The Baddest-Ass Book in the World
Ship it! Gear is about superlatives, not about comparatives. So in that line of thought, here is a post about the baddest-ass book ever, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, by Neil Strauss.
Whether or not you respect, admire, loathe, or envy pick up artists, the shit they can pull off and some of their stories are just amazing. From celebrities to home-town honies, the book details the methods, the lifestyle, the people, and the craziness associated with the seduction community. If it were not clearly stated that everything in the book was real, it would instantly be forgotten as a tale too extraordinary to be believable and had 70% of the initial print sent back to be burned by the publisher. But it’s all true, and you laugh out loud, gasp in amazement, and learn some tricks along the way.
The tone for the book is set on the first page, the dedication:
Dedicated to the thousands of people I talked to in bars, clubs, malls, airports, grocery stores, subways, and elevators over the last two years.
If you are reading this, I want you to know that I wasn’t running game on you. I was being sincere. Really. You were different.
The book is also realistic, and is not afraid to show some of the negatives of such a lifestyle and outlook, while highlighting the positives. The ride is awesome. Sometimes you are led to self-pity and humiliation lamenting the fact that you have never had back to back threesomes in consecutive nights, or never picked up a 10 body 10 face blond in a bar full of better looking, richer guys. Sometimes you are validated, by how you’ve always thought of girls, or how you’re just a natural bad ass, pullin off shit guys read books and spent months practicing (such as getting 37 number-closes in a night, making out with a girl after 10 minutes of meeting her, or sitting a table full of girls and making them all love you)
The best part is the protagonist and author. Starting somewhat nerdy, AFC (another fuckin’ chump) as he would say, he emerges as the preeminent pickup artist. It’s not so much about what he learns, but what he was being able to come out and be more confident.
And some of the lines are indeed memorable. Such as the “Jealous girlfriend” opener, asking an innocuous question about a friend whose girlfriend is really jealous and wants to burn his old pictures of her. It’s not lying, it’s flirting, and besides, everyone has a friend in that situation (or similar). The brilliance is that it’s not hitting on them, and you can easily start a conversation. Great.
Even for you girls, before you start thinking this is just another misogynistic post, read the book. Why not understand better what guys are thinking, what games they are playing, to better defend yourself and see through such actions. And you will most likely learn things about yourself and how you act and react that you probably hadn’t thought about.
So read it, live it, learn from it, and roll deep.