The Art of Seduction (36 page)

hard to seduce a person who is happy, it is hard to seduce a person who has no imagination.

For women, the manly man is often the perfect victim. Mark Antony

The Chinese have a

was of this type—he loved pleasure, was quite emotional, and when it
proverb: "When Yang is in

came to women, found it hard to think straight. He was easy for Cleopatra
the ascendant, Yin is

to manipulate. Once she gained a hold on his emotions, she kept him per
born," which means,
translated into our
manently on a string. A woman should never be put off by a man who
language, that when a man

seems overly aggressive. He is often the perfect victim. It is easy, with a few
has devoted the better of
coquettish tricks, to turn that aggression around and make him your slave.
his life to the ordinary

business of living, the Yin,

Such men actually enjoy being made to chase after a woman.

Choose the Right Victim
•
173

Be careful with appearances. The person who seems volcanically pas-
or emotional side of his
sionate is often hiding insecurity and self-involvement. This was what most
nature, rises to the surface
and demands its rights.

men failed to perceive in the nineteenth-century courtesan Lola Montez.
When such a period occurs,

She seemed so dramatic, so exciting. In fact, she was a troubled, self-
all that which has formerly
obsessed woman, but by the time men discovered this it was too late—they
seemed important loses its
had become involved with her and could not extricate themselves without
significance. The will-of-
the-wisp of illusion leads

months of drama and torture. People who are outwardly distant or shy are
the man hither and thither,

often better targets than extroverts. They are dying to be drawn out, and
taking him on strange and

still waters run deep.

complicated deviations from

his former path in life.

People with a lot of time on their hands are extremely susceptible to se-
Ming Huang, the "Bright
duction. They have mental space for you to fill. Tullia d'Aragona, the infa-
Emperor" of the T'ang
mous sixteenth-century Italian courtesan, preferred young men as her
dynasty, was an example
of the profound truth of

victims; besides the physical reason for such a preference, they were more
this theory. From the

idle than working men with careers, and therefore more defenseless against
moment he saw Yang

an ingenious seductress. On the other hand, you should generally avoid
Kuei-fei bathing in the
lake near his palace in the

people who are preoccupied with business or work—seduction demands
Li mountains, he was
attention, and busy people have too little space in their minds for you to
destined to sit at her feet,
occupy.

learning from her the

According to Freud, seduction begins early in life, in our relationship
emotional mysteries of
what the Chinese call Yin.

with our parents. They seduce us physically, both with bodily contact and

— E L O I S E TALCOTT H I B B E R T ,

by satisfying desires such as hunger, and we in turn try to seduce them into
EMBROIDERED GAUZE:
paying us attention. We are creatures by nature vulnerable to seduction
PORTRAITS OF FAMOUS

throughout our lives. We all want to be seduced; we yearn to be drawn out
CHINESE LADIES

of ourselves, out of our routines and into the drama of eros. And what draws us more than anything is the feeling that someone has something we don't, a quality we desire. Your perfect victims are often people who think you have something they don't, and who will be enchanted to have it provided for them. Such victims may have a temperament quite the opposite of yours, and this difference will create an exciting tension.

When Jiang Qing, later known as Madame Mao, first met Mao Tsetung in 1937 in his mountain retreat in western China, she could sense how desperate he was for a bit of color and spice in his life: all the camp's women dressed like the men, and abjured any feminine finery. Jiang had been an actress in Shanghai, and was anything but austere. She supplied what he lacked, and she also gave him the added thrill of being able to educate her in communism, appealing to his Pygmalion complex—the desire to dominate, control, and remake a person. In fact it was Jiang Qing who controlled her future husband.

The greatest lack of all is excitement and adventure, which is precisely what seduction offers. In 1964, the Chinese actor Shi Pei Pu, a man who had gained fame as a female impersonator, met Bernard Bouriscout, a young diplomat assigned to the French embassy in China. Bouriscout had come to China looking for adventure, and was disappointed to have little contact with Chinese people. Pretending to be a woman who, when still a child, had been forced to live as a boy—supposedly the family already had too many daughters—Shi Pei Pu used the young Frenchman's boredom and

174 • The Art of Seduction

discontent to manipulate him. Inventing a story of the deceptions he had had to go through, he slowly drew Bouriscout into an affair that would last many years. (Bouriscout had had previous homosexual encounters, but considered himself heterosexual.) Eventually the diplomat was led into spying for the Chinese. All the while, he believed Shi Pei Pu was a woman—his yearning for adventure had made him that vulnerable. Repressed types are perfect victims for a deep seduction.

People who repress the appetite for pleasure make ripe victims, particularly later in their lives. The eighth-century Chinese Emperor Ming Huang spent much of his reign trying to rid his court of its costly addiction to luxuries, and was himself a model of austerity and virtue. But the moment he saw the concubine Yang Kuei-fei bathing in a palace lake, everything changed. The most charming woman in the realm, she was the mistress of his son. Exerting his power, the emperor won her away—only to become her abject slave.

The choice of the right victim is equally important in politics. Mass seducers such as Napoleon or John F. Kennedy offer their public just what it lacks. When Napoleon came to power, the French people's sense of pride was beaten down by the bloody aftermath of the French Revolution. He offered them glory and conquest. Kennedy recognized that Americans

were bored with the stultifying comfort of the Eisenhower years; he gave them adventure and risk. More important, he tailored his appeal to the group most vulnerable to it: the younger generation. Successful politicians know that not everyone will be susceptible to their charm, but if they can find a group of believers with a need to be filled, they have supporters who will stand by them no matter what.

Symbol:

Big Game. Lions are dangerous
—
to hunt

them is to know the thrill of risk. Leopards are clever

and swift, offering the excitement of a difficult chase. Never

rush into the hunt. Know your prey and choose it carefully. Do

not waste time with small game
—
the rabbits that back into snares,
the mink that walk into a scented trap. Challenge is pleasure.

Choose the Right Victim • 175

Reversal

There is no possible reversal. There is nothing to be gained from trying to seduce the person who is closed to you, or who cannot provide the pleasure and chase that you need.

Create a False Sense of SecurityApproach Indirectly

If you are too

direct early on, you risk stir-

ring 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 relationship, moving gradually from friend to
lover. Arrange an occasional "chance" encounter, as if you and your
target were destined to become acquainted
—
nothing is more seductive
than a sense of destiny. Lull the target into feeling secure, then strike.

Friend to Lover

Anne Marie Louis d'Orléans, the Duchess de Montpensier, known in

seventeenth-century France as
La Grande Mademoiselle,
had never known love in her life. Her mother had died when she was young; her father remarried and ignored her. She came from one of Europe's most illustrious families: her grandfather had been King Henry IV; the future King Louis XIV was her cousin. When she was young, matches had been pro-
Many women adore the
posed between her and the widowed king of Spain, the son of the Holy
elusive, \ Hate
overeagerness. So, play

Roman emperor, and even cousin Louis himself, among many others. But
hard to get, \ Stop boredom
all of these matches were designed for political purposes, or because of her
developing. And don't let
family's enormous wealth. No one bothered to woo her; she rarely even
your entreaties \ Sound too
met her suitors. To make matters worse, the Grande Mademoiselle was an
confident of possession.
Insinuate sex \

idealist who believed in the old-fashioned values of chivalry: courage, hon-
Camouflaged as friendship.
esty, virtue. She loathed the schemers whose motives in courting her were
I've seen ultrastubborn
dubious at best. Whom could she trust? One by one she found a reason to
creatures \ Fooled by this
gambit, the switch from

spurn them. Spinsterhood seemed to be her fate.

companion to stud.

In April of 1669, the Grande Mademoiselle, then forty-two, met one —OVID,
THEART OF LOVE,
of the strangest men in the court: the Marquis Antonin Peguilin, later TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN

known as the Duke de Lauzun. A favorite of Louis XIV's, the thirty-sixyear-old Marquis was a brave soldier with an acid wit. He was also an incurable Don Juan. Although he was short, and certainly not handsome, his impudent manners and his military exploits made him irresistible to
On the street, I do not stop
women. The Grande Mademoiselle had noticed him some years before, ad-
her, or I exchange a
miring his elegance and boldness. But it was only this time, in 1669, that
greeting with her but never
come close, but always

she had a real conversation with him, if a short one, and although she knew
strive for distance.
of his lady-killer reputation, she found him charming. A few days later they
Presumably our repeated
ran into each other again; this time the conversation was longer, and
encounters are clearly
noticeable to her;

Lauzun proved more intelligent than she had imagined—they talked of the
presumably she does
playwright Corneille (her favorite), of heroism, and of other elevated top-
perceive that on her
ics. Now their encounters became more frequent. They had become
horizon a new planet has
friends. Anne Marie noted in her diary that her conversations with Lauzun,
loomed, which in its course
has encroached disturbingly

when they occurred, were the highlight of her day; when he was not at
upon hers in a curiously
court, she felt his absence. Surely her encounters with him came frequently
undisturbing way, but
enough that they could not be accidental on his part, but he always seemed
she has no inkling of the
law underlying this

surprised to see her. At the same time, she recorded feeling uneasy—
movement. . . . Before I
strange emotions were stealing up on her, she did not know why.

begin my attack, I must

179

180
•
The Art of Seduction

first become acquainted

Time passed, and the Grande Mademoiselle was to leave Paris for a

with her and her whole
week or two. Now Lauzun approached her without warning and made an
mental state.

emotional plea to be considered her confidante, the great friend who

—SØREN KIERKEGAARD,
THE

would execute any commission she needed done while she was away. He
SEDUCER'S DIARY,
TRANSLATED

BY H O W A R D V. H O N G AND

was poetic and chivalrous, but what did he really mean? In her diary, Anne E D N A H . H O N G

Marie finally confronted the emotions that had been stirring in her since their first conversation: "I told myself, these are not vague musings; there must be an object to all of these feelings, and I could not imagine who it was. . . . Finally, after troubling myself with this for several days, I realized
No sooner had he spoken