The Game
The Game is a book written by author and self-proclaimed greatest Pick-Up Artist in the world, Neil Strauss. The Game chronicles Strauss’ journey as he delved into the hidden community of online seducers and latter day Casanovas ploughing through his fear of talking to women- even if only to ask directions on the street- to bedding porn stars and celebrities.
The Game features the most prominent Pick-Up Artists in the world and though not strictly a ‘how to’ guide it still featured on the New York Times best sellers list during September and October 2005 and was the best selling book on Amazon.com soon after its release. The book also features celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears- who incidentally exchanged telephone numbers with Strauss during an interview.
Sub-plots are incorporated into The Game with Strauss detailing his attempts at altering his sleeping regime and obvious references to pop culture such as the film Fight Club- in fact, one prominent Pick-Up Artist takes the pseudonym Tyler Durden- main character of said film.
The Game’s publishing came with some criticism from many angles. Those in the seduction community that Strauss chronicled became anxious that the book would steer their establishment towards the main stream exposing their practices thus rendering them useless. Others were critical of Strauss’ intentions claiming that the book was a publicity stunt used to further his writing career whilst spinning money.
Other criticisms of The Game came from feminists who claimed that the book was written with undertones of misogyny as the rating of the appearance of women using a scale of 1-10 to judge their value in the eyes of Pick-Up Artists objectified women. This was countered by Strauss who levelled the claim that men were in the same vein ‘valued’ by women according to signals such as wealth and that rating a woman’s appearance was merely an attempt at verbalising an evolutionary process that men undertake when assessing the suitability of potential mates.
The Game paved the way for the establishment amongst mainstream media of projects such as a documentary aired on British TV called ‘Seduction School’ where a commercial Pick-Up Artist was enlisted to turn around the fortunes of 3 men with lacklustre love lives. Sony have enlisted director Chris Weitz to turn The Game from paper to film roll in a movie due for release in 2007.
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