In this issue …
- Seduction tips of a ‘philandering adventurer’
- Extraordinary out-of-favour poetry
- On woman’s prodigious carnal powers
Dear Reader,
Yes, it’s been a while since I published the previous, and first, issue of The Cupid’s School Classic Love Seduction Bulletin.
In the meantime, though, I’ve equipped you with a potent, and more or less comprehensive, tool-kit of seductive social skills for engaging the woman you want in seductive conversation. I’ve also introduced you, if introduction was needed, to the more substantial, or substantive, art of self-cultivation through transcendent literary culture … in the nascent Cupid’s School Literary Guide to Life.
And now, albeit a little later than I’d anticipated, here, at last, is the second issue of The Cupid’s School Classic Love Seduction Bulletin. This then is your periodic digest of love-seduction and literary-related content I’ve espied abroad.
And so, once again, I think, like me, you’re likely to find the following links helpful or, otherwise, interesting …
Seduction tips of a ‘philandering adventurer’
Some time ago now, I stumbled upon an intriguing article containing, what’s described as, Russell Brand’s ‘six-point plan for success with the ladies’. This article then proffers six insightful seduction principles that are attributed to the charming, and notoriously amorous, Mr. Brand.
What’s more, I think our patron poet Ovid would endorse these clearly instructive tips.
Undoubtedly then, Russell’s insights mirror some of the timeless precepts in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (Art of Love).
And so, this ‘gauche philandering adventurer’ (as Russell’s said to have ‘branded’ himself) begins ‘his six-point plan’ with an enduring principle that resembles the transcendent literary culture philosophy of Cupid’s School:
Seduction is all about offering an alternative to the quotidian.
All of us are trying to escape the tedium. Women want adventure.
That’s my No.1 assumption. You’re schooled in certain ideas; you read poetry, see paintings, listen to music and ideas of romance and intrigue are reinforced in your mind. If you can appear to be those things, there’s been a global marketing campaign since the dawn of time supporting the very things you’re saying.
In the words of Thomas Yalden then, ‘There’s more requir’d in love than empty show’. And so, likewise, the second book of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (Art of Love), furnishes similar advice for the aspirant lover:
Then cultivate thy mind with wit and fame,
Those lasting charms survive the fun’ral flame.
With arts and sciences your breast improve,
Of high import are languages in love:
Meanwhile, you can read and reflect on the rest of Russell’s ‘six-point plan for success with the ladies’ at GQ.
Out-of-favour poetry – amongst ‘the most skillful, brilliant, witty, invigorating, funny, sometimes dirty poetry ever written’
Having been aptly prompted now to attend to the arts, the next item in this bulletin is thus devoted to literary culture. It’s an erudite and accessible lecture, which I recently discovered, on Restoration and eighteenth century poetic form. In particular then, this lecture considers ‘the heroic couplet and its genesis in English poetry’.
This is a must-listen, I think, for aspirant poets and lovers, alike, who aspire then, as Ovid sagely advises in his Ars Amatoria (Art of Love), to enlarge their eloquence and wit.
This lecture then is the first of a series entitled Restoration and 18th Century Poetry: From Dryden to Wordsworth, a free course at Open Culture.
Taught by William Flesch at Brandeis University, this course offers a survey of poetry that’s out of favor. But it turns out to be among the most skillful, brilliant, witty, invigorating, funny, sometimes dirty poetry ever written. (The dirty poetry is definitely NSFW. It may not even be safe for consenting adults.) Coverage goes from the urbane civic poetry of Dryden and his contemporaries to the beginnings of the intense subjectivity of Romanticism, with attention to the continuities between these wildly different schools.
What’s more, this is a particularly pertinent topic here at Cupid’s School. That’s because it was ‘the god-like Dryden‘, as he’s described in this lecture, who, during this period, translated the first book of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (Art of Love) in heroic (rhyming pentameter) couplets. That’s the poetic form then that’s featured in this lecture. And, that’s the classic English translation that’s contained in the unprecedented The Word of Venus editions of Ovid’d amorous art.
And so, to whet your appetite, here are some highlights then from this illuminating lecture:
It’s a very restricted form. But the very restriction of the form means that the writers of the couplet have to be extremely inventive in how they use the form. So the general interplay in poetry is between restriction and resourcefulness; between being constrained and finding some freedom within those very constraints. One really interesting thing about 18th century poetry is that you can learn a whole lot about that central poetic fact, in very concentrated measure, if you study the heroic couplet.
Meanwhile, it’s these very constraints that make The Word of Venus translations so elegant and epigrammatic … and thus so memorably pithy and pleasing to read.
What’s more, whilst considering a particular heroic couplet from Alexander Pope‘s poem entitled An Essay on Criticism, the lecturer, William Flesch, makes some apt and timely comments on the illuminating – and, I think, revelatory – essential nature of poetry:
‘True wit is nature to advantage dress’d, | [What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d,]’ […] What that would mean is something that anyone can recognise. It’s not that they need to be convinced of it. It’s they see it but now they see it somehow more strikingly and pungently than they’ve seen it before. True wit is reducing some important observation to a really snappy couplet. That’s essentially what it’s saying. […] This is what Pope says poetry should be doing.
And, indeed, this is, I think, what Ovid achieves in his Ars Amatoria (Art of Love). Plus, it’s what The Word of Venus translations of his timeless amorous art so elegantly render and reflect … in, none other than, heroic couplets.
And so, you can listen to William Flesch’s erudite and instructive Introduction to Restoration and Eighteenth Century Poetry at Open Culture.
On female sexuality – ‘so powerful it’s intimidating’
And finally, to round out this issue of The Cupid’s School Classic Love Seduction Bulletin, we’ve a intriguing, myth-busting article on female sexuality. Its author, Anna Pulley, thus considers some extraordinary attributes of this marvellous but frequently, more or less, arcane phenomenon:
Here are a bunch of reasons to feel awesome about female sexuality, which is, as a friend put it, “so powerful it’s intimidating—why else would there be such a war on it?”
You can read Anna’s illuminating article then on woman’s prodigious carnal powers at AlterNet.
Ovid’s Art of Love – The timeless love seduction road-map
Are you frustrated or, otherwise, disenchanted by the women you’re meeting and the frequently dogmatic seduction ideas and merchants of our time?
I often felt that way myself. That is, before I fully discovered the finer points, and overall profundity, of our patron poet Ovid’s classic love seduction masterpiece Ars Amatoria (Art of Love).
These bulletins then nicely complement Ovid’s extraordinary series of love seduction manuals, which simply abound with timeless (and, indeed, poetic) amorous insight and inspiration. In my experience, Ovid’s amorous art is the optimum map to read on the road of love seduction, without getting lost en route.
These extraordinary books then are succinctly packed with a rare hoard of timeless, and time-tested, dazzlingly witty epigrammatic tips, for both men and women, on the art of classic love seduction and how to become an extraordinary lover.
What’s more, Ovid’s sage instructions are liberally seasoned throughout with his illuminating figures of speech and his enchanting tales and witty references and allusions from classical mythology and the ancient world. He teaches his art then whilst expanding his student’s imagination and enlarging his or her eloquence and wit.
The Word of Venus abridged editions
And so, I’ve edited and annotated and, indeed, revised and formatted these books to bring you the most accessible and elegant version of each you’ll find available anywhere today.
These then are the unprecedented Word of Venus editions. They’re easy-to-read-and-scan user-friendly manuals for the twenty-first century … and for today’s students, and would-be students, of Ovid’s amorous art.
So, unlock and discover the timeless art of classic love seduction … with The Word of Venus abridged editions of Ovid’s classic love seduction masterpiece Ars Amatoria (Art of Love).
Simply visit wordofvenus.com to get your copies today.
Please note: Cupid’s School is supported by the income generated from selling these books. So, if you like what read here, and accord with this project’s aims, please consider supporting this blog by investing in one or more of these soul-enriching and life-enhancing books.
Quite frankly, though, I think they represent a splendid (and, indeed, priceless) investment in and of themselves.