The Art of Seduction
by Robert Greene
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Book Reviews of The Art of Seduction
Book Review: The ultimate book of deceit or protecting yourself from deceit
Summary: 5 Stars
This book goes hand in hand with Greene's other book, "The 48 Laws of Power". When read together, a big piece of human social interraction will fall into place. Let's face it, there are many predators out there and other than learning the hard way, it would be better to have some sort of warning system or guide to help us along. This book duo is that guide.
"The Art of Seduction" references all the classic literary tomes of the past that were devoted to the pursuit of romance and then the reader is directed to the present and to famous people who practiced these arts to enrich their own lives or get a desired outcome whether positive or negative. The premise of this book is that not all seduction is for romantic outcomes. A boss can be seduced into being more favorable to an employee, for example.
Like "The 48 Laws of Power", the advice in this book sometimes fringes on the amoral while other times goes past amoral and into the realm of deceitful and manipulative. The best rationalization is that human beings are complicated creatures and just because one person is good at heart doesnt mean that everyone they deal with will have the same moral fiber.
There is a certain moral flexibility that people should have in the "real world" in order to become successful or to keep from being made into some kind of corporate pigeon. In short, sometimes you have to do what you dont want to in order to get where you want to be..
We have all been taken advantage of or short-changed in some way. Wouldnt it have been nice to see the writing on the wall and have the power to have changed what it said before it was too late? In nearly everyone's life, there is the one that got away. What would it have been like if there were some tool or some advice available to you at the time that would have helped to bring that certain someone to your embrace?
Some see this book as evil while some see it as normal. Whatever you see it as, know this; This book along with "The 48 Laws of Power" will provide enough information to open your eyes and raise you to a level that will enable you to see now what you likely have missed before. The road back is tougher if you slip and trip along the way.
Book Review: Perceptive and challenging
Summary: 5 Stars
'The Art of Seduction' is about willfully exploiting other people's weaknesses in order to seduce them. The book deals not only with romantic seduction, but also the type of charismatic seduction that allows certain political leaders for example to wield enormous power over the public.
The type of seduction talked about here is more than the everyday level of admiration, it's about how to really get under people skins, how to make them obsessed with you. Not surprisingly the author makes it clear that not everyone can be seduced in this way, that you need to find someone who has some large hole in their character ready to be exploited.
The book is divided into two sections. The first outlines different types of powerfully seductive characters - whose traits you might nurture in yourself. For example, the 'Natural' who embodies childhood, playfulness, spontineity and unpretentiousness. The second half of the book outlines a number of strategies and maneuvers to be employed in the seduction process. One example is to 'Stir up the transgressive and taboo'. Another small section explains a number of 'victim' types, their character weaknesses and how to exploit them. For example you may seduce a 'Professor' type - the intellectual who cannot leave their head, by providing an escape to physicality.
Many points are illustrated using examples from historical and literary figures, including relative recent examples such as JFK.
Although i doubt i will ever consciously use any of the techniques outlined, still I found the book quite perceptive and fascinating. One thing I repeated wondered is why you would want to seduce someone you have such a cynical understanding of the weaknesses of. Still I have no doubt that highly seductive people instinctively employ many of the techniques mentioned. I'm no psychologist, but many of the book's remarks on human nature rang true to me.
I doubt the book's usefulness as a Manual for Seduction (those who need self-help book are no doubt seduced by the idea of this!), but I'd recommend it to anyone with a deep interest in how the world works.
Book Review: A diva/seductress is humbled...
Summary: 5 Stars
This book will change your life--if you're ready for it. I actually bought this book 4 months ago, but never read it. It was just a conversation piece I'd have in my bookshelf. I flipped through the pages and think, "This is really intense." Then I'd put it back on the shelf and read something else. It wasn't until I received it as a gift from my best friend that I actually had the courage to sit down and absorb what lay inside.
This book is perfect for those who are overly romantic, hypersensitive, and think that love is an "all or nothing" quantity. I am all three. :) Or at least I was. The author of this book is brilliant (and did a LOT of homework judging by the material both in the body of the text as well as in the margins). I was impressed (and intimidated) by the density of the book--which is probably why I didn't want to read it at first. It took me about an hour to read 10 pages (not "skim," but "READ"). But I couldn't put it down because I felt that whatever I didn't get to read was making my present-day actions incomplete. (Yup. It's that powerful.)
I devoted a solid week of my time to reading this book (and yes, I do have a job--and a life). It was just that good. I'm actually reading it a second time to make sure what I gleaned remains in my mind. It helps if you're somewhat of an educated individual, though. Some mythological references stirred up things I had learned in middle and high school, so I had to constantly refresh my memory and think, "Oh yeah! I remember that story!"
If you open this book and find it daunting, then you're not ready for it. Simple. But when you are ready for it (or when a third party who loves you and knows you well believes you're ready), you won't want to put it down. It's an amazing text which completely altered how I view both myself and the world around me. If you're open to change, this is the book for you. If not, then you'll probably be a seducer's willing victim somewhere down the road. :)
"You think you know, but you have no idea..."
Book Review: Maybe "All is fair in love and war"?
Summary: 5 Stars
Some reviewers didn't like this book, arguing that seduction, as the author paints it, is manipulative and therefore immoral. They say the author's is a dark art: it is not only itself bad, but never leads to happy, lasting relationships. Some readers liked this book in SPITE of considering it immoral, by admiring the author's dazzling command of both the endless intricacies of seduction, as well as its long history. Others in this camp gave it a backhanded compliment: "This book showed me how to protect myself from the cunning seducers out there". Finally, some reviewers, myself included, liked this book because they believe in some form of the adage: "All's fair in love and war".
For me, the methods of love and war, are in and of themselves neither good nor bad. Both can bring either misery or empowering freedom. So to claim seduction itself is bad is like saying that all war is bad, because its methods are destructive.
You may believe, as I do, that SOMETIMES, "the end justifies the means" (as Machiavelli famously claimed in "The Prince"). If a seduction leads to a lasting, happy relationship (and the author recounts seductions where this was indeed the outcome--Pamela Churchill's seduction of Averell Harriman, and Benjamin Disraeli's over Queen Victoria for ex), then seduction can be used to happy, even virtuous, ends. If a seduction leads to evil (Greene recounts an infamous example of this by Rasputin in Tsarist Russia) then such a seduction,regardless of methods, is itself evil. Finally, sometimes seduction can cause so much "collateral damage", that one may judge it wrong regardless of its aims (e.g. the ruinous and cynical giant deception that Potemkin used to seduce the Empress Catherine, also showcased by Greene).
So, if you like exploring the myriad gray areas of both the art and aims of seduction, and if you like a fascinating historical and psychological read, then don't be daunted by those who paint the art of power and influence in two colors: black and white!
Book Review: good points, tedious language
Summary: 4 Stars
Once one gets over the rather obnoxious sensationalist language the author uses, he has very sound points. People with "natrual" talent (not to be confused with Greene's "The Natural" or "The Child" archetype) will recognize their own intuitive habits described and expounded upon. All the archetypes described are very recognizable from real life; the book does a good job of drawing your attention to things you've already observed but may previously have not paid enough attention to. It is structured in a very useful fashion, with trees of subtypes for every natural behavior pattern. It doesn't encourage you to lie; it merely lists what variants other people of like mind have come up with in the past. If nothing else, it can teach you to recognize your own unbecoming habits and curtail them.
It's a bit of hype to call it a "manual for seduction" - you either have these instincts or you don't. You can hone tactics that work with your own personality, not create a false one. I, for example, will never be the Siren (subtype Sex Siren, personified by Marilyn Monroe) because I just don't posses that fundamental vulnerability and desire to be protected. Playing innocent will always LOOK like "playing" when I do it. The book can't make me something I'm not - it can just educate me to the existence of the type in the world. I am distinctly already "the natural", subtype "undefensive lover," second subtype "imp." I can also see now how I've unwittingly played the charismatic before in large social situations. The book did give me new ideas for how to control and expand this intentionally, but it's like going to school for art or music. It can refine what talent already exists by showing you what other people have come up with in the past, but paying tuition can't make you see aesthetically, or hear a beat, if you don't do it instinctively.
It's also an excellent manual of human archetypes and interactions for writing fiction and theater.