The Art of Seduction (61 page)

dinner served in another

In 1972, Bouriscout left Beijing. Over the next few years he tried
room and lingered on
repeatedly to get Pei Pu and his son to France, and a decade later he fi-
together until dusk. When
nally succeeded; the three became a family In 1983, though, the French
I left I had to promise to
return again soon and I

authorities grew suspicious of this relationship between a Foreign Office
spent many afternoons
official and a Chinese man, and with a little investigating they uncovered
with the princess in the
Bouriscout's spying. He was arrested, and soon made a startling confession:
same way."
the man he was living with was really a woman. Confused, the French or-—HARRISON BRENT, dered an examination of Pei Pu; as they had thought, he was very much a
PAULINE BONAPARTE: A
WOMAN OF AFFAIRS

man. Bouriscout went to prison.

Even after Bouriscout had heard his former lover's own confession, he was still convinced that Pei Pu was a woman. Her soft body, their intimate relationship—how could he be wrong? Only when Pei Pu, impris-
The courtesan is meant to
be a half-defined, floating

oned in the same jail, showed him the incontrovertible proof of his sex did
figure never fixing herself
Bouriscout finally accept it.

surely in the imagination.

She is the memory of an

experience, the point at

which a dream is

Interpretation.
The moment Pei Pu met Bouriscout, he realized he had
transformed into reality or
found the perfect victim. Bouriscout was lonely, bored, desperate. The way
reality into a dream. The
he responded to Pei Pu suggested that he was probably also homosexual, or
bright colors fade, her name
becomes a mere echo
—
echo

perhaps bisexual—at least confused. (Bouriscout in fact had had homo-
of an echo, since she has
sexual encounters as a boy; guilty about them, he had tried to repress this
probably adopted it from
side of himself.) Pei Pu had played women's parts before, and was quite
some ancient predecessor.
The idea of the courtesan

good at it; he was slight and effeminate; physically it was not a stretch. But
is a garden of delights in
who would believe such a story, or at least not be skeptical of it?

which the lover walks,

The critical component of Pei Pu's seduction, in which he brought the
smelling first this flower
and then that but never

Frenchman's fantasy of adventure to life, was to start slowly and set up an
understanding whence
idea in his victim s mind. In his perfect French (which, however, was full of
comes the fragrance that
interesting Chinese expressions), he got Bouriscout used to hearing stories
intoxicates him. Why
and tales, some true, some not, but all delivered in that dramatic yet believ-
should the courtesan not
elude analysis? She does

able tone. Then he planted the idea of gender impersonation with his
not want to be recognized

"Story of the Butterfly." By the time he confessed the "truth" of his gen-
for what she is, but rather
der, Bouriscout was already completely enchanted with him.

to be allowed to be potent

and effective. She offers the

Bouriscout warded off all suspicious thoughts because he
wanted
to be-
truth of herself
—o
r, rather,
lieve Pei Pu's story. From there it was easy Pei Pu faked his periods; it didn't
of the passions that become
take much money to get hold of a child he could reasonably pass off as
directed toward her. And
what she gives back is one's

their son. More important, he played the fantasy role to the hilt, remaining
self and an hour of grace in
elusive and mysterious (which was what a Westerner would expect from an
her presence. Love revives
300
•
The Art of Seduction

when you look at her: is
Asian woman) while enveloping his past and indeed their whole experience
that not enough? She is

in titillating bits of history. As Bouriscout later explained, "Pei Pu screwed
the generative force of an

me in the head. . . . I was having relations and in my thoughts, my dreams,
illusion, the birth point of

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

the role. Potemkin was coarse and not at all handsome (he had lost an eye
the person of an English

girl of twenty with a

in an accident). But he knew how to make Catherine laugh, and he wor
beautiful face and a perfect
shiped her so intensely that she eventually succumbed. He quickly became
figure. He has had a

the love of her life.

Greek costume made for

her which becomes her

Catherine promoted Potemkin higher and higher in the hierarchy,

extremely. Dressed in this,

eventually making him the governor of White Russia, a large southwestern
he lets down her hair and,

area including the Ukraine. As governor, Potemkin had to leave St. Peters
with a few shawls, gives so
burg and go to live in the south. He knew that Catherine could not do
much variety to her poses,

gestures, expressions, etc.

without male companionship, so he took it upon himself to name Cather
that the spectator can
ine's subsequent
vremienchiki.
She not only approved of this arrangement,
hardly believe his eyes. He

she made it clear that Potemkin would always remain her favorite.

sees what thousands of

artists would have liked to

Catherine's dream was to start a war with Turkey, recapture Constan-
Confuse Desire and Reality
—
The Perfect Illusion
•
301

tinople for the Orthodox Church, and drive the Turks out of Europe. She
express realized before him
offered to share this crusade with the young Hapsburg emperor, Joseph II,
in movements and
surprising transformations
—

but Joseph never quite brought himself to sign the treaty that would unite
standing, kneeling, sitting,
them in war. Growing impatient, in 1783 Catherine annexed the Crimea, a
reclining, serious, sad,
southern peninsula that was mostly populated by Muslim Tartars. She asked
playful, ecstatic, contrite,
Potemkin to do there what he had already managed to do in the Ukraine—
alluring, threatening,
anxious, one pose follows

rid the area of bandits, build roads, modernize the ports, bring prosperity
another without a break.
to the poor. Once he had cleaned it up, the Crimea would make the per-
She knows how to arrange
fect launching post for the war against Turkey

the folds of her veil to

match each mood, and has

The Crimea was a backward wasteland, but Potemkin loved the chal-
a hundred ways of turning
lenge. Getting to work on a hundred different projects, he grew intoxicated
it into a headdress. The old
with visions of the miracles he would perform there. He would establish a
knight idolizes her and is
quite enthusiastic about

capital on the Dnieper River, Ekaterinoslav ("To the glory of Catherine"),
everything she does. In her
that would rival St. Petersburg and would house a university outshining
he has found all the
anything in Europe. The countryside would hold endless fields of corn, or-
antiquities, all the profiles
of Sicilian coins, even the

chards with rare fruits from the Orient, silkworm farms, new towns with
Apollo Belvedere. This
bustling marketplaces. On a visit to the empress in 1785, Potemkin talked
much is certain: as a
of these things as if they already existed, so vivid were his descriptions. The
performance it's like
empress was delighted, but her ministers were skeptical—Potemkin loved
nothing you ever saw before
in your life. We have

to talk. Ignoring their warnings, in 1787 Catherine arranged for a tour
already enjoyed it on two
of the area. She asked Joseph II to join her—he would be so impressed
evenings."
with the modernization of the Crimea that he would immediately sign on —FLORA FRASER, for the war against Turkey. Potemkin, naturally, was to organize the whole
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON

affair.

And so, in May of that year, after the Dnieper had thawed, Catherine prepared for a journey from Kiev, in the Ukraine, to Sebastopol, in the
For this uncanny is in
Crimea. Potemkin arranged for seven floating palaces to carry Catherine
reality nothing new or
and her retinue down the river. The journey began, and as Catherine,
alien, but something which
is familiar and old-

Joseph, and the courtiers looked at the shores to either side, they saw tri-
established in the mind
umphal arches in front of clean-looking towns, their walls freshly painted;
and which has become
healthy-looking cattle grazing in the pastures; streams of marching troops
alienated from it only
through the process of

on the roads; buildings going up everywhere. At dusk they were enter-
repression. This reference to
tained by bright-costumed peasants, and smiling girls with flowers in their
the factor of repression
hair, dancing on the shore. Catherine had traveled through this area many
enables us, furthermore, to
understand Schelling's

years before, and the poverty of the peasantry there had saddened her—she
definition of the uncanny
had determined then that she would somehow change their lot. To see be-
as something which ought
fore her eyes the signs of such a transformation overwhelmed her, and she
to have remained hidden
berated Potemkin's critics: Look at what my favorite has accomplished,
but has come to light. . . .

• . . .
There is one more

look at these miracles!

point of general application

They anchored at three towns along the way, staying in each place in a
which I should like to add.
magnificent, newly built palace with artificial waterfalls in the English-style
. . . This is that an
uncanny efect is often and