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.

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• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  She became his mistress. Other royalty followed— Prince Albert of Wales (later King Edward VII), the Shah of Persia, Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia. Less wealthy men emptied their bank accounts, and Jurgens was only the first of many whom Otero drove to suicide. During World War I, a twenty-nine-year-old American soldier named Frederick, stationed in France, won $37,000 in a four-day crap game. On his next leave he went to Nice and checked himself into the finest hotel. On his first night in the hotel restaurant, he recognized Otero sitting alone at a table. He had seen her perform in Paris ten years before, and had be- come obsessed with her. She was now close to fifty, but was more alluring than ever. He greased some palms and was able to sit at her table. He could hardly talk: the way her eyes bored into him, a simple readjustment in her chair, her body brushing up against him as she got up, the way she managed to walk in front of him and display herself. Later, strolling along a boule- vard, they passed a jewelry store. He went inside, and moments later found himself plopping down $31,000 for a diamond necklace. For three nights La Belle Otero was his. Never in his life had he felt so masculine and im- petuous. Years later, he still believed it was well worth the price he had paid. Interpretation. Although La Belle Otero was beautiful, hundreds of women were more so, or were more charming and talented. But Otero was constantly on fire. Men could read it in her eyes, the way her body moved, a dozen other signs. The heat that radiated out from her came from her own inner desires: she was insatiably sexual. But she was also a practiced and calculating courtesan, and knew how to put her sexuality to effect. still quite a woman. • "She looked right at me, then turned to the lady she was with—some friend, I guess—and spoke to her in English, which she thought I didn't understand. However, I did. • " 'Who's the very handsome young man?' Otero asked. • "The other one answered, 'He's Chevalier.' • " 'He has such beautiful eyes' ha Belle said, looking straight at me, right up and down. • "Then she almost floored me with her frankness. • " 'I wonder if he'd like to go to bed with me. I think I'll ask him!' Only she didn't say it so delicately. She was much cruder and more to the point. • "It was at this moment I had to make up my mind rather quickly. La Belle moved toward me. Instead of introducing myself and succumbing to the consequences, I pretended I didn't understand what she'd said, uttered some pleasantry in French and moved away to my dressing room. • "I could see La Belle smile in an odd fashion as I passed her; like a sleek tigress watching its dinner go away.

• From Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

  “It’s not just that—it’s the ads,” you say. “Look at the ads. Women doing suggestive things with cigarettes, diamonds set in cleavage, nipples everywhere you look.” “It’s everywhere,” she agrees. “Do you know what a little boy—not eight or ten years old—said to me on the subway this morning?” “What was that?” “I can’t even repeat it. It was unbelievable.” You know all about unbelievable; you don’t even think about it, much less repeat it. Later you go up to the empty thirtieth-floor office of a writer on a detox sabbatical. You need a private phone. You practice your spiel aloud, trying out a British accent. You take a deep breath and dial Amanda’s agency. You don’t recognize the voice on the other end. You identify yourself as a photographer and say that you are interested in working with Amanda White. Is she in New York, by any chance? The woman on the other end is clearly new, else she would not be so forthcoming with the information. Agency policy is to treat all male callers as potential rapists until proven legitimate. This voice tells you that, as a matter of fact, you are in luck, since Amanda has recently returned to New York for a couple of weeks. “She’s based in Paris, you know.” You ask if she’s doing any shows; you’d like to see her on the runway before you book her. The woman mentions a show on Thursday before you hear someone in the background. “Could I have your name, please?” the woman says, suddenly all vigilance and officiousness. You’re already putting the receiver back in its cradle. Now you need only the location of the show, which a quick call to a friend at Vogue will provide. In your mind images of revenge and carnage do battle with scenes of tender reconciliation. Coming back down the inside stairs, you catch a glimpse of Clara marching into the Department. You bolt up the stairs and duck into the Fiction Department Men’s Room. You know you will have to face her sooner or later, so it might as well be later. Much later. Your equilibrium is fragile. Perhaps you will meet over drinks someday and laugh about this whole thing. This antic chapter of your life, “Youthful Folly,” will follow “Early Promise.” The magazine, ever forgiving, will be proud to claim you as one of its own. You’d gladly sleep through the intervening years and wake up when this part is over. In the meantime, a truckload of Librium and a nice long coma. You are studying your face in the mirror when the door is opened by Walter Tyler, the travel editor. It’s hard to know how to greet Tyler, whether he will stand on the dignity of his position and New England lineage or be just another guy who likes the Yankees. Either way, he’ll be offended if you guess wrong.

• From Story of the Eye (1928)

  Her dress was pulled up, exposing the grey pussy between red ribbons at the end of long thighs, and it had thereby become an extraordinary hallucination in a world so frail that a mere breath might have changed us into light. We didn’t dare budge, and all we desired was for that unreal immobility to last as long as possible, and for Marcelle to fall sound asleep. My mind reeled in some kind of exhausting vertigo, and I don’t know what the outcome would have been if Simone, whose worried gaze was darting between my eyes and Marcelle’s nudity, had not made a sudden, gentle movement: she opened her thighs, saying in a blank voice that she couldn’t hold back any longer. She soaked her dress in a long convulsion that fully denuded her and promptly made me spurt a wave of semen in my clothes. I stretched out in the grass, my skull on a large, flat rock and my eyes staring straight up at the Milky Way, that strange breach of astral sperm and heavenly urine across the cranial vault formed by the ring of constellations: that open crack at the summit of the sky, apparently made of ammoniacal vapours shining in the immensity (in empty space, where they burst forth absurdly like a rooster’s crow in total silence), a broken egg, a broken eye, or my own dazzled skull weighing down the rock, bouncing symmetrical images back to infinity. The nauseating crow of a rooster in particular coincided with my own life, that is to say, now, the Cardinal, because of the crack, the red colour, the discordant shrieks he provoked in the wardrobe, and also because one cuts the throats of roosters. To others, the universe seems decent because decent people have gelded eyes. That is why they fear lewdness. They are never frightened by the crowing of a rooster or when strolling under a starry heaven. In general, people savour the “pleasures of the flesh” only on condition that they be insipid. But as of then, no doubt existed for me: I did not care for what is known as “pleasures of the flesh” because they really are insipid; I cared only for what is classified as “dirty”. On the other hand, I was not even satisfied with the usual debauchery, because the only thing it dirties is debauchery itself, while, in some way or other, anything sublime and perfectly pure is left intact by it. My kind of debauchery soils not only my body and my thoughts, but also anything I may conceive in its course, that is to say, the vast starry universe, which merely serves as a backdrop. I associate the moon with the vaginal blood of mothers, sisters, that is, the menstrua with their sickening stench…. I loved Marcelle without mourning her. If she died, then it was my fault.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  "sincerity" (sincerity can be feigned, and is just one stratagem among others). This only works, however, when you sense that the target is easily yours. If not, the defenses and suspicions you raise by direct attack will make your seduction impossible. When in doubt, indirection is the better route. Enter Their Spirit Most people are locked in their own worlds, making them stubborn and hard to persuade. The way to lure them out of their shell and set up your seduction is to enter their spirit. Play by their rules, enjoy what they enjoy, adapt yourself to their moods. In doing so you will stroke their deep-rooted narcissism and lower their defenses. Hypnotized by the mirror image you present, they will open up, becoming vulnerable to your subtle influence. Soon you can shift the dynamic: once you have entered their spirit you can make them enter yours, at a point when it is too late to turn back. Indulge your targets' every mood and whim, giving them nothing to react against or resist. The Indulgent Strategy In October of 1961, the American journalist Cindy Adams was granted an exclusive interview with President Sukarno of Indonesia. It was a remarkable coup, for Adams was a little-known journalist at the time, while Sukarno was a world figure in the midst of a crisis. A leader of the fight for Indonesia's independence, he had been the country's president since 1949, when the Dutch finally gave up the colony. By the early 1960s, his daring foreign policy had made him hated in the United States, some calling him You're anxious to keep your mistress? \ Convince the Hitler of Asia. her she's knocked you all of Adams decided that in the interests of a lively interview, she would not a heap \ With her stunning be cowed or overawed by Sukarno, and she began the conversation by jok- looks. If it's purple she's wearing, praise purple; \ ing with him. To her pleasant surprise, her ice-breaking tactic seemed to When she's in a silk dress, work: Sukarno warmed up to her. He let the interview run well over an say silk \ Suits her best of hour, and when it was over he loaded her with gifts. Her success was re- all. . . Admire \ Her singing voice, her gestures markable enough, but even more so were the friendly letters she began as she dances, \ Cry to receive from Sukarno after she and her husband had returned to New "Encore!" when she stops. York. A few years later, he proposed that she collaborate with him on his You can even praise \ Her autobiography. performance in bed, her talent for love-making— \

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  mally get in the real world, where we are all rushed, ruthless, out for ourselves. You need to deliberately slow things down, and return them to the simpler times of their youth. The details that you orchestrate—colors, gifts, little ceremonies—are aimed at their senses, at the childish delight we take in the immediate charms of the natural world. Their senses filled with delightful things, they grow less capable of reason and rationality. Pay attention to detail and you will find yourself assuming a slower pace; your targets will not focus on what you might be after (sexual favors, power, etc.) because you seem so considerate, so attentive. In the childish realm of the senses in which you envelop them, they get a clear sense that you are involving them in something distinct from the real world—an essential ingredient of seduction. Remember: the more you get people to focus on the little things, the less they will notice your larger direction. The seduction will assume the slow, hypnotic pace of a ritual, in which the details have a heightened importance and the moments are full of ceremony. In eighth-century China, Emperor Ming Huang caught a glimpse of a beautiful young woman, combing her hair beside an imperial pool. Her name was Yang Kuei-fei, and even though she was the concubine of the emperor's son, he had to have her for himself. Since he was emperor, nobody could stop him. The emperor was a practical man—he had many concubines, and they all had their charms, but he had never lost his head over a woman. Yang Kuei-fei, though, was different. Her body exuded the most wonderful fragrance. She wore gowns made of the sheerest silk gauze, each embroidered with different flowers, depending on the season. In walking she seemed to float, her tiny steps invisible beneath her gown. She Pay Attention to Detail • 273 danced to perfection, wrote songs in his honor that she sang magnificently, had a way of looking at him that made his blood boil with desire. She quickly became his favorite. Yang Kuei-fei drove the emperor to distraction. He built palaces for her, spent all his time with her, satisfied her every whim. Before long his kingdom was bankrupt and ruined. Yang Kuei-fei was an artful seductress who had a devastating effect on all of the men who crossed her path. There were so many ways her presence charmed—the scents, the voice, the movements, the witty conversation, the artful glances, the embroidered gowns. These pleasurable details turned a mighty king into a distracted baby.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  A few nights later, as promised, she appeared at his house. They kissed a night with you isn't and began to undress. He wanted to savor every minute, to take it slowly, worth the risk. but he felt like a caged bull finally set free. He followed her into bed, his — O V I D . THE ART OF LOVE, hands all over her. He started to take off her underwear but it was laced up TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN in some complicated way. Eventually he had to sit up and take a look: she was wearing some elaborate canvas contraption, of a kind he had never seen. No matter how hard he tugged and pulled, it would not come off. "Certainly," I said, "I He felt like hitting Conchita, he was so distraught, but instead he started to have often told you that pain holds a peculiar cry. She explained: she wanted to do everything with him, yet to remain a attraction for me, and that mozita. This was her protection. Exasperated, he sent her home. nothing kindles my passion Over the next few weeks, Don Mateo began to reassess his opinion of quite so much as tyranny cruelty and above all Conchita. He saw her flirting with other men, and dancing a suggestive fla-unfaithfulness in a menco in a bar: she was not a mozita, he decided, she was playing him for beautiful woman." money. And yet he could not leave her. Another man would take his — L E O P O L D VON SACHER- place—an unbearable thought. She would invite him to spend the night in M A S O C H , VENUS IN FURS, T R A N S L A T E D B Y J E A N M C N E I he L r bed, as long as he promised not to force himself on her; and then, as if to torture him beyond reason, she would get into bed naked (supposedly because of the heat). All this he put up with on the grounds that no other man had such privileges. But one night, pushed to the limits of frustration, he exploded with anger, and issued an ultimatum: either give me what I Mix Pleasure with Pain • 373 want or you will never see me again. Suddenly Conchita started to cry. He Oderint, dum metuant had never seen her cry, and it moved him. She too was tired of all this, she [ Let them hate me so long as they fear me] , as if only said, her voice trembling; if it was not too late, she was ready to accept the fear and hate belong proposal she had once turned down. Set her up in a house, and he would together, whereas fear and see what a devoted mistress she would be. love have nothing to do with each other, as if it

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  cious night we've just spent." Was she referring to what had happened in however wealthy, was the pavilion? "There is an even more charming room in the château," she deserving of a noble wife. went on, "but I can't show you anything," implying he had been too for-And on discovering that all he was capable of despite ward. She had mentioned this room ("Monsieur's apartment") several times his massive wealth, was before; he could not imagine what could be so interesting about it, but by distinguishing wool from now he was dying to see it and insisted she show it to him. "If you promise cotton, supervising the to be good," she replied, her eyes widening. Through the darkness of the setting up of a loom, or debating the virtues of a house she led him into the room, which, to his delight, was a kind of tem-particular yarn with a ple of pleasure: there were mirrors on the walls, trompe l'oeil paintings spinner-woman, she evoking a forest scene, even a dark grotto, and a garlanded statue of Eros. resolved that as far as it lay within her power she Overwhelmed by the mood of the place, the young man quickly resumed would have nothing what he had started in the pavilion, and would have lost all track of time whatsoever to do with his if a servant had not rushed in and warned them that it was getting light beastly caresses. Moreover she was determined to seek outside—Monsieur would soon be up. her pleasure elsewhere, in They quickly separated. Later that day, as the young man prepared to the company of one who leave, his hostess said, "Goodbye, Monsieur; I owe you so many pleasures; seemed more worthy of her affection, and so it was that but I have paid you with a beautiful dream. Now your love summons you she fell deeply in love with to return. . . . Don't give the Countess cause to quarrel with me." Reflect-an extremely eligible man ing on his experience on the way back, he could not figure out what it in his middle thirties. And meant. He had the vague sensation of having been used, but the pleasures whenever a day passed without her having set eyes he remembered outweighed his doubts. upon him, she was restless for the whole of the following night. • However, the gentleman Interpretation. Madame de T is a character in the eighteenth-century suspected nothing of all libertine short story "No Tomorrow," by Vivant Denon. The young man is this, and took no notice of the story's narrator. Although fictional, Madame's techniques were clearly her; and for her part, being

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Anti-seducers are the opposite: insecure, self-absorbed, and unable to grasp the psychology of another person, they literally repel Anti-Seducers have no self-awareness, and never realize when they are pestering, imposing, talking too much. Root out anti-seductive qualities in yourself and recog- nize them in others—there is no pleasure or profit in dealing with the Anti-Seducer. The Seducer's Victims—The Eighteen Types page 147 Part Two The Seductive Process page 161 Phase One: Separation—Stirring Interest and Desire 1 Choose the Right Victim page 167 Everything depends on the target of your seduction. Study your prey thoroughly, and choose only those who will prove susceptible to your charms. The right victims are those for whom you can fill a void, who see in you something exotic. They are often isolated or unhappy, or can easily be made so—for the completely contented person is almost impossible to seduce. The perfect victim has some quality that inspires strong emotions in you, making your seductive maneuvers seem more natural and dynamic. The perfect victim allows for the perfect chase. 2 Create a False Sense of Security—Approach Indirectly page 177 If you are too direct early on, you risk stirring up a resistance that will never be lowered. At first there must be nothing of the seducer in your manner. The seduction should begin at an angle, indirectly, so that the target only gradually becomes aware of you. Haunt the periphery of your target's life—approach through a third party, or seem to cultivate a relatively neutral re- lationship, moving gradually from friend to lover. Lull the target into feeling secure, then strike. 3 Send Mixed Signals page 185 Once people are aware of your presence, and perhaps vaguely intrigued, you need to stir their interest before it settles on someone else. Most of us are much too obvious—instead, be hard to figure out. Send mixed signals: both tough and tender, both spiritual and earthly, both inno- cent and cunning. A mix of qualities suggests depth, which fascinates even as it confuses. An elusive, enigmatic aura will make people want to know more, drawing them into your circle. Create such a power by hinting at something contradictory within you. 4 Appear to Be an Object of Desire—Create Triangles page 195 Few are drawn to the person whom others avoid or neglect; people gather around those who have already attracted interest. To draw your victims closer and make them hungry to possess you, you must create an aura of desirability—of being wanted and courted by many. It will become a point of vanity for them to be the preferred object of your attention, to win you away from a crowd of admirers. Build a reputation that precedes you: If many have succumbed to your charms, there must be a reason. xiv • Contents 5 Create a Need—Stir Anxiety and Discontent page 203 A perfectly satisfied person cannot be seduced. Tension and disharmony must be instilled in your targets minds.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Many of us recognize the problem: articles are written, studies are completed, but they simply become more information to digest. It is almost impossible to turn off an overactive mind; the attempt simply triggers more thoughts— an inescapable hall of mirrors. Perhaps we turn to alcohol, to drugs, to physical activity—anything to help us slow the mind, be more present in the moment. Our discontent presents the crafty seducer with infinite op- portunity. The waters around you are teeming with people seeking some kind of release from mental overstimulation. The lure of unencumbered physical pleasure will make them take your bait, but as you prowl the wa- ters, understand: the only way to relax a distracted mind is to make it focus on one thing. A hypnotist asks the patient to focus on a watch swinging back and forth. Once the patient focuses, the mind relaxes, the senses awaken, the body becomes prone to all kinds of novel sensations and sug- gestions. As a seducer, you are a hypnotist, and what you are making the target focus on is you. Throughout the seductive process you have been filling the target's mind. Letters, mementos, shared experiences keep you constantly present, even when you are not there. Now, as you shift to the physical part of the seduction, you must see your targets more often. Your attention must become more intense. Errol Flynn was a master at this game. When he ready to do anything in their desire to abandon themselves, even for a few moments, to their trained embraces. —G. R.TABOUIS, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF TUTANKHAMEN, TRANSLATED BY M. R. DOBIE CÉLIE: What is the moment, and how do you define it? Because I must say in all good honesty that I do not understand you. • THE DUKE: A certain disposition of the senses, as unexpected as it is involuntary, which a woman can conceal, but which, should it be perceived or sensed by someone who might profit from it, puts her in the greatest danger of being a little more willing than she thought she ever should or could be. —CRÉBILLON FILS, LE HASARD AU COIN DU FEU, QUOTED IN MICHEL FEHER, ED., THE LIBERTINE READER When, on an autumn evening, with closed eyes, \ I breathe the warm dark fragrance of your breast, \ Before me blissful shores unfold, caressed \ By dazzling fires from blue unchanging skies. \ And there, upon that calm and drowsing isle, \ Grow luscious fruits amid fantastic trees: \ There, men are lithe: the women of those seas \ Amaze one with their gaze that knows no guile. \ Your perfume wafts me thither like a wind: \ I see a harbor thronged with masts and sails \ Still weary from the tumult of the gales; \ And 402 • The Art of Seduction honied in on a victim, he dropped everything else. The woman was made to feel that everything came second to her—his career, his friends, every- thing.

• From Story of the Eye (1928)

  I stripped off one of her stockings to wipe her body, which gave out a hot odour recalling the beds of sickness or of debauchery. Little by little, however, she came around to a more bearable state, and finally she offered me her lips as a token of gratitude. I was still extremely agitated. We had ten more kilometres to go, and in the state we were in, we obviously had to reach X by dawn. I could barely keep upright and despaired of ever reaching the end of this ride through the impossible. We had abandoned the real world, the one made up solely of dressed people, and the time elapsed since then was already so remote as to seem almost beyond reach. Our personal hallucination now developed as boundlessly as perhaps the total nightmare of human society, for instance, with earth, sky, and atmosphere. A leather seat clung to Simone’s bare cunt, which was inevitably jerked by the legs pumping up and down on the spinning pedals. Furthermore, the rear wheel vanished indefinitely to my eyes, not only in the bicycle fork but virtually in the crevice of the cyclist’s naked bottom: the rapid whirling of the dusty tire was also directly comparable to both the thirst in my throat and the erection of my penis, destined to plunge into the depths of the cunt sticking to the bicycle seat. The wind had died down somewhat, and part of the starry sky was visible. And it struck me that death was the sole outcome of my erection, and if Simone and I were killed, then the universe of our unbearable personal vision was certain to be replaced by the pure stars, fully unrelated to any external gazes and realizing in a cold state, without human delays or detours, something that strikes me as the goal of my sexual licentiousness: a geometric incandescence (among other things, the coinciding point of life and death, being and nothingness), perfectly fulgurating. Yet these images were, of course, tied to the contradiction of a prolonged state of exhaustion and an absurd rigidity of my penis.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  Whenever we can do les. They would glimpse her riding wildly through the Bois de Boulogne, that, even in the slightest cracking her whip left and right. They would see her in cafes surrounded degree, we are happy. Now by men, her witty insults making them laugh. They also heard of her in play we create our own world. . . . exploits—of her delight in showing her body to one and all. The elite of — P R O F E S S O R H . A . Paris society began to court her, particularly the older men who had grown OVERSTREET, INFLUENCING tired of the cold and calculating courtesans, and who admired her girlish HUMAN BEHAVIOR spirit. As money began to pour in from her various conquests (the Duc de Mornay, heir to the Dutch throne; Prince Napoleon, cousin to the Emperor), Cora spent it on the most outrageous things—a multicolored carriage pulled by a team of cream-colored horses, a rose-marble bathtub with her initials inlaid in gold. Gentlemen vied to be the one who would spoil her the most. An Irish lover wasted his entire fortune on her, in only eight weeks. But money could not buy Cora's loyalty; she would leave a man on the slightest whim. Cora Pearl's wild behavior and disdain for etiquette had all of Paris on The Natural • 61 edge. In 1864, she was to appear as Cupid in the Offenbach operetta Or- All was quiet again. (Genji pheus in the Underworld. Society was dying to see what she would do to slipped the latch open and tried the doors. They had cause a sensation, and soon found out: she came on stage practically naked, not been bolted. A curtain except for expensive diamonds here and there, barely covering her. As she had been set up just inside, pranced on stage, the diamonds fell off, each one worth a fortune; she did and in the dim light he not stoop to pick them up, but let them roll off into the footlights. The could make out Chinese chests and other furniture gentlemen in the audience, some of whom had given her those diamonds, scattered in some disorder. applauded her wildly. Antics like this made Cora the toast of Paris, and she He made his way through reigned as the city's supreme courtesan for over a decade, until the Franco- to her side. She lay by herself, a slight little figure. Prussian War of 1870 put an end to the Second Empire. Though vaguely annoyed at being disturbed, she People often mistakenly believe that what makes a person desirable and se- evidently took him for the woman Chujo until he ductive is physical beauty, elegance, or overt sexuality. Yet Cora Pearl was pulled back the covers.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  forties, and quite handsome. After supper, a bell rang—her signal to hurry disdain, he would take the unused tickets, roll them back to the convent, or she would be caught. She changed back into her up, and use them to light habit and left. his cigar. A beautiful vista now seemed to stretch before Casanova, of months — M A U D D E BELLEROCHE, spent in the villa with this delightful creature, all of it courtesy of the mys-DU DANDY AU PLAY-BOY terious master who paid for it all. He soon returned to the convent to arrange the next meeting. They would rendezvous in a square in Venice, then retire to the villa. At the appointed time and place, Casanova saw a While Shahzaman sat at man approach him. Fearing it was her mysterious friend, or some other one of the windows man sent to kill him, he recoiled. The man circled behind him, then came overlooking the king's garden, he saw a door open up close: it was Mathilde, wearing a mask and men's clothes. She laughed at in the palace, through the fright she had given him. What a devilish nun. He had to admit that which came twenty slave dressed as a man she excited him even more. girls and twenty negroes. In their midst was his Casanova began to suspect that all was not as it seemed. For one, he brother's [ King found a collection of libertine novels and pamphlets in Mathilde's house. Shahriyar's] queen, a Then she made blasphemous comments, for example about the joy they woman of surpassing beauty. They made their would have together during Lent, "mortifying their flesh." Now she re-way to the fountain, where ferred to her mysterious friend as her lover. A plan evolved in his mind to they all undressed and sat take her away from this man and from the convent, eloping with her and on the grass. The king's wife then called out: possessing her himself. "Come Mass'ood!" and A few days later he received a letter from her, in which she made a con-there promptly came to her fession: during one of their more passionate trysts at the villa, her lover a black slave, who mounted had hidden in a closet, watching the whole thing. The lover, she told him, her after smothering her with embraces and kisses. was the French ambassador to Venice, and Casanova had impressed him. So also did the negroes Casanova was not one to be fooled with like this, yet the next day he was with the slave girls, reveling back at the convent, submissively arranging for another tryst. This time she together till the approach of night. . . . • . . . And s o showed up at the hour they had named, and he embraced her—only to Keep Them in Suspense— What Comes Next? • 245

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  In seduction there is often a dilemma: to seduce you need planning and cal- to play. I proposed that culation, but if your victim suspects that you have ulterior motives, she will each should accompany me grow defensive. Furthermore, if you seem to be in control, you will inspire in turn into a charming closet, next to the room in fear instead of desire. The Ardent Rake solves this dilemma in the most art- which we were, which I ful manner. Of course he must calculate and plan—he has to find a way wanted them to admire. around the jealous husband, or whatever the obstacle is. It is exhausting They both remained silent. • "You hesitate?" I said to work. But by nature, the Ardent Rake also has the advantage of an uncon- them. "I will see which of trollable libido. When he pursues a woman, he really is aglow with desire; you is the more attached the victim senses this and is inflamed, even despite herself. How can she to me. The one who loves me the more will be the imagine that he is a heartless seducer who will abandon her when he so ar- first to follow the lover she dently braves all dangers and obstacles to get to her? And even if she is wishes to convince of her aware of his rakish past, of his incorrigible amorality, it doesn't matter, be- affection. . . ." • I knew cause she also sees his weakness. He cannot control himself; he actually is a my puritan, and I was well aware that, after a few slave to all women. As such he inspires no fear. Struggles, she gave herself The Ardent Rake teaches us a simple lesson: intense desire has a dis- up completely to the tracting power on a woman, just as the Siren's physical presence does on a present moment. 'This one appeared to be as agreeable man. A woman is often defensive and can sense insincerity or calculation. to her as the others we had But if she feels consumed by your attentions, and is confident you will do previously spent together; anything for her, she will notice nothing else about you, or will find a way she forgot that she was sharing me [ with Madame to forgive your indiscretions. This is the perfect cover for a seducer. The Renaud] . . . . • [ When key is to show no hesitation, to abandon all restraint, to let yourself go, to her turn came] Madame show that you cannot control yourself and are fundamentally weak. Do not Renaud responded with a transport that proved her worry about inspiring mistrust; as long as you are the slave to her charms, contentment, and she left she will not think of the aftermath. the sitting only after having repeated continually: "What a man! What a The Demonic Rake man! He is astonishing! How often you could be happy with him if he were

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  whether it was she did put the seduction as long as possible. So, while boldness can work wonders, un-it down to an overchilliness controllable boldness is not seductive but frightening; you need to be able in love, or a lack of courage, to turn it on and off at will, know when to use it. As in Tantrism, you can or a defect of bodily vigor. create more pleasure by delaying the inevitable. — S E I G N E U R DE BRANTÔME, In the 1720s, the Duc de Richelieu developed an infatuation with a LIVES OF FAIR & GALLANT L A D I E S , TRANSLATED B Y A . R . certain duchess. The woman was exceptionally beautiful, and was desired ALLINSON by one and all, but she was far too virtuous to take a lover, although she Master the Art of the Bold Move • 411 could be quite coquettish. Richelieu bided his time. He befriended her, A man should proceed to charming her with the wit that had made him the favorite of the ladies. enjoy any woman when she gives him an One night a group of such women, including the duchess, decided to play opportunity and makes her a practical joke on him, in which he was to be forced naked out of his own love manifest to him room at the palace of Versailles. The joke worked to perfection, the ladies by the following signs: she all got to see him in his native glory, and had a good chuckle watching him calls out to a man without first being addressed by run away. There were many places Richelieu could have hidden; the place him; she shows herself to he chose was the duchess's bedroom. Minutes later he watched her enter him in secret places; she and undress, and once the candles were extinguished, he crept into bed speaks to him tremblingly and inarticulately; her face with her. She protested, tried to scream. He covered her mouth with kisses, blooms with delight and and she eventually and happily relented. Richelieu had decided to make his her fingers or toes perspire; bold move then for several reasons. First, the duchess had come to like him, and sometimes she remains with both hands placed on and even to harbor a secret desire for him. She would never act upon it or his body as if she had been admit it, but he was certain it existed. Second, she had seen him naked, and surprised by something, or could not help but be impressed. Third, she would feel a touch of pity for as if overcome with fatigue. • After a woman has his predicament, and for the joke played on him. Richelieu, a consummate manifested her love to him seducer, would find no more perfect moment. by outward signs, and by

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  The lesson is simple: your entry into a person's spirit must be a tactic, a way to bring him or her under your spell. You cannot be simply a sponge, soaking up the other person's moods. Mirror them for too long and they will see through you and be repelled by you. Beneath the similarity to them that you make them see, you must have a strong underlying sense of your own identity. When the time comes, you will want to lead them into your spirit; you cannot live on their turf. Never take mirroring too far, then. It is only useful in the first phase of a seduction; at some point the dynamic must be reversed. Create Temptation Lure the target deep into your seduction by creating the proper temptation: a glimpse of the pleasures to come. As the serpent tempted Eve with the promise of forbidden knowledge, you must awaken a desire in your targets that they cannot control. Find that weakness of theirs, that fantasy that has yet to be real- ized, and hint that you can lead them toward it. It could be wealth, it could be adventure, it could be forbidden and guilty pleasures; the key is to keep it vague. Dangle the prize before their eyes, postponing satisfaction, and let their minds do the rest. The future seems ripe with possi- bility. Stimulate a curiosity stronger than the doubts and anxieties that go with it, and they will follow you. The Tantalizing Object Some time in the 1880s, a gentleman named Don Juan de Todellas was wandering through a park in Madrid when he saw a woman in her early twenties getting out of a coach, followed by a two-year-old child and a nursemaid. The young woman was elegantly dressed, but what took Don Juan's breath away was her resemblance to a woman he had known nearly three years before. Surely she could not be the same person. The woman he had known, Cristeta Moreruela, was a showgirl in a second-rate theater. For these two crimes Tantalus was punished She had been an orphan and was quite poor—her circumstances could not with the ruin of his have changed that much. He moved closer: the same beautiful face. And kingdom and, after his then he heard her voice. He was so shocked that he had to sit down: it was death by Zeus's own hand, with eternal torment in the indeed the same woman. company of I x i o n , Don Juan was an incorrigible seducer, whose conquests were innu- Sisyphus, Tityus, the merable and of every variety. But he remembered his affair with Cristeta Danaids, and others. Now quite clearly, because she had been so young—the most charming girl he he hangs, perennially consumed by thirst and

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  stay for the courtesan's morning ritual—the elaborate makeup, clothes, and jewelry she put on before heading out into the world. Watching reverently, Natalie remarked that she worshiped beauty, and that Liane was the most Terrible Natalie, who used beautiful woman she had ever seen. Playing the part of the page, she fol- to ravage the land of love. lowed Liane to the carriage, opened the door for her with a bow, and ac- Formidable Natalie, feared companied her on her habitual ride through the Bois de Boulogne. Once by husbands since no one could resist her inside the park, Natalie knelt on the floor, out of sight of the passing seductiveness. And one gentlemen who tipped their hats to Liane. She recited poems she had writ- could see how women 361 362 • The Art of Seduction would abandon their ten in Liane's honor, and she told the courtesan she considered it a mission husbands, homes, children, to rescue her from the seamy career into which she had fallen. to follow this Circe of That evening Natalie took her to the theater to see Sarah Bernhardt Lesbos. • Circe's method was to concoct magic play Hamlet. During the intermission, she told Liane that she identified potions. Natalie preferred with Hamlet—his hunger for the sublime, his hatred of tyranny—which, writing poems; she always for her, was the tyranny of men over women. Over the next few days Liane knew how to blend the physical and the spiritual. received a steady flow of flowers from Natalie, and telegrams with little po- —-JEAN C H A L O N , PORTRAIT OF ems in her honor. Slowly the worshipful words and looks became more A SEDUCTRESS: THE WORLD OF physical, with the occasional touch, then a caress, even a kiss—and a kiss NATALIE BARNEY, TRANSLATED that felt different from any in Liane's experience. One morning, with BY CAROL BARKO Natalie in attendance, Liane prepared to take a bath. As she slipped out of her nightgown, Natalie suddenly flung herself at her friend's feet, kissing her ankles. The courtesan freed herself and hurried into the bath, only for There once lived in the Natalie to throw off her clothes and join her. Within a few days, all Paris town of Gafsa, in Barbary, a very rich man who had knew that Liane de Pougy had a new lover: Natalie Barney. numerous children, among Liane made no effort to disguise her new affair, publishing a novel, them a lovely and graceful Idylle Saphique, detailing every aspect of Natalie's seduction. She had never young daughter called Alibech. She was not had an affair with a woman before, and she described her involvement with herself a Christian, but Natalie as something like a mystical experience. Even at the end of her there were many long life, she remembered the affair as by far her most intense. Christians in the town, Renée Vivien was a young Englishwoman who had come to Paris to and one day, having on

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  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 appearance will seduce in large numbers. For women the weakness is language 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, bewitched 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- 24 • The Art of Seduction feet. The words of the Rake are the equivalent of the bodily adornment of the Siren: a powerful sensual distraction, a narcotic. The Rake's use of language is demonic because it is designed not to communicate or convey information but to persuade, flatter, stir emotional turmoil, much as the serpent in the Garden of Eden used words to lead Eve into temptation. The example of D'Annunzio reveals the link between the erotic Rake, who seduces women, and the political Rake, who seduces the masses. Both depend on words. Adapt the character of the Rake and you will find that the use of words as a subtle poison has infinite applications. Remember: it is the form that matters, not the content. The less your targets focus on what you say, and the more on how it makes them feel, the more seductive your effect. Give your words a lofty, spiritual, literary flavor the better to insinuate desire in your unwitting victims. But what is this force, then, by which Don Juan seduces? It is desire, the energy of sensuous desire. He desires in every woman the whole of womanhood. The reaction to this gigantic passion beautifies and develops the one desired, who flushes in enhanced beauty by his reflection. As the enthusiast's fire with seductive splendor illumines even those who stand in a casual relation to him, so Don Juan transfigures in a far deeper sense every girl. —SØREN KIERKEGAARD, EITHER/OR Keys to the Character At first it may seem strange that a man who is clearly dishonest, disloyal, and has no interest in marriage would have any appeal to a woman.

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  To play the Rake, the most obvious requirement is the ability to let yourself go, to draw a woman into the kind of purely sensual moment in which past and future lose meaning. You must be able to abandon yourself to the moment. (When the Rake Valmont—a character modeled after the Duke de Richelieu—in Laclos' eighteenth-century novel Dangerous Liaisons writes letters that are obviously calculated to have a certain effect on his chosen victim, Madame de Tourvel, she sees right through them; but when his letters really do burn with passion, she begins to relent.) An added benefit of this quality is that it makes you seem unable to control yourself, a display of weakness that a woman enjoys. By abandoning yourself to the seduced, you make them feel that you exist for them alone—a feeling reflecting a truth, though a temporary one. Of the hundreds of women that Pablo Picasso, consummate rake, seduced over the years, most of them had the feeling that they were the only one he truly loved. The Rake never worries about a woman's resistance to him, or for that matter about any other obstacle in his path—a husband, a physical barrier. Resistance is only the spur to his desire, enflaming him all the more. When Picasso was seducing Françoise Gilot, in fact, he begged her to resist; he needed resistance to add to the thrill. In any case, an obstacle in your way gives you the opportunity to prove yourself, and the creativity you bring to matters of love. In the eleventh-century Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu, the Rake Prince Niou is not disturbed by the sudden disappearance of Ukifune, the woman he loves. She has fled because although she is interested in the prince, she is in love with another man; but her absence allows the prince to go to extreme lengths to track her down. His sudden appearance to whisk her away to a house deep in the woods, and the gallantry he displays in doing so, overwhelm her. Remember: if no resistances or obstacles face you, you must create them. No seduction can proceed without them. 26 • The Art of Seduction The Rake is an extreme personality. Impudent, sarcastic, and bitingly witty, he cares nothing for what anyone thinks. Paradoxically, this only makes him more seductive. In the courtlike atmosphere of studio-era Hollywood, when most of the actors behaved like dutiful sheep, the great Rake Errol Flynn stood out in his insolence. He defied the studio chiefs, engaged in the most extreme pranks, reveled in his reputation as Hollywood's supreme seducer—all of which enhanced his popularity. The Rake needs a backdrop of convention—a stultified court, a humdrum marriage, a conservative culture—to shine, to be appreciated for the breath of fresh air he provides. Never worry about going too far: the Rake's essence is that he goes further than anyone else.

• From Looking for Alaska (2005)

  I have one for you.” She reached into her overstuffed backpack and pulled out a book. “Gabriel García Márquez. The General in His Labyrinth. Absolutely one of my favorites. It’s about Simón Bolívar.” I didn’t know who Simón Bolívar was, but she didn’t give me time to ask. “It’s a historical novel, so I don’t know if this is true, but in the book, do you know what his last words are? No, you don’t. But I am about to tell you, Señor Parting Remarks.” And then she lit a cigarette and sucked on it so hard for so long that I thought the entire thing might burn off in one drag. She exhaled and read to me: “‘He’—that’s Simón Bolívar—‘was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. “Damn it,” he sighed. “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!”’” I knew great last words when I heard them, and I made a mental note to get ahold of a biography of this Simón Bolívar fellow. Beautiful last words, but I didn’t quite understand. “So what’s the labyrinth?” I asked her. And now is as good a time as any to say that she was beautiful. In the dark beside me, she smelled of sweat and sunshine and vanilla, and on that thin- mooned night I could see little more than her silhouette except for when she smoked, when the burning cherry of the cigarette washed her face in pale red light. But even in the dark, I could see her eyes—fierce emeralds. She had the kind of eyes that predisposed you to supporting her every endeavor. And not just beautiful, but hot, too, with her breasts straining against her tight tank top, her curved legs swinging back and forth beneath the swing, flip-flops dangling from her electric-blue-painted toes. It was right then, between when I asked about the labyrinth and when she answered me, that I realized the importance of curves, of the thousand places where girls’ bodies ease from one place to another, from arc of the foot to ankle to calf, from calf to hip to waist to breast to neck to ski-slope nose to forehead to shoulder to the concave arch of the back to the butt to the etc. I’d noticed curves before, of course, but I had never quite apprehended their significance. Her mouth close enough to me that I could feel her breath warmer than the air, she said, “That’s the mystery, isn’t it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? Which is he trying to escape—the world or the end of it?” I waited for her to keep talking, but after a while it became obvious she wanted an answer. “Uh, I don’t know,” I said finally. “Have you really read all those books in your room?”

• From The Art of Seduction (2001)

  desire, the threshold of I was light-years away from what was true." contemplation of bodily Bouriscout thought he was having an exotic adventure, an enduring beauty. fantasy of his. Less consciously, he had an outlet for his repressed homo- — L Y N N E LAWNER, LIVES OF sexuality. Pei Pu embodied his fantasy, giving it flesh, by working first on THE COURTESANS: PORTRAITS OF THE RENAISSANCE his mind. The mind has two currents: it wants to believe in things that are pleasant to believe in, yet it has a self-protective need to be suspicious of people. If you start off too theatrical, trying too hard to create a fantasy, you will feed that suspicious side of the mind, and once fed, the doubts will It was on March 16, the not go away. Instead, you must start slowly, building trust, while perhaps same day the Duke of Gloucester wrote to Sir letting people see a little touch of something strange or exciting about you William, that Goethe to tease their interest. Then you build up your story, like any piece of fic-recorded the first known tion. You have established a foundation of trust—now the fantasies and performance of what were destined to be called dreams you envelop them in are suddenly believable. Emma's Attitudes. Just Remember: people want to believe in the extraordinary; with a little what these were, we shall groundwork, a little mental foreplay, they will fall for your illusion. If any-learn shortly. First, it must be emphasized that the thing, err on the side of reality: use real props (like the child Pei Pu showed Attitudes were a show Bouriscout) and add the fantastical touches in your words, or an occasional for favored eyes only. gesture that gives you a slight unreality. Once you sense that they are • . . . Goethe, disciple of hooked, you can deepen the spell, go further and further into the fantasy. Winckelmann, was at this date thrilled by the human At that point they will have gone so far into their own minds that you will form, as a contemporary no longer have to bother with verisimilitude. writes. Here was the ideal spectator for the classical drama Emma and Sir William had wrought in Wish Fulfillment the long winter evenings. Let us take our seats beside Goethe and settle to watch the show as he describes In 1762, Catherine, wife of Czar Peter III, staged a coup against her ineffectual husband and proclaimed herself empress of Russia. Over the next it. • "Sit William few years Catherine ruled alone, but kept a series of lovers. The Russians Hamilton . . . has now, called these men the vremienchiki, "the men of the moment," and in 1774 after many years of devotion to the arts and the the man of the moment was Gregory Potemkin, a thirty-five-year-old lieu-study of nature, found the tenant, ten years younger than Catherine, and a most unlikely candidate for acme of these delights in