Neil Strauss (Style) Rules of the Game
Neil Strauss’ “Rules of the Game” is the followup to his international bestseller “The Game” that hit stores in September 2005 and blew open the secret world of pickup artists.
It’s funny how a tenuous stream of events can alter your life so drastically. Just over a year ago, long before being aware of the world of pickup, pickup artists (PUAs) an average group of male, university students decided to break the monotony of London life by taking a 36 hour adventure to Sweden – land of beer and blonde bombshells.
None of them had heard of the mPUAs (That’s master pick up artist for the layman) – Neill Strauss aka ‘Style or his mentor Erik Von Markovich aka ‘Mystery’. They knew nothing of ‘openers’, ‘kino’, ‘negs’, ‘peacocking’ (if you think I’ve slipped into a rural Serbian dialect then just read on).
In fact, as I recall there was drinking (and smoking) aplenty and yet despite the apparent abundance of said blonde beauties, interaction with the opposite sex was tantamount to a trip to A&E with a very obese brunette lady (Oh the irony). All in all, as with many testosterone-fuelled adventures, expectation surpassed achievement and just when you though it couldn’t get worse our return flight got delayed by 9 hours. Despite being awake for over a day, fate intervened and pushed away any will to sleep sending me on a trip to the bookshop – almost all the books were in Swedish, all but one.
“The Game” by Neill Strauss sat on a discount shelf and although my instant reaction was ‘well that looks like a bunch of shite!’, fate took over once again, grabbed me by short and curlies (most action I’d got all day) and sent me on a rollercoaster journey through Neil Strauss’ transition from girlfriendless geek (average frustrated chump – AFC) into a master seducer of women at adultfrinendfinder.
But I wont spoil the detail of that adventure for you now, besides you’re behind the times because where his first book took an autobiographical perspective, Strauss’ is back with a compendium of works entitled “Rules of the Game”. It contains two seperate pieces, ‘The Stylelife Challenge’ and ‘The Style Diaries’.
‘The Stylfelife Challenge’ is the offshoot of a 30 day challenge for those who have trouble with women that Strauss first released via his VIP mailing list. It takes shape as a comprehensive step-by-step guide that breaks down the process and technique required to land that ‘10 out of 10 girl’ you’ve always dreamt of.
The reader benefits from a more in-depth analysis of the techniques first introduced in ‘The Game’ in a structured ‘ready to use’ outline. This isn’t the magic pill that will provide you a quick-fix to all the woes of your sex life but a rigorous process of self-examination, briefings and field missions. Each day is broken down to give very specific goals – approach anxiety, dress, grooming, body language etc. The central concept being that by consistently working on and improving yourself in thise various fields, you will internalise themes of core confidence and seduction technique. This is in line with an neuro-linguistic programming theory which suggests that by repeating something for 21 days it will become habit; vital to ensuring that you don’t ‘overthink’ when it comes to those interactions in-field.
Just in case there are some out there who were starting to miss Strauss’ hilarious and eye-opening anecdotes, ‘The Style Diaries’ picks up where “The Game” left off depicting Style back to his best – among other stories – luring a famous musician’s granddaughter into a threesome, his personal stress and frustration of the ‘30 day experiment’ and how Neil Strauss found “the woman of his dreams” during a night on the tiles in Reykjavik.
“As a result, I hurt people’s feelings, made bad choices, took unhealthy risks, missed important opportunities, and committed irreversible blunders.
I also had some amazing sex.
And therein lies the conflict.” – Preface to “Rules of the Game: The Style Diaries
The true wealth of Neil Strauss is in his ability to highlight the potential pitfalls of a lifestyle devoted to pick up. He explores the darker sides of seduction and the wider choices you make in life, a theme carried across from his original book. Of the eleven stories he covers all fall into the worlds of either the wierd or the wonderful (most fall into both), taking place in many different countries and each working as a moralistic fable highlighting the good and bad of pick up.
So, if you’re yet to delve into the realm of the pick up atrists then “The Game” and “Rules of the Game” are a great place to start – you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them. Then again maybe you’re more content to lie hungover and half-awake in the Swedish airport lounge staring at the ceiling and counting your sorrows … only 8 and a half hours to go.