"The Game" My Mind is Blown.
Last night I finished "The Game" by Neil Strauss (a.k.a Style) and I
did not sleep for the rest of the night. So many profound and eye
opening and enlightening words hit me. I am usually not
too much of a gullible, but I believe most of this story, and I will
explain why throughout my monologue below.
First off, my one-man-discussion here will have some spoilers, so if
you are not done reading the book, look below with caution. Instead
of recapping all the events in the book (reviews like that can be found
anywhere else) I'm going to just write about how each section affected
me personally.
The story starts off with Mystery breaking down. This is a taste of
what goes on later in the novel. Over the past year, I have seen
Mystery on various DVD's and read his posts. I looked up to him as the
pinnacle of Pick Up and Alphaness. I admired him, respected him, and
felt that if I were one day at his ability I'd be "set." Well,
fantasy and imagination are by definition not reality. Mystery is
filled with character flaws and now I look at him more now as an
incredible improv actor, able to do an act and interact in real life
with women. Before I looked to him as the God of Pick Up.
Now Mystery feels more human. I feel I can, with a few years of strict
practice, attain his level and go beyond. I feel I could handle the
situations he encountered in the novel; though I must add, I definitely
feel for him. I could sense the rage he was going through and I'd
probably get equally angry but not become that aggressive. However, I
am yet to get into such a horrible situation as that.
TylerDurden. Eloquent forum poster, large following, huge influence.
Its almost hard to believe the things I read about him. Tyler is made
out to be a deceitful, deceptive, double-crossing, backstabbing,
emotionless, unsympathetic con-man. When I read his posts a few months
ago, I looked up to him and saw Tyler as this individual who started on
the path to PUA-dome at the lowest level and through intuition and
experimentation, figured out how to play the game. I felt like I could
relate to him on many levels.
However, I've always heard bad things about him on the side lines...
Gunwitch was always bitching about him (for good reason I realize), my
wing man Jules who did a workshop with Tyler looked down on him, an
individual I PM'd with on a different forum about RSD told me, in
confidence, how horrible Tyler was as a person and how fake and
ungenuine he was.*Note: This is only what I heard. I don't mean to affect Tyler's bushiness by putting up bad claims. I have never met Tyler so I am saying this now: do not take my word for this. This is just my journal. I am actually a bit intrigued to meet Tyler now and see what his game is like. Tyler if you are reading this, don't take what I say personally. Take it as initiative to change for the better (or to show the community what you are really about and prove Style wrong). Afterall this is what the community is really meant for. Positive change geared towards seduction. Tyler is probably one of those guys whom you either hate or like because I have read some good things about him too.*
So reading about Tyler in the book sealed the deal. Normally I'd think
an author, like Style, would be exaggerating just so he could create a
good story, but something in me says that Style's depiction was
honest in his perspective. Whether or not Style put harsher dialog, or decorated Tyler's dark image with soul-bleeding adjectives, the overall image of Tyler sounded right.
Assuming Style was 100% honest, I now pity Tyler, yet still his writings are some of the best I have ever read. He is like a guy who knows how to socialize, he knows how to
be the coolest guy ever, yet he chooses not to, or he just doesn't know
how to internalize those beliefs. I recall having a discussion with my
wing from San Diego, Tom who look(ed) up to Tyler very much. He was
even considering taking a bootcamp with Tyler individually. My debate with Tom was my theory that most people start off a Key Board Jockey (iow: an arm-chair seductionist) because they need to express their thoughts, write them down, make discussion about them in an
effort to sort through their mind-clutter and make use of their
knowledge. I am guilty of this, though not anymore. (That is, I don't
make statements or state facts about Pick Up unless I know 100% that
they work. Else, I'll put a disclaimer). I even suggested that Tyler
was a K.J. I could tell by his writing style. His thoughts were so
woven together that his reality was rooted in his postings. Well,
unfortunately I may have been right after reading what Style wrote.
Still, it is Style's word against Tyler's. This book is written in
Style's opinion and there is nothing I can say beyond that. Now when I
read Tylers post, I feel I am also searching for clues on his mental
state. Its kind of fun now, but for different reasons. I feel like I
want to meet Tyler and give him my own advice. Hah, I want to meet
Tyler and help him out. Though I am not that good at PU yet, I have a
feeling I understand his reality. Then again, Tyler could be just down
right evil, but I sort of doubt that. I think he is just confused. Very
confused. Though he may be writing genius articles and be dead on 100%
with his analysis of the game, I think he is confused as to what to
really do with that knowledge.
From the looks of it, it seems Tyler doesn't get much more success than
me and my natural friends. Then again, that could just be Style AMOGing
Tyler :)
Papa.. Papa.. I met this guy once. I know exactly what Style meant when
he described Papa as having that robotic stare. When I met Papa in the
field (I think I talked about this a few months back when I started the
blog), Papa did not go into rapport with me. That is, when I met him,
he sort of just nodded at me, gave me a blank stare and didn't really
act like anything. He just seemed to take up space. I didn't really
know what to make of it. At first I, like the AFC I was, thought I was
coming across needy. Then I thought Papa was just too busy focusing on
his students (even though it seemed like he was just blankly staring),
yet now I just realize that Papa is a social robot. He wasn't programmed
to talk to me at that instant, so he just looked at me like a pup.
The least Papa could do was chat me up as if I were a future customer.
(or who knows. He could have had a very shitty day and was tired)
Either case, this book was about the most inspiring writing I ever put
my eyes on from pages 1-350 about. After that he starts falling in love
with Lisa and writes about how all his hard earned PU skills failed him
and only his old AFC mannerisms won over his wonder woman. I couldn't tell if
he was serious about that or wrote it to appeal to his average audience. Who
knows, maybe it was true. I met Lisa for about 5 seconds at the book
singing. She told me, along with Style to get rid of my undershirts
(which I have now :)) and then she told me I was cute. Hah! Though, she
said it in a half dismissing way, like she didn't want me to say 'thank
you'. Honestly, a year ago I'd be scared shitless of her, she had a
different vibe from most girls. She's the type most guys would be too
scared to talk to and develop fears over women after. Haha, Style if
you are reading this, good work, but its hard to believe all you had to
do to sarge her was just be your old AFC self. Maybe I need to reread
the section. Style, I am sure your body language and mannerism were
Alpha and even though you claimed to say AFC things to her, it didn't
matter at that point.
However, even though I did not relate to the last 100 or so pages, this
book is my greatest inspiration. I want to open every girl who looks my
way with some simple opinion question. I want to make my own unique and
original openers. I don't want to use Jealous Girlfriend or whatever. I
want to come up and perfect my own. None of this social robot shit, I
want to be the social manipulator.
In the end, my favorite character was Mystery. I feel that if I were to
let go of my self control, I'd be like Mystery. When I saw him do his
performances, when I read his writings I relate to him on a very deep
level. (I'm not sure if that is him sarging me through writing or
whatever). Nevertheless, I will never be Mystery. I never had an abusive
villain in my childhood, though I was picked on a lot (at least to my
taste. I have a lower threshold, so only a little bullying will get me
very upset... I'll address this later when I write my entry on MindOS).
And, now that I read about him in Style's book I feel I know him. For
example, the section where he is in the car with Style in that foreign
country, and even though all this bad shit is about to happen with the
solders, Mystery is just so caught up in his own reality about things and obsessing over his illusionist skills. I have been like that a few times, but I recall my Mom (or maybe
brother or even friends, I guess I blocked it out) frowning on me and
telling me to shut up. Though I didn't lash out (I never seem to lash
out) I suppressed the feeling.
I need to meet Mystery to actually confirm this. Perhaps its just my
imagination filling in the gaps in my head and making me think I
understand Mystery. I'd feel weird being taught by him now. I find it
amazing he has learned and figured out the things he has. I also found
it hard to believe he can't pull off a threesome, considering how good
he is at gaming and how fast he seems to learn from his mistakes.
I similarly looked up to Tyler through his writings, but the thing
about Tyler was I never liked his body language when I saw him on
DVD's. There was something not right about him. I didn't want to admit it because I looked up to him so much.
In the end, this book has changed the way I view pick up. Style wrote a thread a long time ago on the Dark side of community. I was clearly leaning toward the Dark side: i.e., becoming a social robot who cannot trust women. Click Here
I want pick up to be a focus for only a few years of my life, then I want to be in healthy long term relationships with (probably) only one woman, though we'll see if more than one woman would be right for me. Notice that I am not saying "I hope..." I am stating this in clear verbs. I know I will master Pick Up if I stick to it. That is the most important thing I re-learned after reading this book.
Throughout life I was under the impression if something is too good to be true (or too "far out there" and left of center) it probably was not true. I have a feeling Style antagonized Tyler to make for a better story. Its just so hard to imagine Tyler acting like a social neurotic after all the genius stuff he posted.
Right now I'd only want to learn pick up from Mystery, Style, or Fidentia. Though I would definitely buy Tyler a drink if I met him up in a bar. Tyler needs to prove to the community that he isn't evil. Same with Papa.
Mystery needs to read Dr. Paul's MindOS (lol). I think Mystery just needs a girl to love and worship him in the end. Mystery doesn't seem to have "thick skin" or a mature boundary. This doesn't mean he isn't a genius. Its weird how I admire Mystery with all his character flaws but I am reluctant to think of Tyler in a good light. Even though the book was a negative representation of Tyler, I still know a lot about him otherwise.
I am not saying this to appease anyone. This is fact. This book is required reading for anyone in the community. This is like the bible to pick up; that is, everyone who is part of this pick up community should read it. Hell, get it a library if you are too cheap to buy it or read it in a book store :-)
The first 350 pages I give this book a 10/10
Page 350 till the end, I'd give it about a 7/10.
However, the first 350 pages are so awesome, it makes up for it all. This book has deep inner game, deep outer game, and a fucking awesome story. I hope to meet Style again one day, till then the next PUA on my list to hunt down and meet is Mystery.
I should have a review of Dr. Paul's MindOS soon, hopefully before I get back to college. After that I will get a hold of Fidentia's "Attract and Date" 8 CD set (both linked to the left) and write up a report on that. I'm not sure how the Attract and Date exercises are organized, but I'll adapt to it and write a review of each exercise or something. Not sure yet, but stay tuned!
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