To please and to excite: An essay on the seduction society

By: Gilles Lipovetsky

Published by: Anagrama

ISBN: 9788433964601

Softcover. 504 pages. 14.5 x 22.6 cm

Language: Spanish

The various dimensions of seduction in contemporary society: erotic, political, economic and educational.

Racine says in the prologue to Berenice that "the main rule is to please and thrill: all the others are only made to achieve this first one". To please, to thrill: in other words, to seduce. In this book Gilles Lipovetsky approaches the subject from two angles. Firstly, erotic seduction, from the mechanisms of courtship in primitive societies to internet portals for finding a partner or flirting. But there is a second, broader field; in our current society, seduction techniques are also applied in other domains: the economy, politics, education, the media... We are entering what the author calls consumerist womanising.

The imperative no longer seems to be to oblige, order, discipline and repress, but to please and excite through seduction. The seduction that envelops us provokes the emergence of a hypertrophied individualisation in relation to the other, it generates a way of intervening in the behaviour of individuals and of governing them in liberal democratic societies. This essay deals precisely and in depth with these mechanisms and how they affect our lives.