The art of sound pictures (1930)

158 THE ART OF SOUND PICTURES man, are merely designed to enhance her charms and make them so irresistible that her lover will leave all other pursuits of life for her. Love is an attraction. The fleeing woman is like a magnet, and her pursuing lover a bit of soft iron attracted irresistibly toward the feminine magnet. Experimental studies have shown that man’s erotic emotions contain a prevailing element of passion, while the erotic excitement of woman is largely of the captivating variety. Passion is the self -surrendering aspect of erotic emotion. Captivation is the active, attracting aspect. With the idea of the attracting magnet in mind, let us think of captivation as the conscious pull of the love magnet, and passion as the conscious yielding of the soft iron to the magnet’s attraction. Passion is a complex emotion made up of submission and inducement. A man sees a beautiful dancer. He feels irresistibly excited and stirred by her grace and physical charms. At one and the same time, he wishes to give himself to this beautiful woman utterly, to throw himself at her feet and beg her to use him as she will, and to seize her, to possess her, and to make her subject to his will. The first set of impulses are all submissive. The second group of emotional feelings are inducive. The excited male wishes both to submit to and to induce the dancer, and he experiences that peculiar excitement, erotic emotion. Captivation is the control which beautiful women have always exercised over men. Men who have yielded themselves to woman’s erotic charm feel passion with a predominant element of submission. Woman’s body is adapted by nature to control the love relationship, while