Desire

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.

Page 147 of 344 · 20 per page

• From Best Erotic Romance

  “I need things from you.” She wrapped her hands around his wrists, anchoring herself as the pleasure threatened to sweep her away. “I know.” His hips rocked in a slow and easy tempo. “I need things from you, too.” That caught her. She wanted him to need her. She wanted to be valuable to him, to serve a purpose in his life. To share his life. “Such as?” “I need your travel schedule.” His lips kicked into a smile when she scowled. “So I can plan my trips to match up with yours. And I need you to move in with me. Your jewelry business is you, right? You can design your pieces anywhere?” Robin nodded, unable to speak while he was saying everything she’d longed to hear and fucking her so perfectly. The fluid, rhythmic plunges of his cock were driving her half out of her mind. Her entire body was straining with the need to come, her hips lifting to meet his downstrokes. He was so hard and it felt so good to be with him again. To smell the scent of his skin and feel his flesh beneath her hands. “I’m stuck for now with the brewery in Portland.” His words slurred slightly as the pleasure built for him, too. “But if you don’t like the city or the house or anything, I’ll go where you’re happy. I just need time, time I don’t want to spend without you.” “Harder,” she urged, grabbing his taut perfect ass in her hands. Her neck arched, her head pressing into the bedding as her climax hovered just out of reach. “Fuck me hard.” Gripping her waist, Paul gave her what she needed. His aggressive strokes set her off in a rush. “I’m right there with you,” he groaned, driving powerfully into her. He made that sexy little noise that made her hot, a cross between a grunt and a hum that said more than words how much pleasure she gave him. “Right there...Right. There.” His gaze locked with hers as he came, the heady rush of pleasure shared between them. “I love you,” he grated, shaking with the force of his climax. She couldn’t look away, daring to believe. Paul got her naked. Robin missed how he accomplished the feat while in her euphoric postclimax haze, but she was grateful for the result. She lay curled against his side, her legs tangled with his. Her head lay on his chest and her fingertips tracing her name imprinted in his skin. “I was going to fuck you and walk out,” she confessed. “I caught that.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I wouldn’t have let you leave. I would’ve followed you with my junk hanging out if I had to and hauled you back.” She lifted her head. “Like I’d ever let other women get an eyeful of you.” Paul smiled. “I’m all yours, honey. Flaws, baggage, and all.”

• From Best Erotic Romance

  Only his legs were too long and he lay at a diagonal, crowding my knees. I slid a thigh between his legs and climbed over his body. When I sat atop his hips, he smoothed his palms up my torso, rolling up the shirt. When that flew over the seats, he reached around me and expertly opened the clasp of my bra. Without the underwire, I worried that my heavy breasts would sag too much, but he hefted them in his palms and his breaths deepened. “I’ve wanted to suck on these forever.” I gave a short, strangled laugh. “I wouldn’t have said no.” “Then why’d you wait so long?” “Why didn’t you make the first move? Are you really that arrogant that you have to have a woman come to you?” “I didn’t think you’d say yes.” “Really?” He grunted, the sandpaper pads of his thumbs continuing to rasp over my nipples. “You’re pretty. Smart too. And you have every man drivin’ sniffin’ after you.” “But you’re handsome. I bet you don’t get many no’s from women.” He arched a brow. “Okay, so not handsome like a movie star. But you’re rugged and built like a god. I didn’t think you’d want me. I’m too old for you.” “There’s only eleven years between us.” I raised my brows. “How do you know that?” “I ate your birthday cake and counted the candles.” When he pinched my nipples, I tensed, my eyelids dipping. “I guess eleven years doesn’t really matter,” I gasped, “when all we’re doin’ is screwin’ around.” He pinched harder, then holding my gaze he came up on his elbows and rooted at one of my breasts, sucking the tip, and more, into his mouth. His moan was deep and gravelly. I felt it all the way to my toes. My other breast tingled, dimples popping up around the areola and the tip sprung. I cupped it with my palm to ease the ache, but he pulled away my hand and shook his head, wagging my breast right along. I gave a strangled laugh. “So not sexy.” He released my breast. “Got any complaints about my technique?” “Maybe about your pacing.” I ground against his erection. “You’re killin’ me here.” “Get your clothes off,” he growled. “You first.” “No way. I’m the guy. I get off on watchin’.” I swallowed hard, but I’d asked for this. Wanted for him to take charge, and he had with a vengeance if that hard-eyed look was any indication. I slid down beside him and rolled to my back, then awkwardly tugged off my shoes, tossing them between the seats in front of us, then shimmied out of my skirt, being careful not to lose the scrap of lace shielding my sex from his hungry gaze. Danny slid a finger under the lacy band at my hip, pulled it, and let it go to snap against my skin. “Not nice.” “I didn’t tell you to stop.”

• From Stone Butch Blues (1993)

  I smiled and shrugged. “What are butches for?” Contained in those four words were all my hurt and confusion over why, a month after we’d been reunited, Edna still wouldn’t let me make love to het. “Oh no,” Edna said, shaking her head slowly. “Butches are wonderful about lending a hand. But that’s not all yow’re good for. Butches have moved my world. They’ve made me feel beautiful when the world took that away from me. It’s butch love that’s sustained me.” My eyes filled with tears of gratitude and with the frustration of restraining myself from touching het. She stroked my face with fingertips that wanted me, and yet I couldn’t be sure that her whole body wanted the same. “You are so beautiful,” she whispered. “Handsome, I should have said you are so handsome.” I laughed. “Oh, I'll take either right about now.” All I saw was her mouth, so close to mine I felt the warmth of her breath. Still I didn’t move toward her. Edna hesitated. I held my breath as I waited for her to come to me—hoping she would, fearing she wouldn’t. She came into my atms afraid, but trusting me. I welcomed her with my embrace. Edna fumbled with the buttons on my paint- 234 = Leslie Feinberg splattered shirt. We left it on the living room floor. In her bedroom she unzipped my jeans. Only then did I allow my passion to meet hers. Once it began, all of our needs were unleashed. She knew exactly what she wanted and she took me there, demanding everything from me that I could give. And I gave gladly, without restraint. Even as I touched her body with my mouth, with my hands, with my thighs—I knew it was not only pleasure I was trying to give her, it was all my love. And as she alternately caressed me with her hands and dug her nails into my back, I could feel all of hers. I lay in her arms, dressed only in a T-shirt and briefs. Her fingernails drifted down my neck, across my shoulders. She smiled seductively. ’'d forgotten the sheer pleasure of a high femme tease. Edna moved against me, tormenting me with her nails and her lips until I felt crazy with wanting more. Fear gripped my throat. I couldn’t remember how to submit, but I wanted her to guide me there. Her nails trailed up the inside of one of my thighs. “Tm scated,”’ I admitted out loud. She stopped touching me and lay still in my arms. Even after she’d fallen asleep in my embrace I stared at the ceiling, longing for her to take me past my own fear and now knowing how to ask. Edna gasped with pleasure at the flowers I brought her. “Oh, irises. They’re so beautiful.” I kissed her on the cheek. “They remind me of you.” Edna found the card I’d tucked inside. “Wait,” I restrained her hand.

• From Best Erotic Romance

  The field was flat and open, the clover not even knee high. It wasn’t like the time she’d ducked him into the head-high corn, going down on her knees in the mud to suck him. Or the time they’d had sex in the apple orchard, the scent of blossoms and spring grass caught in their hair and skin. He meant to resist, but she had his shirt up and was running her cool hands along his belly, tucking them into his waistband. “Come down with me,” she said. She tugged him down as she went, both of them falling to the ground, the clover a cushion of sweet flower and the quiet buzzing of sun-warmed honeybees. He remembered his wire cutters at the last second, tossed them sideways out of the way. Maddy cupped the back of his head, brought him down for a giggled, honey-dipped kiss of lips and tongue. Laughing, they rolled, crushing the clover, bringing him again on top, part of her face covered with the sprigs of green and pink. Looking down at her was pleasure and a kind of pain that squeezed his chest and his cock at once. So beautiful and so his, but in that, the worry of losing her too. “Fuck me, Dustan.” Maddy’s eyes up to him, through him. “Please.” And then that thing that always happened, when the giggling stopped and their mouths opened and met, their bodies, still clothed, lined up against each other. As though a switch had been flipped, that electric heat that ran through them both, conducted by desire and pleasure. Dustan felt it everywhere—the tip of his cock, the edges of his lips as they touched hers, his fingertips. Sometimes he thought his very hair stood on end with the want. “Gladly,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about fucking you all morning.” And, here in that moment, he could talk, fully. He could say all the things in his head without tripping on his tongue, without the words halting him. His face burned when he said things like that, but it burned with a good thing, a safe and yet still dangerous thing. “But I think I’ll make you wait....” Her moan was everything to him, that small sound bitten back behind her lips. He pushed her dress up around her hips, watched the pale skin appear above the carpet of green. She had nothing on underneath, her golden-brown hair trimmed and curled. He dipped a finger, heard the soft groan as she arched her hips toward him, felt his cock harden fully at the feel of her, wet and wanting. He tucked another finger, marveled as always at the tight, warm pull of her around him. His thumb found the small peak of her clit, circled it lightly until she released another sigh.

• From Best Erotic Romance

  Aren’t you glad I finally said something?” He moved right back to my breasts, not waiting for my response. The heat of his mouth on my nipple made me turn to jelly inside, my body tensing with each sucking kiss. Before I knew it, he flipped me on my back, resuming his torture of my hard nipples with his hands and mouth. I lay on the bed, helpless, letting him slowly circle each nipple with his tongue, drawing me closer and closer to losing my mind. Then, he started sinking lower, his mouth teasing, tickling down my stomach until I was trembling under his lips. I felt his long fingers tracing over my pubic hair, running aimlessly about, avoiding what I really wanted him to do. The lightest pressure of his fingers made me heat up inside, liquefying under his touch. I moved my hips in circles, enjoying the barest of touches. But, I wanted more. I pulled him up so I could look at him, and he was smiling like a very happy boy. “Blakey, please stop teasing me. I need you.” “Sorry, but it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to do this. You’ll give me a little latitude, won’t you?” He was half on top of me, kissing me deep on the mouth. His fingers danced over my taut nipple, barely grazing over it. His hand seemed so big gripping my hip, pulling me close. My hands cradled his face as I tried to hold on to the moment for as long as I could. I ran my finger over his mouth, and he caught it between his lips, sucking it into his mouth. My stomach rolled over, and a new wash of heat ran through me. His face dropped from my hands, and he kissed down my neck. Every inch of my skin caught on fire, each little kiss, lick starting a new blaze. I clawed at his hair, urging him forward, pushing him further down my body. But, again, Blake would not be rushed. His mouth again latched on to my nipple, sucking it deep into his mouth, flicking it over and over with his tongue. Arching my back, I tried to get more. All I could think was that I needed more. More of anything that Blake wanted to give to me. The heat of his mouth was joined by his slow, tracing fingers moving up my thigh. I could feel the gentle tremble of my leg under his touch every time he got nearer to my pussy. He seemed to be purposefully avoiding my most sensitive skin, teasing me with little touches everywhere else. He pushed my legs apart, and I felt his fingers moving closer and closer to my cunt. Moans were escaping my throat, his mouth moving back and forth over my nipples, teasing one and then the other until I was ready to scream. “Blake, I can’t take much more of this.” “Just a little bit longer, I promise.”

• From Best Erotic Romance

  When she licked that finger, he had to lean back in his chair. His cock was solid beneath the zip of his jeans, and all he could think about was sex. “I’m enjoying your meal way too much to worry about my own.” She nodded, as if pleased. “I’m curious about how deeply it affects you,” he added. Was that pushing it too far? She didn’t seem fazed by the comment, in fact she smiled. “Are you asking in your capacity as a biology research student, or something more personal?” She paused to sip her wine, which only seemed to emphasize the significance of what she was saying. “Don’t be shy, Samuel. I’m a good nine or ten years older than you. We’re both adults and we’re attracted to each other. I was well aware that you didn’t invite me over here just to feed me.” He exhaled, shaking his head in disbelief. He wasn’t used to women being so generous and direct. He grinned. “Eight years, you’re eight years older than me.” “I won’t ask how you know that.” “I asked our landlady.” That amused her. “You have been doing your research.” He nodded. “Oh yes indeed. I only wish I was writing my doctoral thesis on you and your erogenous taste buds.” Her head dropped back as she chuckled. “Now that would be some fun research, wouldn’t it?” “I think so.” “What do you think it would entail, in your expert opinion as the biology grad student?” Her fingers trailed over the shoulder strap on her dress. “Evidence,” he stated. “Physical evidence.” “Well, in that case you better come over here and check me out for...evidence...don’t you think?” She pushed her plate aside as she spoke, and then she eased her chair back from the table, wedging it against the cooker behind her. Samuel couldn’t believe his luck. She was inviting him to touch her, right here, right now. Cassie watched Samuel as he stood, the pulse in her groin thudding wildly. He was an attractive young man, and he’d been keen from the outset. Caution had hampered this moment, but it had to happen. He’d won her over with his intense personality, green eyes, and rugged bone structure. Not to mention how fit he was—leanly muscled and tall, with the suggestion of vitality in his every move. “I am so glad I made Thai food,” he commented as he dropped to his knees before her, one hand resting on her knee. “This is like a dream come true.” “I think so too.” She covered his hand with her own then swung her legs apart. “I want you, Samuel. I’ve been thinking about this, a lot.” “Me too.” His gaze dropped.

• From Best Erotic Romance

  But, I miss being with you. Is it so crazy to want to feel you, be with you and watch you come? No bells, no whistles, no whips. Just you and me.” Secretly, they were the words I wanted to hear since our sexcapades began. I had been afraid to say it, but hearing Blake confess made my resolve melt away. “If that’s what you really want. Who am I to say no to an idea like that?” Blake stood up, pulling me to my feet with him. He reached behind me and started to unzip my outfit, peeling the black vinyl down my skin until my breasts popped out of the top. As he continued to undress me, he captured one of my nipples in his mouth, swirling his tongue and sucking in a wonderfully familiar way. He released me all too soon, and I helped Blake with the rest of my outfit, stretching it over my shiny boots and tossing it aside. He dropped to his knees and started untying my boots, taking his sweet time, kissing my legs as he went. When he was finished, he sat on the bed, sliding back toward the headboard, the same place he was before I let him loose. He was waiting for me to do something, and I didn’t hesitate to oblige him. I didn’t try and come up with something interesting; I just straddled him. My legs wrapping around his waist, I kissed him deeply, rocking slightly on his lap. I felt his bare chest with my hands, the heat coming off his skin in waves. He leaned forward, his tongue flicked over my collarbone, dropping kisses down to my breasts. His fingers teased me, pulling my nipples into tight peaks, while his mouth stayed away, only making me want it more. I arched my back, but he went on with his game. Until I started grinding myself against his growing cock. He then became much more generous with his affection. He mumbled against my skin, the vibration tickling me. “This is more like it, Daisy. Aren’t you glad I finally said something?” He moved right back to my breasts, not waiting for my response. The heat of his mouth on my nipple made me turn to jelly inside, my body tensing with each sucking kiss. Before I knew it, he flipped me on my back, resuming his torture of my hard nipples with his hands and mouth. I lay on the bed, helpless, letting him slowly circle each nipple with his tongue, drawing me closer and closer to losing my mind. Then, he started sinking lower, his mouth teasing, tickling down my stomach until I was trembling under his lips. I felt his long fingers tracing over my pubic hair, running aimlessly about, avoiding what I really wanted him to do. The lightest pressure of his fingers made me heat up inside, liquefying under his touch. I moved my hips in circles, enjoying the barest of touches.

• From Best Erotic Romance

  I ran my thumbs over his tight little nipples, smirking at the hitch it caused in his breath. I leaned down and kissed his chest, smelling him, tasting him with my tongue. Licking tiny flicks over his nipple, I grabbed it lightly with my teeth, and he put a hand to my head. I went about torturing his nipples a little longer, letting his moans make me even hotter. His flat stomach beckoned me, and I let myself slide down his body. Kissing his navel, I felt his hard cock resting right between my tits. I let it drag over my soft skin, feeling it pulse and shake at the contact. It jerked forward, trying to get my attention. I smiled up at him, his eyes glassy and fuzzy with need. Keeping his gaze on me, I let my tongue fall gently out of my mouth and let the smallest lick move across the head. I wrapped my lips around him, taking the soft, velvety head between my wet lips. His gasp shot straight to my pussy, sending heat through me. I sucked him gently, until his eyes finally closed, his head digging back into the pillow. Slowly I licked my way down the under side of his cock, flicking and gently sucking the tender sensitive ridge. Licking my way back up, I wrapped my mouth around him again and let his cock sink deep, deeper into my throat. “Oh God, Daisy. Please, let me fuck you.” I let the vibration of my stifled giggle buzz against him, and he let out a sharp moan. I took him deeper still into my throat, and his fingers stroked my neck, wrapped through my hair. My insistent, persistent sucking was driving him mad. The beautiful cut of his hips rested beneath my hands, the trembling I felt now passed on to him. He didn’t let me go on much longer. Moving me gently up, he kissed me so hard, I thought I would never catch my breath. Every time I thought he was finished with my mouth, he kissed me again. Tongues plunging, tracing, finding new places to go. I was above him, his cock resting mere inches from my dripping wet pussy. “I love you, Daisy.” “I love you too, Blake.” His name was barely out of my mouth when I felt the thick tip of his cock settle between my waiting cunt lips. He eased me down onto him, slowly inching me closer and closer to his body. When he slipped to the hilt, I rested on his lap, unable to move. I thought my body was going to come apart. His hands wrapped around my hips, gently rocking me front and back. Finally, my mind returned and I slid up and down his cock, feeling the sweet, deep pull of him with every stroke. I couldn’t look away from his eyes.

• From Best Erotic Romance

  When he drew away, she whimpered at the sudden loss of his heat. He kissed her nose and rearranged her legs on the seat until she faced forward. He even put her seatbelt on, his mouth lingering over the swell of her breast. The roar of the truck engine startled her and she stared out into the darkness, a lump forming in her throat. “Are we done?” She didn’t want to go home to domesticity. She wanted this to last forever. “Hell, no, we’re not done.” He glanced at her as he backed out of the parking space. God knows how he’d managed not to lose his cowboy hat, but it was now planted firmly on his head. “Just do something for me before I start driving. Spread your legs wide and rub your clit. I want to make you come straight away when I next get inside you.” She slowly opened her legs, aware that he was watching her, his narrowed gaze fixed on her wet sex. She touched her clit and gently circled it with the tip of her finger. “Yeah, that’s good.” His voice was rougher now. “Now slide your little finger in your ass because you know I’m going to fuck you there before we’ve finished tonight.” Jodi swirled her smallest finger in the wetness they’d created and tilted her hips forward so that she could ease the tip of her finger inward through the tight pucker of her ass. She imagined his cock there too, much bigger and more demanding, making her beg him to stop, to never stop, to fuck her until she was hoarse from screaming. The drive hardly seemed to take a minute before he stopped the truck. “Stay here.” Jodi was quite happy to oblige him. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to move ever again. She continued to touch herself until he opened her door and stared down at her. “Christ,” he muttered and bent his head to lick her fingers and clit. She climaxed hard, pushing her sex into his questing tongue. Before she finished coming he picked her up and strode toward a dimly lit building, pausing only to slide the card in the lock and kick the door open with one booted foot. He snapped on the light. The room smelled of dust, bleach, and old carpet but she didn’t care. There was a bed and a bathroom, and that was all they’d ever needed. He laid her carefully on the bed. “I want to see you naked. I never get to see you naked anymore.” She helped him remove her clothes and then he came down over her, his mouth on her breast, one hard thigh between her legs tormenting her already sensitive clit. His fingers slid into her from behind and probed her slick entrance. “Damn, I wish I had two cocks.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  is in bold contrast to the stodgy previous generation. John F. Kennedy did this by setting himself off against the 1950s and the Eisenhower era—a time of stultifying conformity. By contrast, voting for him meant youth, vigor, and a lost masculinity. In essence he played to the secret resentment of the father figure and the transgressive desire to get rid of him. This desire is always tacitly out there among the young, and it always has a taboo element attached. One illicit desire that almost all people share is voyeurism. To peek inside the private lives of others violates strict social taboos on privacy, and yet everyone feels the pull to see what is going on behind people’s doors. Theater and film depend upon these voyeuristic desires. They put us inside people’s rooms, and we experience this almost as if we were literally spying on people. You can incorporate this into your work by giving the impression you are revealing secrets that should really not be shared. Some will be outraged but everyone will be curious. These could be secrets about yourself and how you accomplished what you did, or it could be about others, what happens behind the closed doors of powerful people and the laws that they operate by. In any event, what you offer should be new, unfamiliar, and exotic, or at least presented as such. The contrast to what is out there, so numbingly conventional, will create a covetous pull. Finally, dangle in front of people the prospect of grasping the unattainable or the impossible. Life is full of all kinds of irritating limits and difficulties. To become wealthy or successful requires great effort. We are locked inside our own character (see chapter 4) and cannot become someone else. We cannot recover our lost youth or the health that went with it. Every day brings us closer to death, the ultimate limit. Your object, however, offers the fantasy of a quick path to wealth and success, of recovering lost youth, of becoming a new person, and even of conquering death itself. People will grasp greedily at such things because they are considered so impossible. By the law of induction we can imagine all of these shortcuts and fantasies (just as we can imagine a unicorn), which gives us the desire to reach them, and imagining them is almost like experiencing them. Remember: it is not possession but desire that secretly impels people. To possess something inevitably brings about some disappointment and sparks the desire for something new to pursue. You are preying upon the human need for fantasies and the pleasures of chasing after them. In this sense your efforts must be continually renewed. Once people get what they want or possess you, your value and their respect for you immediately begin to lower. Keep withdrawing, surprising, and stimulating the chase. As long as you do, you have the power. The Supreme Desire Our path must always be toward greater awareness of our nature.

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  nature, and you will be amply rewarded for that. Persistence: If you observe infants, you will notice how willful and relentless they are when they want something. Such persistence is natural to us, but it is a quality that we tend to lose as we get older and our self-confidence fades. This is often what happens later in life when we face a problem or some resistance: We summon up the energy to attack the problem, but in the back of our mind, we have some doubts—are we up to the task? This ever-so-slight diminishment in self-belief translates into a reduction in the energy with which we attack the problem. This leads to a less effective result, which raises the volume of the background doubts even more, lessening the effect of our next action or blow. At some point, we admit defeat and give up. But we inevitably give up too soon. We surrender inwardly long before we surrender outwardly. What you must understand is the following: almost nothing in the world can resist persistent human energy. Things will yield if we strike enough blows with enough force. Look at how many great people in history have succeeded in this way. It was painstaking persistence over several years that allowed Thomas Edison to invent the proper form of the lightbulb, and Marie Curie to discover radium. They simply continued where others had given up. Over the course of ten years, it was through continual thought experiments, day and night, exploring every possible solution, that Albert Einstein finally came up with the theory of relativity. In the spiritual realm, the great eighteenth-century Zen master Hakuin was able to finally reach full enlightenment, and revive a dying branch of Zen, because he applied himself to the task with relentless persistence over the course of some twenty years. This is aggressive energy, undivided from within, aimed with laser focus at a problem or resistance. It is because the infant or the scientist or the aspiring practitioner of Zen wants something so badly that nothing will deter them. They understand the power of persistence, and so it becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy—knowing its value, they are able to summon up the energy and self-belief to solve the problem. They are adopting Hannibal’s motto: “I will either find a way, or make a way.” You must do the same. The trick is to want something badly enough that nothing will stop you or dull your energy. Fill yourself with the requisite desire to reach a goal. Train yourself to not give up as easily as you did in the past. Keep attacking from new angles, in new ways. Drop the background doubts and continue striking with full force, knowing that you can break through anything if you don’t let up. Once you sense the power in this form of attack, you will keep returning to it. Fearlessness: We are bold creatures by nature. As children, we

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  plan and she knew better. She had decided well before the debut in Paris that the United States was to be the target of this new line of clothes. American women reflected her sensibility best of all— athletic, into ease of movement and unfussy silhouettes, eminently practical. And they had more money to spend than anyone else in the world. Sure enough, the new line created a sensation in the States. Soon the French began to tone down their criticisms. Within a year of her return she had reestablished herself as the most important designer in the world, and fashions now returned to the simpler and more classical shapes she had always promoted. When Jacqueline Kennedy began to wear her suits in many of her public appearances, it was the most apparent symbol of the power Chanel had reclaimed. As she resumed her place at the top, she revealed another practice that was so against the times and the industry. Piracy was a great problem in fashion, as knockoffs of established designs would appear all over the world after a show. Designers carefully guarded all of their secrets and fought through the courts any form of imitation. Chanel did the opposite. She welcomed all sorts of people into her shows and allowed them to take photographs. She knew this would only encourage the many people who made a living out of creating cheap versions of her clothes, but she wanted this. She even invited wealthy women to bring along their seamstresses, who would make sketches of the designs and then create replicas of them. More than making money, what she wanted most of all was to spread her fashions everywhere, to feel herself and her work to be objects of desire by women of all classes and nations. It would be the ultimate revenge for the girl who had grown up ignored, unloved, and shunned. She would clothe millions of women; her look, her imprint would be seen everywhere—as indeed it was a few years after her comeback. • • • Interpretation: The moment Chanel tried on Etienne Balsan’s clothes and elicited a new kind of attention, something clicked in her brain that would forever change the course of her life. Prior to this she was always coveting something transgressive that stimulated her fantasies. It was not socially acceptable for a lowly orphan girl to aspire to mingle with the upper classes. Actress and courtesan were not suitable roles to pursue, especially for someone raised in a convent. Now, as she rode around the château in her jodhpurs and boater hat, she was suddenly the object that other people coveted. And they were drawn to the transgressive aspect of her clothing, the deliberate flouting of gender roles. Instead of being locked in her imaginary world full of dreams and fantasies, she could be the one stimulating such fantasies in other people. All that was required was

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  inevitably spark some kind of viral pull. You can speed up this process by feeding rumors or stories about the object through various media. People will begin to talk and the word of mouth will spread the effect. Even negative comments or controversy will do the trick, sometimes even better than praise. It will give your object a provocative and transgressive edge. Anyway, people are drawn toward the negative. Your silence or lack of overt direction of the message will allow people to run wild with their own stories and interpretations. You can also get important people or tastemakers to talk about it and fan the flames. What you are offering, they say, is new, revolutionary, something not seen or heard of before. You are trafficking in the future, in trends. At a certain point, enough people will feel the pull and will not want to be left out, which will pull in others. The only problem in this game is that in the world today you have much competition for these viral effects and the public is incredibly fickle. You must be a master not only at setting off these chain reactions but at renewing them or creating new ones. As an individual you must make it clear that people desire you, that you have a past—not too much of a past to inspire mistrust but enough to signal that others have found you desirable. You want to be indirect in this. You want them to hear stories of your past. You want them to literally see the attention you receive from men or women, all of this without your saying a word. Any bragging or explicit signaling of this will neutralize the effect. In any negotiating situation you must always strive to bring in a third or fourth party to vie for your services, creating a rivalry of desire. This will immediately enhance your value, not just in terms of a bidding war but also in the fact that people will see that others covet you. Use induction. We may think we live in a time of great freedom compared with the past, but in fact we live in a world that is more regulated than ever before. Our every move is followed digitally. There are more laws than ever governing all aspects of human behavior. Political correctness, which has always existed, can be more intense because of how visible we have become on social media. Secretly most of us feel bothered or crushed by all of these constraints on our physical and mental movement. We yearn for what is transgressive and beyond the limits that are set for us. We can easily be pulled toward that repressed no or yes. You want to associate your object with something ever so slightly illicit, unconventional, or politically advanced. Chanel did this with her overt androgynous appeal and flouting of gender roles. The fight between generations is always ripe material for this. What you offer

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  banal circumstances. They want fantasy and objects of desire to covet and grope after. Create an air of mystery around you and your work. Associate it with something new, unfamiliar, exotic, progressive, and taboo. Do not define your message but leave it vague. Create an illusion of ubiquity—your object is seen everywhere and desired by others. Then let the covetousness so latent in all humans do the rest, setting off a chain reaction of desire. At last I have what I wanted. Am I happy? Not real y. But what’s missing? My soul no longer has that piquant activity conferred by desire. . . . Oh, we shouldn’t delude ourselves—pleasure isn’t in the fulfil ment, but in the pursuit. —Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Keys to Human Nature By nature, we humans are not easily contented with our circumstances. By some perverse force within us, the moment we possess something or get what we want, our minds begin to drift toward something new and different, to imagine we can have better. The more distant and unattainable this new object, the greater is our desire to have it. We can call this the grass-is-always-greener syndrome , the psychological equivalent of an optical illusion—if we get too close to the grass, to that new object, we see that is not really so green after all. This syndrome has very deep roots in our nature. The earliest recorded example can be found in the Old Testament, in the story of the exodus from Egypt. Chosen by God to bring the Hebrews to the Promised Land, Moses led them into the wilderness, where they would wander for forty years. In Egypt the Hebrews had served as slaves and their lives had been difficult. Once they suffered hardships in the desert, however, they suddenly grew nostalgic for their previous life. Facing starvation, God provided them with manna from heaven, but they could only compare it unfavorably to the delicious melons and cucumbers and meats they had known in Egypt. Not sufficiently excited by God’s other miracles (the parting of the Red Sea, for example), they decided to forge and worship a golden calf, but once Moses punished them for this, they quickly dropped their interest in this new idol. All along the way they griped and complained, giving Moses endless headaches. The men lusted after foreign women; the people kept looking for some new cult to follow. God himself was so irritated by their endless discontent that he barred this entire generation, including Moses, from ever entering the Promised Land. But even after the next generation established itself in the land of milk and honey, the grumbling continued unabated. Whatever they had, they dreamed of something better over the horizon. Closer to home, we can see this syndrome at work in our daily lives. We continually look at other people who seem to have it better than us—their parents were more loving, their careers more exciting,

• From The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch (2017)

  õ Heyrick wrote a pamphlet in 1824 called Immediate, not Gradual Abolition, and that title gives a pretty clear idea of when she thought slavery should end. Wilberforce thought this view was dangerous—he thought a gradual approach was best—and told his colleagues not to get involved with women’s anti-slavery societies because they were too radical and inappropriate. But Heyrick’s writing had a big influence on the American abolitionist most famous for demanding an immediate end to slavery, William Lloyd Garrison. CHRISTIAN REFORM õ By the early 19th century, the abolitionist movement was only one of a host of social reform movements swirling through North American and European societies at this time. Other movements included the temperance movement, the Sunday School movement, and the exploding missionary movement, which combined a desire to spread the gospel around the world with the goal of “civilizing” non-Christian societies and introducing them to Western education, technology, and social norms. õ This desire to reform the world was exploding at the same time that evangelical revivals were sweeping Britain and North America. Charles Grandison Finney, perhaps the greatest evangelist of the revival movement that historians call the Second Great Awakening, was also one of America’s leading abolitionists. õ Women were everywhere in these movements. Women made up a disproportionate number of regular churchgoers: In the 19th century, women generally accounted for 55 to 70 percent of the total number going to church in America. 198 The History of Christianity II

• From Stone Butch Blues (1993)

  One wintry Friday night, before we punched out, Muriel invited me to go to an indoor pow-wow on Sunday. I said yes, of course. I felt honored. There were a few other Black and white workers at the social—friendships too valuable to explore solely on company time. I began to go regularly and 82 Leslie Feinberg got strung out on fry bread and corn soup. Once or twice I was cajoled to get up and join a round dance. I must say that although the pounding of the drum resounded in my heart, it never got as far down as my feet. I felt awkward dancing and self- conscious about being so butch. Of course, Muriel’s daughter Yvonne being there made me self-conscious too. I had a fierce crush on Yvonne. She worked in the front office of the same factory. Everyone knew she was the girlfriend of a local organized crime boss. That didn’t stop us from knowing where each other was in the room during those socials. I think all the women noticed right away. I'd already decided I wasn’t even going to think about approaching Yvonne, even though she seemed to like me. Some of the older butches had warned me that sometimes on a job the guys would pressure one of the women to sleep with a he-she, as a joke, and then come back and tell everyone about it. That was the last day on the job for the butch, who usually left in shame. But sooner or later the stigma also came back around and stuck on the woman who slept with one of us, and she had to leave too. I was afraid of this at first with Yvonne, but she wasn’t like that at all. One night when a group of us went out after work and got drunk, she told me her boyfriend had suggested he wanted to watch us make love and she had told him to fuck off. Once that had been said out loud, however, it was hard not to think about making love with Yvonne. Just before Christmas the crew from work went to a bar near the plant for a few beers. There was a heavy snowstorm outside. Inside, we drank and laughed. By the time we left, the snow had nearly coveted the cars. I heated the car door key to Muriel’s old Dodge with my lighter to defrost it. When I finally got the car door open, Yvonne kissed me right on the mouth. She left me in that parking lot, stunned and excited. The next night I went to the Malibou and wondered the whole time what it would be like to bring Yvonne there. I was happy at the plant, flirting with Yvonne, listening to Muriel’s stories, waiting for the next social. On Friday nights we drank at the bar where we cashed our checks. Saturday nights I spent at the gay bar. I was feeling just fine.

• From The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch (2017)

  THEOLOGY AND HENRY VIII õ While Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were arguing, England was undergoing a Reformation of its own. The roots of the English Reformation trace back to the 1520s, when Henry VIII was on the English throne. õ As late as 1521, England seemed firmly in the Catholic fold. Henry VIII even wrote a pamphlet denouncing Martin Luther, and the pope rewarded him with the title Defender of the Faith. õ But Henry had some personal problems. Like most monarchs, his primary worry was ensuring his own legacy, mainly by securing the succession of a legitimate male heir to his throne. By the late 1520s, his only legitimate child was his daughter Mary, and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, was getting on in years. Meanwhile, he was falling in love with someone who hung around the royal court, Anne Boleyn. õ Henry wanted to divorce Catherine and demanded permission to do so from the pope. The pope refused. In retaliation, Henry VIII began to separate from Rome in the early 1530s and to assert his own authority over the English church. REFORM COMES TO ENGLAND õ Parliament’s Act of Supremacy in 1534 formally declared Henry the head of the English church. But even though this marked a clear break from Rome, it quickly became apparent that Henry was no theological radical. He didn’t really want Catholic worship to change much. His Protestant advisers bided their time. õ Henry VIII did finally have a son, but not by Anne Boleyn. She gave birth solely to a girl, Elizabeth, and ended up beheaded on charges of adultery, incest with her brother, and treason. Henry’s son was born to a later wife named Jane Seymour, who died during childbirth. 26 The History of Christianity II õ When Henry himself died in 1547, this son, Edward VI, succeeded him. He was young and in perpetual ill health, but he was a confirmed Protestant, and so were the nobles who were in charge of things until Edward came of age. Lecture 3—Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed Tradition 27 õ The archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, had long been consulting with reformed Christians on the continent. Now he wasted no time in inviting reformed refugees from various parts of Europe to come to England and help him draft a new, much more reformed Book of Common Prayer to guide the Church of England. õ But Cranmer and his colleagues left the basic structure of the church unchanged; bishops still had a lot of power, and one needed a license from a bishop to preach. They also tried to make room for local traditions and ancient holy days. 28 The History of Christianity II

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  outlawing of pornography in Victorian times that created the first pornographic industry.) We cannot control this vacillation in the mind between contrasts. This predisposes us to think about and then desire exactly what we do not have. Second, complacency would be a dangerous evolutionary trait for a conscious animal such as humans. If our early ancestors had been prone to feeling content with present circumstances, they would not have been sensitive enough to possible dangers that lurked in the most apparently safe environments. We survived and thrived through our continual conscious alertness, which predisposed us to thinking and imagining the possible negative in any circumstance. We no longer live in savannas or forests teeming with life-threatening predators and natural dangers, but our brains are wired as if we were. We are inclined therefore toward a continual negative bias, which often consciously is expressed through complaining and griping. Finally, what is real and what is imagined are both experienced similarly in the brain. This has been demonstrated through various experiments in which subjects who imagine something produce electrical and chemical activity in their brains that is remarkably similar to when they actually live out what they are imagining, all of this shown through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Reality can be quite harsh and is full of limits and problems. We all must die. Every day we get older and less strong. To become successful requires sacrifice and hard work. But in our imagination we can voyage beyond these limits and entertain all kinds of possibilities. Our imagination is essentially limitless. And what we imagine has almost the force of what we actually experience. And so we become creatures who are continually prone to imagining something better than present circumstances and feeling some pleasure in the release from reality that our imagination brings us. All of this makes the grass-is-always-greener syndrome inevitable in our psychological makeup. We should not moralize or complain about this possible flaw in human nature. It is a part of the mental life of each one of us, and it has many benefits. It is the source of our ability to think of new possibilities and innovate. It is what has made our imagination such a powerful instrument. And on the flip side it is the material out of which we can move, excite, and seduce people. Knowing how to work on people’s natural covetousness is a timeless art that we depend on for all forms of persuasion. The problem we face today is not that people have suddenly stopped coveting but quite the opposite: that we are losing our connection to this art and the power that goes with it. We see evidence of this in our culture. We live in an age of bombardment and saturation. Advertisers blanket us with their messages and brand presence, directing us here or there to click and buy. Movies bludgeon us over the head, attacking our senses. Politicians are masters at stirring up and exploiting our discontent

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  Know how and when to withdraw. This is the essence of the art. You have a presence that people see and interpret. If you are too obvious with this, if people can read you too easily and figure you out, if you show your needs too visibly, then they will unconsciously begin to have a degree of disrespect; over time they will lose interest. Your presence must have a touch of coldness to it, as if you feel like you could do without others. This signals to people that you consider yourself worthy of respect, which unconsciously heightens your value in their eyes. It makes people want to chase after you. This touch of coldness is the first form of withdrawal that you must practice. Add to this a bit of blankness and ambiguity as to who you are. Your opinions, values, and tastes are never too obvious to people. This gives them room to read into you what they want. Movie stars are masters of this. They turn their faces and their presence into screens upon which people can project their own fantasies. What you want in general is to create an air of mystery and to attract interpretations. Once you sense that you have engaged people’s imagination, that you have your hooks in them, then you must use physical absence and withdrawal. You are not so available. A day or week can go by without your presence. You create a feeling of emptiness inside them, a touch of pain. You occupy increasing amounts of their mental space in these absences. They come to want more of you, not less. The musician Michael Jackson played this game to perfection on the social level. He was deeply aware of the dangers of saturating the market with his music and public appearances. He spread out the releases of his albums, making the public hungry for more. He carefully managed the frequency of his interviews and performances and never talked about the meaning of his lyrics or propagated any overt message. He occasionally had his publicists leak to the press some new story surrounding him, such as his use of hyperbaric chambers as a way to maintain eternal youthfulness. He would neither confirm nor deny these stories and the press would run wild. He was someone who sparked stories and rumors, but nothing concrete. Through this strategic elusiveness he made himself an object of continual desire—both to know him better and to possess his music. With the work you produce you can create similar covetous effects. Always leave the presentation and the message relatively open-ended. People can read into your work several interpretations. Never define exactly how they should take or use it. This is why the work of great dramatists such as Shakespeare and Chekhov has lasted for so many centuries and always seem so fresh and exciting; each generation can read into their plays what they want to. These writers described timeless elements of human nature, but without

• From The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

  judging or directing the audience to what they should feel or think. Take that as the model for whatever you produce. Keep in mind the following: the more active our imagination becomes, the greater the pleasure we derive from it. When we were children, if we were given a game with explicit instructions and rules, we quickly lost interest. But if the game was something we invented or was loosely structured, allowing us to inject our own ideas and fantasies, we could sustain our interest for much longer. When we view an abstract painting that evokes dreams or fantasies, or see a film that is not easily interpreted, or hear a joke or advertisement that is ambiguous, we are the ones who do the interpreting, and we find it exciting to be able to exercise our imagination in this way. Through your work you want to stimulate this pleasure for people to the maximum degree. Create rivalries of desire. Human desire is never an individual phenomenon. We are social creatures and what we want almost always reflects what other people want. This stems from our earliest years. We saw the attention that our parents could give us (the object we first coveted) as a zero-sum game. If our siblings received a lot of attention, then there would be less for us. We had to compete with them and with others to get attention and affection. When we saw our siblings or friends receive something—a gift or a favor—it sparked a competitive desire to have the same thing. If some object or person was not desired by others, we tended to see it as something indifferent or distasteful—there must be something wrong with it. This becomes a lifelong pattern. For some it is more overt. In relationships they are interested only in men or women who are already taken, who are clearly desired by a third party. Their desire is to take away this loved object, to triumph over the other person, a dynamic that most certainly has roots in their childhood. If other people are making money through some new gimmick, they want not only to participate but to corner the market. For others it is subtler. They see people possessing something that seems exciting, and their desire is not to take but to share and participate in the experience. In either direction, when we see people or things desired by others, it drives up their value. You must learn how to exploit this. If you can somehow create the impression that others desire you or your work, you will pull people into your current without having to say a word or impose yourself. They will come to you. You must strive to surround yourself with this social aura, or at least create the illusion. You can create this effect in several ways. You manage it so that your object is seen or heard everywhere, even encouraging piracy if necessary, as Chanel did. You don’t directly intervene. This will