Tags: relationships | seduction | self help

Playing the game - It's the ultimate guide to getting a girl.

I never thought that any of those self-help books ever worked. Like Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, or How To Make A Woman Want You!, or Guide to Tantric Sex. Well, at least the first two. This was till I read Neil Strauss' The Game.

To be honest, I'm still not too sure how much of it is fiction, how much of it is fact, and how much of it he daydreamed happening, and convinced himself it happened. Still, the scenarios he paints are too true. Ugly men surrounded by the beautiful women.

With dozens of guys around them, much better looking, wondering exactly why these women are dating these ugly people. Still, The Game makes for an excellent read, whether you're a believer in the techniques Strauss suggests to pick up the ladies, or you're just in need for a good laugh like me.

Through his alter-ego, Style, Neil explores the world of cyber geeks who are PUAs, or pickup artists. Men who have developed skills to pick up any woman they want, from the hottest Playmate of the Year, to the Roseanne Barr lookalike sitting at a corner of the bar chugging away beers like tomorrow's Sunday.

Some of those methods are so tacky it simply leaves you amazed that they actually work. However, Strauss insists that the entire text is reality, something that really did happen, although I highly suspect that it's a ruse to see how many men actually attempt the techniques he suggests to pick up the ladies. I have to agree that some of them do work (e.g. ignoring the hot girl to get her attention), though obviously not all the time.

Still, I ought to play devil's advocate, and point out that this is a highly chauvinist book, from a feminist point of view. In the book, women are reduced to nothing more than conquests, and nymphomaniacs who are just embarrassed to admit they are. Rather like pornography, it is empowering for a woman, who are usually repressed by society sexually, but also rather demeaning, because it reduces them to nothing more than just sexual creatures seeking approval from a man.

Strauss encourages the patriarchal hierarchy of society by encouraging the use of these pickup lines and methods. Thus, The Game is an excellent book for the ladies to read, to learn the cheap lines the men throw at you and slam it right back in their faces.

Yet at the same time, Strauss demonstrates another side to men: the weak side, which is hidden by a series of conquests that really mean nothing. He starts off with one of their great PUAs in a suicidal frenzy, a broken shell of failure which thousands of one-night stands fail to overcome.

The Game is a fascinating read into the world of one-night stands, and the value of relationships. It is also an interesting view into the world of men, egos, and the meaning of gender. Strauss does not hide the fact that he is not a real Casanova, just a false front. However, he succeeds in demonstrating the superficiality of society, and how appearances are often far from reality. The weaving of anecdote and self-help guide into a complete structure makes the book irresistible. Most significantly, Strauss qualifies his book at the very end, much like Chaucer and the Gawain poet, with a pointed truth.

"... I've learned everything there is about attraction, seduction, and courtship in the past two years, I learned nothing about maintaining a healthy relationship."

Getting a girl isn't everything; you have to be able to keep her. But it's a good start.

FASTSEDUCTION. COM

It can be tricky to know where to look for information about seduction. There are plenty of books in the book shops about relationships, but where do you look if that's not what you're really looking for? Where does the healthy, red-blooded male go for proper information? About the thing we really want ... you guys know what I mean...

You want to get laid, or get laid more. Let's not beat about the bush, but dive straight in. You might want to try typing in a few select words like "seduction", "get laid", or "meeting women" into an internet search engine. You'll find that there is tons of stuff out there. Which brings us to your next problem - How do you know whether or not any of this information is any good?

Because you landed on www.fastseduction.com. This is a gigantic site and is probably one of the best places to look for information on seduction, and is in fact the source of most of Strauss' book. They have an excellent beginner's guide; host the moderated alt.seduction.fast newsgroup; have reviews of seduction products; have archives of posts written by guys who have huge amounts of experience with women and also there are links to lots of other worthwhile resources from this site. Every thing you need to be the perfect Casanova.