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The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
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The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists is a non-fictional book written by investigative reporter Neil Strauss as a chronicle of his journey from "average frustrated chump" to "master pickup artist" using techniques devised by a self-help network of men developing the art of seduction with women.
In the book, he adopts the pseudonym Style and details encounters with women as he studies with "experts" at seducing women. The book's publication began an explosion of pick-up artist jargon and reveals inside events in the rapidly-growing Mystery Method company (now renamed to Love Systems) of 2004.
The book was featured on the New York Times Bestseller List for two months after its release in September 2005, reaching prominence again in 2007 during the broadcast of the hit series, VH1's The Pick-Up Artist.
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Encyclopedia
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists is a non-fictional book written by investigative reporter Neil Strauss as a chronicle of his journey from "average frustrated chump" to "master pickup artist" using techniques devised by a self-help network of men developing the art of seduction with women.
In the book, he adopts the pseudonym Style and details encounters with women as he studies with "experts" at seducing women. The book's publication began an explosion of pick-up artist jargon and reveals inside events in the rapidly-growing Mystery Method company (now renamed to Love Systems) of 2004.
The book was featured on the New York Times Bestseller List for two months after its release in September 2005, reaching prominence again in 2007 during the broadcast of the hit series, VH1's The Pick-Up Artist. In its original published hardcover format, the book was covered in black leather and bookmarked with red satin, similar to some printings of the Christian Bible. Televised news programs criticized the book as a demonic "bible" of seduction arts, a criticism made true in part by the scores of love-shy men who avidly studied the book for inspiration. Despite the reputation that The Game has received as an expose on the seduction community, it was primarily written as an autobiographical work.
Plot
The book is narrated by protagonist Neil Strauss with emphasis on the personal transformation he undergoes to become an "influential member of the seduction community". The dominant theme throughout the book is the doctrine of "the Venusian Arts" as taught to Neil by the Community. Although several wide-ranging beliefs and ideals for the perfect seducer are presented, Strauss takes after Mystery and his Mystery Method, providing what could be considered a literary endorsement for Mystery.
Strauss meets the Community
By chance Strauss is asked to write a news article on a popular online document called the LayGuide. Immediately after reading the online book, Neil is stunned and searches eagerly for more information on the study of male-to-female seduction. Spending months absorbing the lingo and literature online, he discovers a course offered in Los Angeles by instructor 'Mystery'.
Mystery, a tall charismatic magician, is the most respected in the seduction community for his tried techniques (termed the Mystery Method), which he posts online. Through popular demand on the Internet, he begins traveling to teach workshops and personally coach men who struggle to attract women. At his first class, he teaches Neil Strauss and two other students an entirely new approach to women; they adopt canned lines, ways to dress, and develop more confident, sociable personalities.
Strauss learns, in his interaction with Mystery, to actively show disinterest in a female while revealing her attraction. Postponing male-to-female interest, he learns, allows the pickup artist to reverse normally-accepted gender roles in social interaction.
The christening of "Style"
Neil quickly becomes a good friend of Mystery's and accompanies him during workshops. Under Mystery's advice, Neil renames himself Style, a pseudonym symbolic of his induction as a pick-up artist; in addition, he received orders to shave his hair and have corrective eye surgery. Style complies, but formulates a less than wholesome view of Mystery.
As they pursue Slavic women in the Balkans, Mystery becomes irritable. A lack of attention made him frustrated, causing a fit in the car. Sobbing hysterically, Mystery reveals that his father was both verbally and physically abusive. This, teamed with emotional distance from his mother, he claims, left him love-starved and unfulfilled as a child.
Style abhors Mystery's cries for attention and takes time to investigate the plethora of techniques and methods available from other gurus. He meets with David DeAngelo, Ross Jeffries, Nick Savoy and many notables throughout the book, incorporating their ideas selectively into what he does.
Project Hollywood
Style joins the seduction community as a full-fledged member, working with Mystery's company, the Mystery Method Corporation (renamed to Love Systems in 2007). He teaches workshops and becomes a proficient pickup practitioner. He feels enlightened and content as a pickup artist. At the same time, Mystery has a depressive episode and requires hospitalization.
As the new leader, Style watches the seduction community expand rapidly from the Internet and word-of-mouth at college campuses. He is inspired by an interview with Tom Cruise, convinced that the Mystery Method, like Scientology, could become a Hollywood hit. Style launches Project Hollywood, a cult-like subculture in Hollywood, California. With the rehabilitated Mystery, he and the group rent a mansion there and gain fame dating the hottest celebrities in the city.
However the group soon went their own ways. As Style describes, between graphic sexual descriptions, members had an ongoing power struggle between competing companies in the house (Real Social Dynamics and Mystery Method). A 'growing conspiracy' slowly removes Mystery from the house; when his girlfriend cheats on him with one of his best friends, he sinks into a bout of depression. The group decides to kick him out of the house, effectively removing the Mystery Method Company. The Community as a whole reaches a peak in popularity and Mystery becomes a speaker on several media outlets during early 2005.
Style is left dispirited after Mystery leaves. He leaves the mansion now run exclusively by Real Social Dynamics. The anticipated "cultural revolution" he and Mystery hoped to achieve now existed as detached groups across the country, each run by former students.
Other works
A companion to The Game, called Rules of the Game by Neil Strauss, containing two parts, The Stylelife Challenge and The Style Diaries, was released on December 18, 2007.
Sony optioned the rights to make the book into a film, and comedy director Chris Weitz signed on to helm the project for Columbia Pictures. Spyglass Entertainment has since obtained the rights to the film, with screenwriter Dan Weiss adapting the book into a screenplay.
See also
External links
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