The Art of Seduction (64 page)

CHINESE LADIES

ing them emotional—that is a sign of their growing weakness. Most people are ambivalent: on the one hand they feel comforted by their habits and duties, on the other they are bored, and ripe for anything that seems exotic, that seems to come from somewhere else. They may struggle or have

doubts, but exotic pleasures are irresistible. The more you can get them
Isolate the Victim • 313

into your world, the weaker they become. As with the king of Wu, by the
In Cairo Aly bumped into
time they realize what has happened, it is too late.

[
the singer
]
Juliette Greco

again. He asked her to

dance.
•
"You have too bad

a reputation," she replied.

Isolation—The "Only You" Effect

"We're going to sit very

much apart. "
•
"What are

you doing tomorrow?" he

In 1948, the twenty-nine-year-old actress Rita Hayworth, known as
insisted.
•
"Tomorrow I
Hollywood's Love Goddess, was at a low point in her life. Her marriage
take a plane to Beirut."
•

to Orson Welles was breaking up, her mother had died, and her career
When she boarded the

plane, Aly was already

seemed stalled. That summer she headed for Europe. Welles was in Italy at
on it, grinning at her
the time, and in the back of her mind she was dreaming of a reconciliation.
surprise.
. . . •
Dressed in
Rita stopped first at the French Riviera. Invitations poured in, particu-
tight black leather slacks
and a black sweater

larly from wealthy men, for at the time she was considered the most beauti-[
Greco
]
stretched
ful woman in the world. Aristotle Onassis and the Shah of Iran telephoned
languorously in an
her almost daily, begging for a date. She turned them all down. A few days
armchair of her Paris house
after her arrival, though, she received an invitation from Elsa Maxwell, the
and observed:
•
"They say
I am a dangerous woman.

society hostess, who was giving a little party in Cannes. Rita balked but
Well, Aly was a dangerous

Maxwell insisted, telling her to buy a new dress, show up a little late, and
man. He was charming in
make a grand entrance.

a very special way. There is

a kind of man who is very

Rita played along, and arrived at the party wearing a white Grecian
clever with women. He
gown, her red hair falling over her bare shoulders. She was greeted by a re-
takes you out to a
action she had grown used to: all conversation stopped as both men and
restaurant and if the most
beautiful woman comes in,

women turned in their chairs, the men gazing in amazement, the women
he doesn't look at her. He
jealous. A man hurried to her side and escorted her to her table. It was
makes you feel you are a
thirty-seven-year-old Prince Aly Khan, the son of the Aga Khan III, who
queen. Of course, I
understood it. I didn 't

was the worldwide leader of the Islamic Ismaili sect and one of the richest
believe it. I would laugh
men in the world. Rita had been warned about Aly Khan, a notorious rake.
and point out the
To her dismay, they were seated next to each other, and he never left her
beautiful woman. But that
side. He asked her a million questions—about Hollywood, her interests, on
is me. . . . Most women
are made very happy by

and on. She began to relax a little and open up. There were other beautiful
that kind of attention. It's
women there, princesses, actresses, but Aly Khan ignored them all, acting as
pure vanity. She thinks,
if Rita were the only woman there. He led her onto the dance floor, and

'I'll be the one and the

others will leave.'

though he was an expert dancer, she felt uncomfortable—he held her a lit-• " . . .
With Aly, how
tle too close. Still, when he offered to drive her back to her hotel, she
the woman felt was most
agreed. They sped along the Grande Corniche; it was a beautiful night. For
important. . . . He was a
great charmer, a great

one evening she had managed to forget her many problems, and she was
seducer. He made you feel
grateful, but she was still in love with Welles, and an affair with a rake like
fine and that everything
Aly Khan was not what she needed.

was easy. No problems.

Nothing to worry about.

Aly Khan had to fly off on business for a few days; he begged her to
Or regret. It was always,

stay at the Riviera until he got back. While he was away, he telephoned

'What can I do for you?

constantly. Every morning a giant bouquet of flowers arrived. On the tele
What do you need?'

phone he seemed particularly annoyed that the Shah of Iran was trying
Airplane tickets, cars,
boats; you felt you were on

hard to see her, and he made her promise to break the date to which she
a pink cloud."
had finally agreed. During this time, a gypsy fortune-teller visited the hotel, —LEONARD SLATER, and Rita agreed to have her fortune read. "You are about to embark on the
ALY: A BIOGRAPHY

314
•
The Art of Seduction

ANNE: Didst thou not kill
greatest romance of your life," the gypsy told her. "He is somebody you al
this king
[
Henry VI
]
? \
ready know. . . . You must relent and give in to him totally. Only if you do
R I C H A R D : I grant ye. . . . \
that will you find happiness at long last." Not knowing who this man could
ANNE: And thou unfit for

any place, but hell. \
be, Rita, who had a weakness for the occult, decided to extend her stay.
RICHARD: Yes, one place

Aly Khan came back; he told her that his château overlooking the Mediter
else, if you will hear me
ranean was the perfect place to escape from the press and forget her trou
name it. \ ANNE: Some
dungeon. \ RICHARD:

bles, and that he would behave himself. She relented. Life in the château
Your bedchamber, \ ANNE:
was like a fairy tale; wherever she turned, his Indian helpers were there to
Ill rest betide the chamber
attend to her every wish. At night he would take her into his enormous
where thou liest! \
ballroom, where they would dance all by themselves. Could this be the
RICHARD: So will it,

madam, till I lie with you.
man the fortune-teller meant?

.
. .
But gentle Lady

Aly Khan invited his friends over to meet her. Among this strange

Anne . . . \ Is not the
company she felt alone again, and depressed; she decided to leave the
causer of the timeless

deaths \ Of these
château. Just then, as if he had read her thoughts, Aly Khan whisked her off
Plantagenets, Henry and

to Spain, the country that fascinated her most. The press caught on to the
Edward, \ As blameful as
affair, and began to hound them in Spain: Rita had had a daughter with
the executioner? \ ANNE:

Thou wast the cause and
Welles—was this any way for a mother to act? Aly Khan's reputation did
most accursed effect. \
not help, but he stood by her, shielding her from the press as best he could.
RICHARD: Your beauty
Now she was more alone than ever, and more dependent on him.
was the cause of that

effect
— \
Your beauty, that

Near the end of the trip, Aly Khan proposed to Rita. She turned him
did haunt me in my sleep \
down; she did not think he was the kind of man you married. He followed
To undertake the death of
her to Hollywood, where her former friends were less friendly than be
all the world, \ So I might
fore. Thank God she had Aly Khan to help her. A year later she finally
live one hour in your sweet

bosom.

succumbed, abandoning her career, moving to Aly Khan's château, and

— W I L L I A M SHAKESPEARE,

marrying him.

THE TRAGEDY OF KING

RICHARD III

Interpretation.
Aly Khan, like a lot of men, fell in love with Rita Hayworth the moment he saw the film
Gilda,
in 1948. He made up his mind
My child, my sister, dream
that he would seduce her somehow. The moment he heard she was coming

\ How sweet all things
to the Riviera, he got his friend Elsa Maxwell to lure her to the party and
would seem \ Were we in
seat her next to him. He knew about the breakup of her marriage, and
that kind land to live

together, \And there love
how vulnerable she was. His strategy was to block out everything else in
slow and long, \ There love
her world—problems, other men, suspicion of him and his motives, etc.
and die among \ Those
His campaign began with the display of an intense interest in her life—

scenes that image you, that

sumptuous weather. \
constant phone calls, flowers, gifts, all to keep him in her mind. He set up
Drowned suns that
the fortune-teller to plant the seed. When she began to fall for him, he in
glimmer there \ Through
troduced her to his friends, knowing she would feel alienated among them,
cloud-dishevelled air \

Move me with such a
and therefore dependent on him. Her dependence was heightened by the
mystery as appears \
trip to Spain, where she was on unfamiliar territory, besieged by reporters,
Within those other skies \
and forced to cling to him for help. He slowly came to dominate her
Of your treacherous eyes \
thoughts. Everywhere she turned, there he was. Finally she succumbed, out
When I behold them

shining through their tears.
of weakness and the boost to her vanity that his attention represented. Un
\ There, there is nothing
der his spell, she forgot about his horrid reputation, relinquishing the suspi
else but grace and measure,
cions that were the only thing protecting her from him.

\ Richness, quietness, and

pleasure.
. . . \
See,

It was not Aly Khan's wealth or looks that made him a great seducer.
Isolate the Victim • 315

He was not in fact very handsome, and his wealth was more than offset by
sheltered from the swells \

his bad reputation. His success was strategic: he isolated his victims, work
There in the still canals \

Those drowsy ships that

ing so slowly and subtly that they did not notice it. The intensity of his at-
dream of sailing forth; \ It
tention made a woman feel that in his eyes, at that moment, she was the
is to satisfy \ Your least
only woman in the world. This isolation was experienced as pleasure; the
desire, they ply \ Hither
through all the waters of

woman did not notice her growing dependence, how the way he filled up
the earth. \ The sun at
her mind with his attention slowly isolated her from her friends and her
close of day \ Clothes the
milieu. Her natural suspicions of the man were drowned out by his intoxi-
fields of hay, \ Then the
cating effect on her ego. Aly Khan almost always capped off his seductions
canals, at last the town
entire \ In hyacinth and

by taking the woman to some enchanted place on the globe—a place that
gold: \ Slowly the land is
he knew well, but where the woman felt lost.

rolled \ Sleepward under a

Do not give your targets the time or space to worry about, suspect, or
sea of gentle fire. \ There,
there is nothing else but

resist you. Flood them with the kind of attention that crowds out all other
grace and measure, \

thoughts, concerns, and problems. Remember—people secretly yearn to be
Richness, quietness, and
led astray by someone who knows where they are going. It can be a plea-
pleasure.
sure to let go, and even to feel isolated and weak, if the seduction is done —CHARLES BAUDELAIRE, slowly and gracefully.

"INVITATION TO THE VOYAGE,"

THE FLOWERS OF EVIL,

Put them in a spot where they have no place to go, and

they will die before fleeing.

—SUN-TZU

Keys to Seduction

The people around you may seem strong, and more or less in control of their lives, but that is merely a facade. Underneath, people are more brittle than they let on. What lets them seem strong is the series of nests and safety nets they envelop themselves in—their friends, their families, their daily routines, which give them a feeling of continuity, safety, and control. Suddenly pull the rug out from under them, drop them alone into some foreign place where the familiar signposts are gone or scrambled, and you will see a very different person.

A target who is strong and settled is hard to seduce. But even the strongest people can be made vulnerable if you can isolate them from their nests and safety nets. Block out their friends and family with your constant presence, alienate them from the world they are used to, and take them to places they do not know. Get them to spend time in
your
environment. Deliberately disturb their habits, get them to do things they have never done. They will grow emotional, making it easier to lead them astray. Disguise all this in the form of a pleasurable experience, and your targets will wake up one day distanced from everything that normally comforts them. Then they will turn to you for help, like a child crying out for its mother when the lights are turned out. In seduction, as in warfare, the isolated target is weak and vulnerable.

In Samuel Richardson's
Clarissa,
written in 1748, the rake Lovelace is
316
•
The Art of Seduction

attempting to seduce the novel's beautiful heroine. Clarissa is young, virtuous, and very much protected by her family. But Lovelace is a conniving seducer. First he courts Clarissa's sister, Arabella. A match between them seems likely. Then he suddenly switches attention to Clarissa, playing on sibling rivalry to make Arabella furious. Their brother, James, is angered by Lovelace's change in sentiments; he fights with Lovelace and is wounded. The whole family is in an uproar, united against Lovelace, who, however, manages to smuggle letters to Clarissa, and to visit her when she is at the house of a friend. The family finds out, and accuses her of disloyalty. Clarissa is innocent; she has not encouraged Lovelace's letters or visits. But now her parents are determined to marry her off, to a rich older man. Alone in the world, about to be married to a man she finds repulsive, she turns to Lovelace as the only one who can save her from this mess. Eventually he rescues her by getting her to London, where she can escape this dreaded marriage, but where she is also hopelessly isolated. In these circumstances her feelings toward him soften. All of this has been masterfully orchestrated by Lovelace himself—the turmoil within the family, Clarissa's eventual alienation from them, the whole scenario.

Your worst enemies in a seduction are often your targets' family and friends. They are outside your circle and immune to your charms; they may provide a voice of reason to the seduced. You must work silently and subtly to alienate the target from them. Insinuate that they are jealous of your target's good fortune in finding you, or that they are parental figures who have lost a taste for adventure. The latter argument is extremely effective with young people, whose identities are in flux and who are more than ready to rebel against any authority figure, particularly their parents. You represent excitement and life; the friends and parents represent habit and boredom. In Shakespeare's
The Tragedy of King Richard III,
Richard, when still the Duke of Gloucester, has murdered King Henry VI and his son, Prince Edward. Shortly thereafter he accosts Lady Anne, Prince Edward's widow, who knows what he has done to the two men closest to her, and who hates him as much as a woman can hate. Yet Richard attempts to seduce her. His method is simple: he tells her that what he did, he did because of his love for her. He wanted there to be no one in her life but him. His feelings were so strong he was driven to murder. Of course Lady Anne not only resists this line of reasoning, she abhors him. But he persists. Anne is at a moment of extreme vulnerability—alone in the world, with no one to support her, at the height of grief. Incredibly, his words begin to have an effect. Murder is not a seductive tactic, but the seducer does enact a kind of killing—a psychological one. Our past attachments are a barrier to the present. Even people we have left behind can continue to have a hold on us. As a seducer you will be held up to the past, compared to previous suitors, perhaps found inferior.
Do not let it get to that point.
Crowd out the past with your attentions in the present. If necessary, find ways to disparage their previous lovers—subtly or not so subtly, depending on the situation. Even go so far as to open old wounds, making them feel old pain and seeing by con-
Isolate the Victim • 317

trast how much better the present is. The more you can isolate them from their past, the deeper they will sink with you into the present.

The principle of isolation can be taken literally by whisking the target off to an exotic locale. This was Aly Khan's method; a secluded island worked best, and indeed islands, cut off from the rest of the world, have always been associated with the pursuit of sensual pleasures. The Roman Emperor Tiberius descended into debauchery once he made his home on the island of Capri. The danger of travel is that your targets are intimately exposed to you—it is hard to maintain an air of mystery. But if you take them to a place alluring enough to distract them, you will prevent them from focusing on anything banal in your character. Cleopatra lured Julius Caesar into taking a voyage down the Nile. Moving deeper into Egypt, he was further isolated from Rome, and Cleopatra was all the more seductive. The early-twentieth-century lesbian seductress Natalie Barney had an onagain-off-again affair with the poet Renée Vivien; to regain her affections, she took Renée on a trip to the island of Lesbos, a place Natalie had visited many times. In doing so she not only isolated Renée but disarmed and distracted her with the associations of the place, the home of the legendary lesbian poet Sappho. Vivien even began to imagine that Natalie was Sappho herself. Do not take the target just anywhere; pick the place that will have the most effective associations.

The seductive power of isolation goes beyond the sexual realm. When new adherents joined Mahatma Gandhi's circle of devoted followers, they were encouraged to cut off their ties with the past—with their family and friends. This kind of renunciation has been a requirement of many religious sects over the centuries. People who isolate themselves in this way are much more vulnerable to influence and persuasion. A charismatic politician feeds off and even encourages people's feelings of alienation. John F. Kennedy did this to great effect when he subtly disparaged the Eisenhower years; the comfort of the 1950s, he implied, compromised American ideals. He invited Americans to join him in a new life, on a "New Frontier," full of danger and excitement. It was an extremely seductive lure, particularly for the young, who were Kennedy's most enthusiastic supporters.

Finally, at some point in the seduction there must be a hint of danger in the mix. Your targets should feel that they are gaining a great adventure in following you, but are also losing something—a part of their past, their cherished comfort. Actively encourage these ambivalent feelings. An element of fear is the proper spice; although too much fear is debilitating, in small doses it makes us feel alive. Like diving out of an airplane, it is exciting, a thrill, at the same time that it is a little frightening. And the only person there to break the fall, or catch them, is you.
318
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The Art of Seduction

Symbol:
The Pied Piper. A jolly fellow in his red and yellow cloak,
he lures the children from their homes with the delightful sounds of his
flute. Enchanted, they do not notice how far they are walking, how
they are leaving their families behind. They do not even notice the cave
he eventually leads them into, and which closes upon them forever.
Reversal

The risks of this strategy are simple: isolate someone too quickly and you will induce a sense of panic that may end up in the target's taking flight. The isolation you bring must be gradual, and disguised as pleasure—

the pleasure of knowing you, leaving the world behind. In any case, some people are too fragile to be cut off from their base of support. The great modern courtesan Pamela Harriman had a solution to this problem: she isolated her victims from their families, their former or present wives, and in place of those old connections she quickly set up new comforts for her lovers. She overwhelmed them with attention, attending to their every need. In the case of Averill Harriman, the billionaire who eventually married her, she literally established a new home for him, one that had no associations with the past and was full of the pleasures of the present. It is unwise to keep the seduced dangling in midair for too long, with nothing familiar or comforting in sight. Instead, replace the familiar things you have cut them off from with a new home, a new series of comforts.

Phase Three

The Precipice
—

Deepening the Effect Through

Extreme Measures

The goal in this phase is to make everything deeper—the effect you have
on their mind, feelings of love and attachment, tension within your vic-
tims. With your hooks deep into them, you can then push them back
and forth, between hope and despair, until they weaken and snap. Show-
ing how far you are willing to go for your victims, doing some noble or
chivalrous deed (16: Prove yourself) will create a powerful jolt, spark an
intensely positive reaction. Everyone has scars, repressed desires, and un-
finished business from childhood. Bring these desires and wounds to the
surface, make your victims feel they are getting what they never got as a
child and you will penetrate deep into their psyche, stir uncontrollable
emotions (17: Effect a regression). Now you can take your victims past
their limits, getting them to act out their dark sides, adding a sense of
danger to your seduction (18: Stir up the transgressive and taboo).
You need to deepen the spell, and nothing will more confuse and enchant
your victims than giving your seduction a spiritual veneer. It is not lust
that motivates you, but destiny, divine thoughts and everything elevated
(19: Use spiritual lures). The erotic lurks beneath the spiritual. Now
your victims have been properly set up. By deliberately hurting them,
instilling fears and anxieties, you will lead them to the edge of the
precipice from which it will be easy to push and make them fall (20: Mix
pleasure with pain). They feel great tension and are yearning for relief.

Prove Yourself

Most

people want to be seduced. If

they resist your efforts, it is proba-

bly because you have not gone far

enough to allay their doubts
—
about

your motives, the depth of your feel-

ings, and so on. One well-timed ac-

tion that shows how far you are

willing to go to win them over will

dispel their doubts. Do not worry

about looking foolish or making a

mistake
—
any kind of deed that is

self-sacrificing and for your targets'

sake will so overwhelm their emo-

tions, they won't notice anything else.

Never appear discouraged by people's

resistance, or complain. Instead, meet

the challenge by doing something ex-

treme or chivalrous. Conversely, spur

others to prove themselves by making

yourself hard to reach, unattain-

able, worth fighting over.

Seductive Evidence

Anyone can talk big, say lofty things about their feelings, insist on how much they care for us, and also for all oppressed peoples in the far reaches of the planet. But if they never behave in a way that will back up their words, we begin to doubt their sincerity—perhaps we are dealing with a charlatan, or a hypocrite or a coward. Flattery and fine words can only go so far. A time will eventually arrive when you will have to show your victim some evidence, to match your words with deeds.

Love is a species of warfare.

Slack troopers, go

This kind of evidence has two functions. First, it allays any lingering
elsewhere! \ It takes more
doubts about you. Second, an action that reveals some positive quality in
than cowards to guard \

you is immensely seductive in and of itself. Brave or selfless deeds create a
These standards. Night-
duty in winter, long-route

powerful and positive emotional reaction. Don't worry, your deeds do not
marches, every \ Hardship,
have to be so brave and selfless that you lose everything in the process. The
all forms of suffering: these
appearance alone of nobility will often suffice. In fact, in a world where
await \ The recruit who
expects a soft option.