describe these things in great detail, with an air any considerable time. of authority, and suddenly you stand out. And if your prophecy—of pros-There was something oppressive in this kind and perity, say—is just what people want to hear, they are likely to fall under gentle, but at the same your spell and to see later events as a confirmation of your predictions. Ex-time sly and cunning, hibit remarkable confidence and people will think your confidence comes glance; people were helpless from real knowledge. You will create a self-fulfilling prophecy: people's be-under the spell of the powerful will which could lief in you will translate into actions that help realize your visions. Any hint be felt in his whole being. of success will make them see miracles, uncanny powers, the glow of However tired you might charisma. be of this charm, and however much you wanted to escape it, somehow or other you always found The authentic animal. One day in 1905, the St. Petersburg salon of yourself attracted back and Countess Ignatiev was unusually full. Politicians, society ladies, and courtiers held. • A young girl who had heard of the strange had all arrived early to await the remarkable guest of honor: Grigori Efi-new saint came from her movich Rasputin, a forty-year-old Siberian monk who had made a name province to the capital, and for himself throughout Russia as a healer, perhaps a saint. When Rasputin visited him in search of edification and spiritual

• From Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (2018)

  about one ten-thousandth of what it was during the late heavy bombardment period about four billion years ago, when the basins formed. Today, that equates to about a hundred impacts a year by objects weighing between a fraction of a pound and a ton. As a result of the constant bombardment of asteroids and comets, the vast majority of the lunar surface is coated in a mixture of powdery dust and pulverized rock fragments known as regolith. This top layer might be as shallow as six feet at the maria, or as deep as thirty feet in the highlands. For years, NASA planners worried about whether a spacecraft, or even an astronaut, might sink beneath the regolith and disappear. In the mid- to late 1960s, unmanned probes sent by NASA answered that question: The regolith was sturdy enough to support lunar landings, even if spacecraft would settle into it a bit and men might make footprints with their boots. The Moon’s crust—its rocky, rigid outer layer—is much thicker (35–60 miles) than Earth’s (3–20 miles), remarkable given the relative sizes of the two bodies. The opposite is true of the Moon’s core, which is much smaller and lighter (3 percent of total mass) than Earth’s (one-third of total mass). The Moon isn’t a perfect sphere. It’s difficult to see from Earth, but the Moon is a bit squashed at the poles, with a slight bulge at the equator, which points toward Earth. That bulge is evidence of Earth’s grip on the Moon. The Moon’s gravitational pull on Earth is equally important; without it, Earth would wobble on its axis and lose its moderate climate. Summer temperatures could exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Much of Earth could sink beneath water. Spinning faster without the Moon’s grip, Earth days might last just eight hours, winds would reach hurricane strengths, and life would be difficult, if not impossible. There is essentially no atmosphere on the Moon; its gravity isn’t strong enough to keep hold of an envelope of gases. Without an atmosphere, the Moon cannot trap or filter heat. On the side facing the Sun, temperatures can rise to 240 degrees Fahrenheit; on the other side, they can plummet to minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit. The lunar surface and surroundings are in a vacuum, which should make the Moon absolutely dry and devoid of water. Yet recent probes proved that there is water ice in the regolith of craters at the lunar south pole, which exists in

• From Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)

  during the day by dropping money into an “honesty box.” A list of suggested prices was posted. One day a banner poster was displayed just above the price list, with no warning or explanation. For a period of ten weeks a new image was presented each week, either flowers or eyes that appeared to be looking directly at the observer. No one commented on the new decorations, but the contributions to the honesty box changed significantly. The posters and the amounts that people put into the cash box (relative to the amount they consumed) are shown in figure 4. They deserve a close look. Figure 4 On the first week of the experiment (which you can see at the bottom of the figure), two wide-open eyes stare at the coffee or tea drinkers, whose average contribution was 70 pence per liter of milk. On week 2, the poster shows flowers and average contributions drop to about 15 pence. The trend continues. On average, the users of the kitchen contributed almost three times as much in “eye weeks” as they did in “flower weeks.” Evidently, a purely symbolic reminder of being watched prodded people into improved behavior. As we expect at this point, the effect occurs without any awareness. Do you now believe that you would also fall into the same pattern? Some years ago, the psychologist Timothy Wilson wrote a book with the evocative title Strangers to Ourselves. You have now been introduced to that stranger in you, which may be in control of much of what you do, although you rarely have a glimpse of it. System 1 provides the impressions that often turn into your beliefs, and is the source of the impulses that often become your choices and your actions. It offers a tacit interpretation of what happens to you and around you, linking the present with the recent past and with expectations about the near future. It contains the model of the world that instantly evaluates events as normal or surprising. It is the source of your rapid and often precise intuitive judgments. And it does most of this without your conscious awareness of its activities. System 1 is also, as we will see in the following chapters, the origin of many of the systematic errors in your intuitions. Speaking of Priming “The sight of all these people in uniforms does not prime creativity.” “The world makes much less sense than you think. The coherence comes mostly from the way your mind works.” “They were primed to find flaws, and this is exactly what they found.” “His System 1 constructed a story, and his System 2 believed it. It happens to all of us.” “I made myself smile and I’m actually feeling better!”

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

  157 force that gave renewal. People of the 21st century believe that nature should be controlled. Contemporary Americans isolate nature in national parks. Thoreau wanted to subordinate himself to nature so that he could understand it; the routine of life on Walden Pond, where he stayed for two years, held profound meaning for him. Thoreau was a self-trained natural philosopher who immersed himself in nature out of a belief that nature is sacred and that humanity is a part of it. Thoreau developed reservations about eating meat and fi sh. He found that he could obtain everything he needed to eat from his garden. Thoreau’s friends were concerned that he was not getting on with the work of his life, but he believed that learning to know himself was indeed the work of his life. When spring came to Walden Pond, Thoreau saw it as he had never seen it before. He saw the world coming alive. He found in the renewal of spring the same mystic sense of redemption of the great epic poets. In The Divine Comedy, Dante begins his journey to save his soul at Easter. Faust was rescued from suicide by spring and Easter. Spring was also the time of year when Athenians put on tragedies, which were focused on redeeming oneself through understanding suffering, and gaining wisdom from the lives of others. Thoreau believed that spring was a mystical time and that God, inside him, was renewing the world. Thoreau believed that God was more present in trees coming back to life than in cathedrals built by man. Thoreau announced that he forgave everyone. He believed that brooding over wrongs done to him allowed others to control him. He believed that in spring, the time of renewal, all debts should be forgiven. Thoreau asked dif fi cult questions that reveal his eccentricity. He asked, for example, how many letters are truly worth the postage. He wondered how many letters transform a person’s life and are good for the soul. His solution was to stop reading mail. Thoreau did not read newspapers. His friends were concerned that he was not being a responsible citizen and was not staying informed. Thoreau believed that newspapers contain a rehash of past events, with names and locations changed. By reading newspapers, people destroy their ability to commune with themselves. So many impurities enter the self from the outside world that the individual can never break free and loses forever the chance to save his soul.

• From Story of the Eye (1928)

  As a literary form, pornography works with two patterns—one equivalent to tragedy (as in Story of O ) in which the erotic subject-victim heads inexorably toward death, and the other equivalent to comedy (as in The Image ) in which the obsessional pursuit of sexual exercise is rewarded by a terminal gratification, union with the uniquely desired sexual partner. 4 The writer who renders a darker sense of the erotic, its perils of fascination and humiliation, than anyone else is Bataille. His Histoire de l’Oeil (first published in 1928) and Madame Edwarda * qualify as pornographic texts insofar as their theme is an all-engrossing sexual quest that annihilates every consideration of persons extraneous to their roles in the sexual dramaturgy, and the fulfillment of this quest is depicted graphically. But this description conveys nothing of the extraordinary quality of these books. For sheer explicitness about sexual organs and acts is not necessarily obscene; it only becomes so when delivered in a particular tone, when it has acquired a certain moral resonance. As it happens, the sparse number of sexual acts and quasi-sexual defilements related in Bataille’s novellas can hardly compete with the interminable mechanistic inventiveness of the 120 Days of Sodom . Yet because Bataille possessed a finer and more profound sense of transgression, what he described seems somehow more potent and outrageous than the most lurid orgies staged by Sade. One reason that Histoire de l’Oeil and Madame Edwarda make such a stong and upsetting impression is that Bataille understood more clearly than any other writer I know of that what pornography is really about, ultimately, isn’t sex but death. I am not suggesting that every pornographic work speaks, either overtly or covertly, of death. Only works dealing with that specific and sharpest inflection of the themes of lust, “the obscene,” do. It’s toward the gratifications of death, succeeding and surpassing those of eros, that every truly obscene quest tends. (An example of a pornographic work whose subject is not the “obscene” is Louys’ jolly saga of sexual insatiability, Trois Filles de leur Mère.

• From Looking for Alaska (2005)

  Hyde hobbled in, leaning heavily on a black cane. As he made his way toward his chair, he drily noted, “My trick knee is warning me that we might have some rain. So prepare yourselves.” He stood in front of his chair, leaned back cautiously, grabbed it with both hands, and collapsed into the chair with a series of quick, shallow breaths—like a woman in labor. “Although it isn’t due for more than two months, you’ll be receiving your paper topic for this semester today. Now, I’m quite sure that you’ve all read the syllabus for this class with such frequency and seriousness that by now you’ve committed it to memory.” He smirked. “But a reminder: This paper is fifty percent of your grade. I encourage you to take it seriously. Now, about this Jesus fellow.” Hyde talked about the Gospel of Mark, which I hadn’t read until the day before, although I was a Christian. I guess. I’d been to church, uh, like four times. Which is more frequently than I’d been to a mosque or a synagogue. He told us that in the first century, around the time of Jesus, some of the Roman coins had a picture of the Emperor Augustus on them, and that beneath his picture were inscribed the words Filius Dei. The Son of God. “We are speaking,” he said, “of a time in which gods had sons. It was not so unusual to be a son of God. The miracle, at least in that time and in that place, was that Jesus—a peasant, a Jew, a nobody in an empire ruled exclusively by somebodies—was the son of that God, the all-powerful God of Abraham and Moses. That God’s son was not an emperor. Not even a trained rabbi. A peasant and a Jew. A nobody like you. While the Buddha was special because he abandoned his wealth and noble birth to seek enlightenment, Jesus was special because he lacked wealth and noble birth, but inherited the ultimate nobility: King of Kings. Class over. You can pick up a copy of your final exam on the way out. Stay dry.” It wasn’t until I stood up to leave that I noticed Alaska had skipped class—how could she skip the only class worth attending? I grabbed a copy of the final for her. The final exam: What is the most important question human beings must answer? Choose your question wisely, and then examine how Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity attempt to answer it. “I hope that poor bastard lives the rest of the school year,” the Colonel said as we jogged home through the rain, “because I’m sure starting to enjoy that class. What’s your most important question?” After thirty seconds of running, I was already winded. “What happens...to us...when we die?” “Christ, Pudge, if you don’t stop running, you’re going to find out.” He slowed to a walk. “My question is: Why do good people get rotten lots in life? Holy shit, is that Alaska?”

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The character was most likely inspired by the real-life seducer Fujiwara no to the maid, saying, "Well Korechika. then, tell her that I sent In his seduction of Tamakazura, Genji's strategy was simple: he would you with these," • "What a strange present to send" make her realize indirectly how charming and irresistible he was by sur-the maid smiled. "What rounding her with unspoken details. He also brought her in contact with does she want two old his brother; comparison with this drab, stiff figure would make Genji's su- handkerchiefs for? She will periority clear. The night Hotaru first visited her, Genji set everything up, be angry again and say that you are trying to make as if to support Hotaru's seducing—the mysterious scent, then the flash of fun of her." • "Don't light by the screen. (The light came from a novel effect: earlier in the eve- worry" Pao-yu assured her. ning, Genji had collected hundreds of fireflies in a cloth bag. At the proper "She will understand." • Black Jade had already moment he let them all go at once.) But when Tamakazura saw Genji en-retired when Bright Design couraging Hotaru's pursuit of her, her defenses against her protector re- arrived at the Bamboo laxed, allowing her senses to be filled by this master of seductive effects. Retreat. "What brought you at this hour?" Black Genji orchestrated every possible detail—the scented paper, the colored Jade asked. • " [ Pao-yu] robes, the lights in the garden, the wild carnations, the apt poetry, the koto asked me to bring these lessons which induced an irresistible feeling of harmony. Tamakazura found handkerchiefs for [ Black Jade] ." • For a moment herself dragged into a sensual whirlpool. Bypassing the shyness and mistrust Black Jade was at a loss to that words or actions would only have worsened, Genji surrounded his see why Pao-yu should ward with objects, sights, sounds, and scents that symbolized the pleasure of send her such a present at his company far more than his actual physical presence would have—in fact that particular moment. She said, "I suppose they his presence could only have been threatening. He knew that a young girl's must be something unusual senses are her most vulnerable point. that somebody gave him. The key to Genji's masterful orchestration of detail was his attention to Tell him to keep them himself or give them to the target of his seduction. Like Genji, you must attune your own senses to someone who will your targets, watching them carefully, adapting to their moods. You sense appreciate them. I have no when they are defensive and retreat. You also sense when they are giving in, need of them." • "They are nothing unusual," and move forward. In between, the details you set up—gifts, entertain-Bright Design said. "Just ments, the clothes you wear, the flowers you choose—are aimed precisely two ordinary handkerchiefs

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  — I H A R A SAIKAKU, THE LIFE OF emperor was fine, and the empress could be trusted. AN AMOROUS WOMAN, AND OTHER WRITINGS, TRANSLATED BY IVAN M O R R I S Interpretation. The foreign contingent in China had no idea what was really happening in the Forbidden City. In truth, the emperor had conFor such men as have spired to arrest and possibly murder his aunt. Discovering the plot, a terri-practised love, have ever ble crime in Confucian terms, she forced him to sign his own abdication, held this a sound maxim had him confined, and told the outside world that he was ill. As part of his that there is naught to be punishment, he was to appear at state functions and act as if nothing had compared with a woman in her clothes. Again when happened. you reflect how a man doth The empress dowager loathed Westerners, whom she considered bar-brave, rumple, squeeze and barians. She disliked the ambassadors' wives, with their ugly fashions and make light of his lady's finery, and how he doth simpering ways. The banquet was a show, a seduction, to appease the West- Pay Attention to Detail • 269 ern powers, which had been threatening invasion if the emperor had been work ruin and loss to the killed. The goal of the seduction was simple: dazzle the wives with color, grand cloth of gold and web of silver, to tinsel spectacle, theater. The empress applied all her expertise to the task, and she and silken stuffs, pearls and was a genius for detail. She had designed the spectacles in a rising order— precious stones, 'tis plain the uniformed eunuchs first, then the Manchu ladies in their headdresses, how his ardour and and finally the empress herself. It was pure theater, and it was overwhelm- satisfaction be increased manifold— far more than ing. Then the empress brought the spectacle down a notch, humanizing it with some simple with gifts, warm greetings, the reassuring presence of the emperor, teas, shepherdess or other woman and entertainments, which were in no way inferior to anything in the West. of like quality, be she as fair as she may. • And why She ended the banquet on another high note—the little drama with the of yore was Venus found so sharing of the teacups, followed by even more magnificent gifts. The fair and so desirable, if not women's heads were spinning when they left. In truth they had never seen that with all her beauty she was always gracefully such exotic splendor—and they never understood how carefully its details attired likewise, and had been orchestrated by the empress. Charmed by the spectacle, they trans- generally scented, that she ferred their happy feelings to the empress and gave her their approval—all did ever smell sweet an hundred paces away? For it that she required. hath ever been held of all

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  chards with rare fruits from the Orient, silkworm farms, new towns with Apollo Belvedere. This bustling marketplaces. On a visit to the empress in 1785, Potemkin talked much is certain: as a of these things as if they already existed, so vivid were his descriptions. The performance it's like empress was delighted, but her ministers were skeptical—Potemkin loved nothing you ever saw before in your life. We have to talk. Ignoring their warnings, in 1787 Catherine arranged for a tour already enjoyed it on two of the area. She asked Joseph II to join her—he would be so impressed evenings." with the modernization of the Crimea that he would immediately sign on —FLORA FRASER, for the war against Turkey. Potemkin, naturally, was to organize the whole EMMA, LADY HAMILTON affair. And so, in May of that year, after the Dnieper had thawed, Catherine prepared for a journey from Kiev, in the Ukraine, to Sebastopol, in the For this uncanny is in Crimea. Potemkin arranged for seven floating palaces to carry Catherine reality nothing new or and her retinue down the river. The journey began, and as Catherine, alien, but something which is familiar and old-Joseph, and the courtiers looked at the shores to either side, they saw tri- established in the mind umphal arches in front of clean-looking towns, their walls freshly painted; and which has become healthy-looking cattle grazing in the pastures; streams of marching troops alienated from it only through the process of on the roads; buildings going up everywhere. At dusk they were enter- repression. This reference to tained by bright-costumed peasants, and smiling girls with flowers in their the factor of repression hair, dancing on the shore. Catherine had traveled through this area many enables us, furthermore, to understand Schelling's years before, and the poverty of the peasantry there had saddened her—she definition of the uncanny had determined then that she would somehow change their lot. To see be- as something which ought fore her eyes the signs of such a transformation overwhelmed her, and she to have remained hidden berated Potemkin's critics: Look at what my favorite has accomplished, but has come to light. . . . • . . . There is one more look at these miracles! point of general application They anchored at three towns along the way, staying in each place in a which I should like to add. magnificent, newly built palace with artificial waterfalls in the English-style . . . This is that an uncanny efect is often and gardens. On land they moved through villages with vibrant marketplaces; easily produced when the the peasants were happily at work, building and repairing. Everywhere they distinction between spent the night, some spectacle filled their eyes—dances, parades, mytho- imagination and reality is effaced, as when something logical tableaux vivants, artificial volcanoes illuminating Moorish gardens. that we have hitherto Finally, at the end of the trip, in the palace at Sebastopol, Catherine and regarded as imaginary 302 • The Art of Seduction

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  who had died forty years earlier as if he had known him personally; had having reached the end of this been so, the count would have had to be in his eighties, although he her speech, the lady bowed looked to be in his forties. He mentioned the elixir of life. . . . he seems so her head as though she young. . . . were going to burst into tears. • The reverend friar The key to the count's words was vagueness. He always dropped his realized immediately who hints into a lively conversation, grace notes in an ongoing melody. Only it was to whom she was later would people reflect on what he had said. After a while, people started referring, and having warmly commended her to come to him, inquiring about the philosopher's stone and the elixir of purity of mind . . . he life, not realizing that it was he who had planted these ideas in their minds. promised to take all Remember: to sow a seductive idea you must engage people's imaginations, necessary steps to ensure that the fellow ceased to their fantasies, their deepest yearnings. What sets the wheels spinning is annoy her. . . . • Shortly suggesting things that people already want to hear—the possibility of plea-afterward, the gentleman in sure, wealth, health, adventure. In the end, these good things turn out to be question paid one of his regular visits to the precisely what you seem to offer them. They will come to you as if on reverend friar, and after their own, unaware that you insinuated the idea in their heads. they had conversed together In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte decided it was critical for him to win for a while on general the Russian Czar Alexander I to his side. He wanted two things out of the Master the Art of Insinuation • 217 czar: a peace treaty in which they agreed to carve up Europe and the Mid- topics, the friar drew him to dle East; and a marriage alliance, in which he would divorce his wife one side and reproached him in a very kindly sort of Josephine and marry into the czar's family. Instead of proposing these way for the amorous things directly, Napoleon decided to seduce the czar. Using polite social glances which, as the lady encounters and friendly conversations as his battlefields, he went to work. had given him to An apparent slip of the tongue revealed that Josephine could not bear chil- understand, he believed him to be casting in her dren; Napoleon quickly changed the subject. A comment here and there direction. • Not seemed to suggest a linking of the destinies of France and Russia. Just be- unnaturally, the gentleman fore they were to part one evening, he talked of his desire for children, was amazed, for he had never so much as looked at

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  A witness of one of these speeches, the American writer Walter Starkie, was initially disappointed at the appearance of the famous D'Annunzio on a balcony in Venice; he was short, and looked grotesque. "Little by little, however, I began to sink under the fascination of the voice, which penetrated into my consciousness. . . . His very successes in love, even more than the marvellous voice of this little, bald seducer with a nose like Punch, swept along in his train a whole procession of enamoured women, both opulent and tormented. D'Annunzio had successfully revived the Byronic legend: as he passed by full-breasted women, standing in his way as Boldoni would paint them, strings of pearls anchoring them to life—princesses and actresses, great Russian ladies and even middle- class Bordeaux housewives—they would offer themselves up to him. —PHILIPPE JULLIAN, PRINCE OF AESTHETES: COUNT ROBERT DE MONTESQUIEOU, TRANSLATED BY JOHN HAYLOCK AND FRANCIS KING In short, nothing is so sweet as to triumph over the Resistance of a beautiful Person; and in that I have the Ambition of Conquerors, who fly perpetually from Victory to Victory and can never prevail with themselves to put a bound to their Wishes. Nothing can restrain the Impetuosity of my Desires; I have an Heart for the whole Earth; and like Alexander, I could wish for New Worlds wherein to extend my Amorous Conquests. —MOLIÈRE, DON JOHN OR THE LIBERTINE, TRANSLATED BY JOHN OZELL The Rake • 23 Never a hurried, jerky gesture. . . . He played upon the emotions of the crowd as a supreme violinist does upon a Stradivarius. The eyes of the thousands were fixed upon him as though hypnotized by his power." Once again, it was the sound of the voice and the poetic connotations of the words that seduced the masses. Arguing that modern Italy should reclaim the greatness of the Roman Empire, D'Annunzio would craft slogans for the audience to repeat, or would ask emotionally loaded questions for them to answer. He flattered the crowd, made them feel they were part of some drama. Everything was vague and suggestive. The issue of the day was the ownership of the city of Fiume, just across the border in neighboring Yugoslavia. Many Italians believed that Italy's re- ward for siding with the Allies in the recent war should be the annexation of Fiume. D'Annunzio championed this cause, and because of his status as a war hero the army was ready to side with him, although the government opposed any action. In September of 1919, with soldiers rallying around him, D'Annunzio led his infamous march on Fiume. When an Italian gen- eral stopped him along the way, and threatened to shoot him, D'Annunzio opened his coat to show his medals, and said in his magnetic voice, "If you must kill me, fire first on this!"

• From Story of the Eye (1928)

  10. Granero’s Eye On May 7, 1922, the toreadors La Rosa, Lalanda, and Granero were to fight in the arena of Madrid; the last two were renowned as the best matadors in Spain, and Granero was generally considered superior to Lalanda. He had only just turned twenty, yet he was already extremely popular, being handsome, tall and of a still childlike simplicity. Simone had been deeply interested in his story, and, exceptionally, had shown genuine pleasure when Sir Edmund announced that the celebrated bull-killer had agreed to dine with us the evening of the fight. Granero stood out from the rest of the matadors because there was nothing of the butcher about him; he looked more like a very manly Prince Charming with a perfectly elegant figure. In this respect, the matador’s costume is quite expressive, for it safeguards the straight line shooting up so rigid and erect every time the lunging bull grazes the body and because the pants so tightly sheathe the behind. A bright red cloth and a brilliant sword (before the dying bull whose hide steams with sweat and blood) complete the metamorphosis, bringing out the most captivating feature of the game. One must also bear in mind the typically torrid Spanish sky, which never has the colour or harshness one imagines: it is just perfectly sunny with a dazzling but mellow sheen, hot, turbid, at times even unreal when the combined intensities of light and heat suggest the freedom of the senses. Now this extreme unreality of the solar blaze was so closely attached to everything happening around me during the bullfight on May 7, that the only objects I have ever carefully preserved are a round paper fan, half yellow, half blue, that Simone had that day, and a small illustrated brochure with a description of all the circumstances and a few photographs. Later on, during an embarkment, the small valise containing those two souvenirs tumbled into the sea, and was fished out by an Arab with a long pole, which is why the objects are in such a bad state. But I need them to fix that event to the earthly soil, to a geographic point and a precise date, an event that my imagination compulsively pictures as a simple vision of solar deliquescence. The first bull, the one whose balls Simone looked forward to having served raw on a plate, was a kind of black monster, who shot out of the pen so quickly that despite all efforts and all shouts, he disembowelled three horses in a row before an orderly fight could take place; one horse and rider were hurled aloft together, loudly crashing down behind the horns.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Perhaps that power is regressive, recalling the ability of the mother's voice Falling in love with statues and paintings, even making love to them is an ancient fantasy, one of which the Renaissance was keenly aware. Giorgio Vasari, writing in the introductory section of the Lives about art in antiquity, tells how men violated the laws, going into the temples at night and making love with statues of Venus. In the morning, priests would enter the sanctuaries to find stains on the marble figures. —LYNNE LAWNER, LIVES OF THE COURTESANS 14 • The Art of Seduction to calm or excite her child even before the child understood what she was saying. The Siren must have an insinuating voice that hints at the erotic, more often subliminally than overtly. Almost everyone who met Cleopatra commented on her delightful, sweet-sounding voice, which had a mesmer- izing quality. The Empress Josephine, one of the great seductresses of the late eighteenth century, had a languorous voice that men found exotic, and suggestive of her Creole origins. Marilyn Monroe was born with her breathy, childlike voice, but she learned to lower to make it truly seductive. Lauren Bacall's voice is naturally low; its seductive power comes from its slow, suggestive delivery. The Siren never speaks quickly, aggressively, or at a high pitch. Her voice is calm and unhurried, as if she had never quite woken up—or left her bed. Body and adornment. If the voice must lull, the body and its adornment must dazzle. It is with her clothes that the Siren aims to create the god- dess effect that Baudelaire described in his essay "In Praise of Makeup": "Woman is well within her rights, and indeed she is accomplishing a kind of duty in striving to appear magical and supernatural. She must astonish and bewitch; an idol, she must adorn herself with gold in order to be adored. She must borrow from all of the arts in order to raise herself above nature, the better to subjugate hearts and stir souls." A Siren who was a genius of clothes and adornment was Pauline Bona- parte, sister of Napoleon. Pauline consciously strove for a goddess effect, fashioning hair, makeup, and clothes to evoke the look and air of Venus, the goddess of love. No one in history could boast a more extensive and elaborate wardrobe. Pauline's entrance at a ball in 1798 created an astound- ing effect. She asked the hostess, Madame Permon, if she could dress at her house, so no one would see her clothes as she came in. When she came down the stairs, everyone stopped dead in stunned silence. She wore the headdress of a bacchante—clusters of gold grapes interlaced in her hair, which was done up in the Greek style. Her Greek tunic, with its gold- embroidered hem, showed off her goddesslike figure. Below her breasts was a girdle of burnished gold, held by a magnificent jewel.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  And even as certain major gods of the ancient pantheons meta- morphose themselves into hero -gods of salvation, th e star-goddesses humanize themselves and become new mediators between the fantastic world of dreams and man's daily life on earth. ...• The heroes of the movies . . . are, in an obviously attenuated way, mythological heroes in this sense of becoming divine. The star is the actor or actress who absorbs some of the heroic—i.e., divinized and mythic—substance of the hero or heroine of the movies, and who in turn enriches this substance by The Star • 125 Kennedy's father, Joseph, had once been a movie producer, and Kennedy himself had spent time in Hollywood, hobnobbing with actors and trying to figure out what made them stars. He was particularly fascinated with Gary Cooper, Montgomery Clift, and Cary Grant; he often called Grant for advice. Hollywood had found ways to unite the entire country around cer- tain themes, or myths—often the great American myth of the West. The great stars embodied mythic types: John Wayne the patriarch, Clift the Promethean rebel, Jimmy Stewart the noble hero, Marilyn Monroe the siren. These were not mere mortals but gods and goddesses to be dreamed and fantasized about. All of Kennedy's actions were framed in the conven- tions of Hollywood. He did not argue with his opponents, he confronted them dramatically. He posed, and in visually fascinating ways—whether with his wife, with his children, or alone onstage. He copied the facial expressions, the presence, of a Dean or a Cooper. He did not discuss policy details but waxed eloquent about grand mythic themes, the kind that could unite a divided nation. And all this was calculated for television, for Kennedy mostly existed as a televised image. That image haunted our dreams. Well before his assassination, Kennedy attracted fantasies of America's lost innocence with his call for a renaissance of the pioneer spirit, a New Frontier. Of all the character types, the Mythic Star is perhaps the most powerful of all. People are divided by all kinds of consciously recognized categories— race, gender, class, religion, politics. It is impossible, then, to gain power on a grand scale, or to win an election, by drawing on conscious awareness; an appeal to any one group will only alienate another. Unconsciously, how- ever, there is much we share. All of us are mortal, all of us know fear, all of us have been stamped with the imprint of parent figures; and nothing con- jures up this shared experience more than myth. The patterns of myth, born out of warring feelings of helplessness on the one hand and thirst for immortality on the other, are deeply engraved in us all.

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

  65 citizens. Citizens of Athens had the freedom to live as they chose. They enjoyed a tolerant lifestyle, and individual rights were protected by law. Athenian drama, the tragedy, was the cultural statement of the Athenian democracy. It was the public forum that every Athenian citizen attended and in which questions with profound moral consequences were debated. Athenians believed that all political decisions had a moral dimension. Citizenship in Athens depended on being able to serve in the Athenian army. Because only males could serve in the army, only males could be citizens. Each spring, the Athenians held a dramatic festival in honor of the god Dionysos. This festival was held in a magni fi cent theater. A typical play included three actors and a chorus. The chorus represented traditional, conventional wisdom. The usual theme of these plays was moderation. Athenian democracy unleashed a cultural creativity that has been unparalleled until our own day. The freedom of the Athenians sparked a questioning of all values. The fi rst history was written in 5 th-century Athens, and scienti fi c medicine began there. Sophists educated young Athenians. They taught their pupils the arts of oratory and persuasion and to think critically, that is, to question values. These sophists believed that circumstances determine our perceptions of events and our perceptions of the divine world. In his plays, Euripides questioned traditional perceptions of right and wrong, normal and abnormal, excess and moderation. In the Bacchae, his last play, he also asked what makes a god and how we know what a god is. Euripides wrote the Bacchae in 406 B.C. in Pella, in Macedonia. The play was produced in Athens by his son. The play was the last of the great Athenian tragedies, the last product of the golden age of Athenian tragedy, which lasted from the time of the Battle of Marathon to the defeat of Athens by Sparta, the same period as the golden age of Greek democracy. The Bacchae takes place in the city of Thebes. Dionysos, who appears in the form of a handsome stranger, a mortal man, addresses the audience Each spring, the Athenians held a dramatic festival in honor of the god Dionysos.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The general stood there stunned, then broke into tears. He joined up with D'Annunzio. When D'Annunzio entered Fiume, he was greeted as a liberator. The next day he was declared leader of the Free State of Fiume. Soon he was giving daily speeches from a balcony overlooking the town's main square, holding tens of thousands of people spellbound without benefit of loud- speakers. He initiated all kinds of celebrations and rituals harking back to the Roman Empire. The citizens of Fiume began to imitate him, particu- larly his sexual exploits; the city became like a giant bordello. His popu- larity was so high that the Italian government feared a march on Rome, which at that point, had D'Annunzio decided to do it—and he had the support of a large part of the military—might actually have succeeded; D'Annunzio could have beaten Mussolini to the punch and changed the course of history. (He was not a Fascist, but a kind of aesthetic socialist.) He decided to stay in Fiume, however, and ruled there for sixteen months before the Italian government finally bombed him out of the city. Seduction is a psychological process that transcends gender, except in a few key areas where each gender has its own weakness. The male is traditionally vulnerable to the visual. The Siren who can concoct the right physical ap- pearance will seduce in large numbers. For women the weakness is lan- guage and words: as was written by one of D'Annunzio's victims, the French actress Simone, "How can one explain his conquests except by his extraordinary verbal power, and the musical timbre of his voice, put to the service of exceptional eloquence? For my sex is susceptible to words, be- witched by them, longing to be dominated by them." The Rake is as promiscuous with words as he is with women. He chooses words for their ability to suggest, insinuate, hypnotize, elevate, in- Among the many modes of handling Don Juan's effect on women, the motif of the irresistible hero is worth singling out, for it illustrates a curious change in our sensibility. Don Juan did not become irresistible to women until the Romantic age, and I am disposed to think that it is a trait of the female imagination to make him so. When the female voice began to assert itself and even, perhaps, to dominate in literature, Don Juan evolved to become the women's rather than the man's ideal. . . . Don Juan is now the woman's dream of the perfect lover, fugitive, passionate, daring. He gives her the one unforgettable moment, the magnificent exaltation of the flesh which is too often denied her by the real husband, who thinks that men are gross and women spiritual.