On Mon, 21 Jun 2004, Philip Hart wrote: >On Sun, 20 Jun 2004, David Silberstein wrote: > >> The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont are both >> serious Yendis trying to out-Yendi each other. > >I'd think their plans are much too straightforward for Yendis. >They're rather more like Athyras (or I should say athyras) in a world >where sex is magic, or Dzurs in a society where sex is violence. Thinking about it, sex isn't even the point for them; they've become jaded with anything so straightforward as pleasure for its own sake. It's the manipulation & cruelty; the power trip they get from manipulating their *chosen* targets of seduction, rather than seduction in itself. Or so it seemed to me. Anyway, they're Yendis all the way down.