"I am an educated degreed man, who is a professional, I know a good read when I see it."

...Him?

Douchiest? I dunno. Tucker Max has a couple books now, doesn't he?

Does G.P. stand for "Grand Pubah . . . of Douche"?

This book is valuable. It enables a person, male or female to detect at an instant that a person holding it, or talking about it, or displaying knowledge of its contents, is a person to avoid at all costs.

@4 So, in other words, Will in Seattle's personal handbook?

It seems The Game starts with a correct and rather obvious premise, that many guys are clueless about how to act around women, but if the snippets of that book I've read and heard about are accurate, it runs away with that information and simply teaches men to treat women like objects that can be manipulated into doing what you want.

"select a target"

... target...? I'm a target? am I being hunted?

Remember that guy who shot up an aerobics class because teenage girls wouldn't date him? He was into this pickup artist bullshit.

@5 never read it. You'd have to ask Fnarf.

snark by proxy...like it!

I heard this guy on Stern a few days ago, and he really sounded like a whiney douche...and he said he didn't get laid until he was 25. Then he spent a year writing this book and hanging with the sleaziest pick up artists that this planet has. It changed him, and not in a good way. He also said that the kind of girls that fall for his tricks are also the kind of girls that he doesn't want to know for more than a weekend.

I had a date in the 90's with a girl who had just finished reading "the rules", and I never called her again. I would hope that if I was playing the games that are in "the game" on a lady that she would walk away without a word.

Having been the object of what may have been a douche armed with pickup artist techniques, I can tell you it doesn't work, and it's both annoying and frightening.

Maybe just this particular douche, who has tried to pick me up three times in public places, over a period of about seven years.

Same script every time, and since he doesn't remember he's pulled it on me before, it's apparently something he lets loose on every lone woman in this major city.

He starts off "friendly" enough, but my polite rebuff each time resulted in insults, and escalating scary anger on his part.

I've learned how to deal with the type, calm and neutral, "I'm not interested, no thank you." rinse and repeat and on my way, if possible.

But the problem is the pickup artist crap encourages those who are rightly avoided by women because they're creeps to feel they now have a magic key, and are now even more entitled to our attention.

It wasn't long ago that one of these pickup artist-trained creeps killed a young woman, and this asshole has the nerve to write a book on the subject?

I'm 60 years old, and still being harassed on the street by men who feel entitled to my attention, and the pickup artist mentality doesn't help a damn bit.

Thanks a lot, Mr. Creep Author, for siccing more creeps on women who would rather not be part of your "fun."

Is it telling that as a bookseller I'd rather ban THE GAME from my store that ANARCHIST'S COOKBOOK?
I've read through parts of the book and as @6 stated, this book is full of douchey, manipulative tricks.
Case in point:
Walk up to a group of women. Locate the 'ugliest' or lest confident one. *Ignore her* and talk to all her other friends. Keep this up for a bit until you see the girl get more agitated and awkward, *then* turn and talk to her. She'll be thrilled, desperate that she got your attention, and she'll be more pliable (i.e. easier to get into bed) than the other women...

Fuck this book, and the writer. And Professor Douchebag who says this book is a good read, & thinks that most violent crime is caused by men who can't get laid.

Anyone who was actually really good at picking up women (or rather, "getting busy", as teens say) would not be taking time to write a book about it.

I think the world would be happier if all the men who follow this book date the women who believe "Undateable" is a sure-fire way to detect perfect men. Let them be miserable with each other and leave the rest of us alone.

I haven't read the game, but 1) I've talked to people who have, and 2) I've read one comparable book, and read some pickup artist stuff online. I'm also male.

90% of it is pop psychology bullshit. 10% of it has some useful observations on human nature. The problem is being mature enough to recognize the useful stuff and not turn yourself into a soulless robot seeking only one thing. (casual sex) One friend who read "The Game" commented that in essence, that's what the book was really saying at its core - by the end, the author and his PUA "friends" were living pointless lives that created a horrible sense of ennui and boredom. Supposedly the strongest example of this comes about the time they meet Courtney Love.

@6 You have not read the book but you have already made up your mind? I know everyone is busy so I don't blame you for not reading it but I think you completely mis-understood the book.

@13 You clearly have not read the book. Neil Strauss has always taught to ignore the most attractive girl, not the least attractive. If you ignore the least attractive girl she will like most people not like you and would work to block any attempt at hitting on her friends.

Most of everyone else hating on this book has clearly not read it in its entirety. The whole point of the book is that manipulation and silly games are hollow and empty and you should not fall for their seduction. He talks at length about how so many of the pickup artists of the world are selling bullshit to make money.

More or less, it is helpful for men pursuing a series of one-night stands with many women to have the most profound loathing for women in general. The aloof disdain and distance created by such loathing tends to make women swoon; they love being treated like dirt.

You all just lost The Game...and so did I.

As a former student at UC - Santa Cruz and a current student at the University of New Mexico I take issue with calling UNM "a bastion of liberal thought."

I read it and didn't think it was douchey. The techniques described in the book are douchey and stupid, but the book itself is more of an inside examination of a subculture by someone who was part of it. I understand why people who only look at a couple parts think it's a douchey book, and I'm sure there are a lot of douche bags who read it and only picked up the douchey bits. But when it gets to the part where he's living with these people and describing how disgusting their house is and the weird games the guys play with each other, it get's really interesting. I guess it needs to be read as memoir and not as a self-help book. Also Tucker Max has two books and a movie, so Neil Strauss is no where near the douchiest writer ever.

I'm with #17. I'll assume Paul has read the book, so I don't really know why he insists it's so douchey. I have also read this book, and it reads more of an indictment of the "pickup artist" culture than a celebration of it. Strauss highlights disturbing behavior and misogyny in the book and labels it appropriately. He also describes his reasons for eventually distancing himself from the culture. For certain, "pickup artist" culture is creepy and douchey, but I think Strauss realizes that and The Game reflects it.

The Game is not a how-to book. In fact, it takes great pains to portray the inhabitants of the "pick-up artist community" as shallow, socially stunted and in some cases sociopathic sex nerds.

It ain't great literature but it's a decent trashy read.

20 I had not lost the game until you told me I lost the game at which point I lost the game. Thanks.

Gifford Pinchot sends you mail from beyond the grave?

@23 & 24 I am glad someone here has read the whole book. People cherry pick passages in order to make Neil Strauss look like a freak.

You can make a good argument that a lot of pickup artist techniques are douchey but almost all self help subjects flirt with pull yourself up by your bootstraps and fuck everyone else attitudes. This is why I say that its not the pickup artist material that is so douchey but it is more the douches that are attracted to the subject. A douche who is a misogynist and who just wants to use women will be attracted to a scene that claims to be able to teach you just that.

This is the best applied psychology book written since Bob Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" (Cialdini, an academic social psychologist, worked as a used car salesman to create a taxonomy of their manipulative techniques.)

Paul, I gotta say, it's very disappointing that you missed the brilliance of this book on account of your politically correct paranoia of all things masculine. Women spend billions of dollars a year on deceptive and effective seduction techniques, such as makeup, push up bras, plastic surgery, girdles, etc.. Some guy writes a book for men, and he's a douche bag? Whatever.

The thing is, humans aren't as complicated as we think we are. We are animals. And these strategies actually do get women's attention, whether they are deployed by a guy with natural charm, or some geek who has to practice every day for hours. And there are bazillions of nice, smart, shy guys (e.g., Paul Constant) who are completely (and unfortunately) overlooked by women because they fuck up their initial interactions.

Paul, read Cialidini's book, and then reconsider The Game. Or I may just have to show up a happy hour and shake you until you see the light.

It is a book about douchebags - but I found it absolutely fascinating and a fun read.

BTW I am a woman, and not a douchebag.

@12: Your hapless suitor clearly hasn't read this book.

One of the most valuable bits of info is that it teaches a guy to recognize if a woman is interested in him or not. You pursue only as long as you are getting cues that she is interested.

@12: P.S. Actually, you don't pursue, so much as act in a way that compels her to pursue you.

I love the title of the last chapter, "Manage Expectations." There must be an epilogue about roofies and ED. What a toolbox.

Speaking of trolls, @28 and 29, did you similarly love The Rules. I can see that you love applied psychology and pulling oneself up by the philosophical bootstraps.

I'm glad you said that, seandr, I was just reading all the comments, thinking "well, no way I'll pipe up," but my son read this book, and although it does sound like it has its less than PC sections, for the most part, he came away from it with the confidence to talk to more women. He said that prior to reading it, his "big move" in public places was to smile at a girl, now he knows some basic things to say that have made it easier to talk to girls (he's pretty shy.) In fact, I just got off the phone with him, and he's dating this girl he said is just great, all because he finally had the nerve to run up to her and ask for her number, right as she was getting on the skytrain. PC or not, he's happy, and I assume she is too, or they wouldn't still be dating.

@33:
Yes, psychology, applied or theoretical, is of particular interest to me. No, I haven't read The Rules.

I have no idea what you mean by "pulling oneself up by the philosophical bootstraps". It suspect it's a phrase that you thought sounded smart but is, upon close scrutiny, utterly devoid of meaning.

The Game is hilarious. Skip the "How To" sections and focus on the stuff like Courtney Love becoming a long-term houseguest. And the part where there are so many pickup artists in Los Angeles, all using exactly the same lines and gimmicks, that all the tricks are rendered useless because all the women have heard them already.

It's only about 40% "creepy instructions on tricking women". The other 60% is "fascinating anthropological investigation into a ridiculous subculture."

@35, you should read The Rules then. Tweedledee to your Tweedledum (@28), coined the bootstraps phrase. It sounded as stupid as your comments so I lumped them together.

@38: You're confusing "stupid" with "someone who is conveying ideas that don't fit into my simplistic, store-bought world view."

I guarantee you bro - I'm way smarter than you.

@34: Thanks for chiming in, Canuck.

@17, 22, 24 THANK YOU. I've read the book in its entirety and it's not really a guidebook. Yeah, he gets in depth about all the stuff they do, but it's meant to show how hollow and fucked up people like Mystery are.

And yes, I have heard that apparently Neil Strauss went against his conclusions in the book and became a pick-up artist, but "The Game" is meant to show how these techniques are sort of genius and useful in the short-term but will only make everything worse in the long run, and that no one has worse relationships with women than the people who make money teaching people to do this.

It's not Foucault, but the reasons people usually hate this book make me think they haven't read it.

@42: these techniques are sort of genius and useful in the short-term but will only make everything worse in the long run

That was the author's conclusion. My own conclusion was slightly different - these techniques are useful for getting a woman's attention, but if you want to sustain her attention over the long term, you'll need to follow up with substance.

@41, you're fucking dreaming. At best, this book is a fart in a mitten, and you're defending as though it has some insight to offer. It's light reading for the recreational misogynist such as yourself. Further, I'm smarter, funnier, better looking and people like me. In conclusion, go fuck yourself jackwad.

@44: No, I'm pretty good about recognizing people who are smarter than me, and trust me, you aren't one of them.

It enables a person, male or female to detect at an instant that a person holding it, or talking about it, or displaying knowledge of its contents, is a person to avoid at all costs.

Hey! That's mean.

I read it, because I was curious about pick up artistry after the Pittsburgh shootings. I agree with many others here that the point of the book is that pick up artistry is inherently flawed. Strauss did okay, even in the long term, because he's an interesting, intelligent guy. He wrote for fucking Rolling Stone at the time. Most of his associates struck out time and time again because they were fundamentally misanthropic bores.

Most of what works about "The Game" is self marketing, overcoming shyness/fear, and learning how to pick up on whether a woman is actually interested (and backing off if she isn't). None of those things are inherently bad. In fact, I desperately wish that more people had the skills of self-promotion and awareness of how others perceive them. It would spare all of us a lot of headaches.

That said, anyone who thinks that a bunch of tricks is going to lead to romantic fulfillment (i.e., the guy who wrote to Paul) is a fucking idiot.

keshmeshi, as seandr says @43, it sounds like this book is useful for some people who need to have some "words" to say to get a foot in the door, so to speak, and who might be too shy or uncertain to make that initial contact. As with the things any of us do to create interest for the purpose of a date, or a job, or whatever, compatibility is determined later. All the "scripts" in the world won't lead to a happy marriage, you're right. (That's covered by Valentine's and "steak and a blow job" day, I think...)

@46, @47:
When it comes to "picking up" women, there are 4 types of men:

1) Charming, extroverted, kind men who have no problem attracting and keeping women. They don't need this book - this stuff is second nature to them.

2) Charming, extroverted, psychopathic douchebags who get laid all the time but aren't relationship material. Like the above, they don't need this book either.

3) Kind, introverted men who avoid women out of fear or unwittingly turn off women with their lack of self-confidence, and who are consistently passed over for guys in categories 1) or 2). THESE GUYS DEFINITELY NEED THIS BOOK.

4) Complete losers with no redeeming qualities whatsoever who's only hope of getting laid is to pay for it or trick dumb women into sleeping with them. Not surprisingly, these guys make up the majority of the "Pick Up Artist" community.

If more guys in category 3) learned from this book, there would be a lot more love in the world.

I have not read this book.

I am a woman and a total introvert. If I were a man and the onus of finding a mate were almost entirely mine, I would probably still be single.

I actually met my husband on an online dating site because of what seandr describes in 48. I wanted a 3 because I'm an introvert but I was only getting asked out by 1s and 2s.

But, I understand that online dating is hard for guys, too. You have to write to 500 women to get a single response.

When it comes to hooking up, guys have it tough and women have it made in the shade. It's very unfair. I don't begrudge guys whatever help they can find.

I think this book must be like the movie Swingers. The guy who knows how to get women is a douche but he's still in a position to help the good guy and, DAMMIT, the good guy needs help.

Ha! so that's where the D.E.N.N.I.S. system on Always Sunny came from. To wit:

* Demonstrate value
* Engage physically
* Nurture dependence
* Neglect emotionally
* Inspire hope
* Separate entirely

I have read this book. It was just ok.

As far as the practical applications go though, it seems like everyone's forgetting that Douche Bag is not a gender specific term. Everybody posting on here has met plenty of female douche bags along with the countless hoards of guy douches roaming any given club on any given night. This book (and it's sad, utterly transparent "techniques") will only serve to help bring together the kind of idiot guys who spout this material and the idiot girls who respond to it.

In short, let the douches have each other.

I'm more interested in watching seandr and biffp argue over the internet about which one of them is smarter.

It's amazing how many guys think they have to treat women differently, that we're this other species.

Try treating women like human beings and you'll do just fine.

@48, anyone who still uses the phrase "getting laid" after 13 years-old is obviously not smarter than me. You categories are stupid, and online dating makes a lot more sense than reading that book.

@53 ...I still say "getting laid" :/

It's not strictly a "how-to" guide, but I think Strauss's meta-examination of the pickup artists makes it even smarmier than, say, The Rules. The Rules is for people who are desperate to find a relationship. That's got a thick air of sadness to it. The Game is for people who kind of want to read a book about becoming a pickup artist, but want the distance to claim they're not reading it for the how-to-become-a-pickup artist bits. That's the part that pushes it over the top.

And Matt Hickey @2: Having read both Tucker Max books, I can say that The Game is douchier because of the aforementioned self-awareness. Tucker Max is a shallow psychopath, but The Game actually seduces the reader into its game. There's a skilled writer at work, and that makes it worse.

I'm with femwanderluster @52.

And seander @29, I skipped the rest of your comments because you used the word "deceptive" when referring to women's clothing choices and self-presentation. That's dog-whistle language for, "I consider women products, not people, and a push-up bra means I've gotten less quantity of boob than I feel I've earned/paid for." Which is precisely the kind of douchebag I'd try not to talk to in a bar.

@46- "Most of what works about "The Game" is self marketing,..."

And most of what is wrong with our society is marketing.

@48- "3) Kind, introverted men who avoid women out of fear or unwittingly turn off women with their lack of self-confidence, and who are consistently passed over for guys in categories 1) or 2). THESE GUYS DEFINITELY NEED THIS BOOK."

Or they just need a little self-confidence and can skip the marketing, gamesmanship, and self-help bullshit.

Self-Help is the most destructive section in the bookstore.

@52- I feel like I treat women like human beings, except sometimes I can't stop staring at your tits. Sorry about that. I know I don't do it to men, even men with big tits.

@56, Paul, that makes the book perfect for Seattle. People here are too chicken to truly commit to anything.

A skilled writer though? Did Neil earn his chops write Dave Navarro bios? I had to look that up. I thought Neil Strauss was Tucker Max. Beer in Hell was a total piece of shit. If weren't for the ability to sell a book based on its cover to single-digit IQs like Seandr, I can't imagine it would have been published.

So if men had some kind of sexual outlet they wouldnt be violent? I wonder if anyone ever told a sexually frustrated man about masturbation... Eh. Probably not.
( ; =

I am glad I was summed up as seandr's "tweedledum." I got a laugh out of that.

He is right though in summing up the personality types but I think he forgot the 5th group. The 5th group is guys who are nervous and not self confident but have tried to solve the problem before. Most nerds give it a shot in their teenage years. They will try and be as nice as possible and in the pursuit of being nice come off as needy and spineless to women. They then turn their frustrations around on other men who are successful regardless of how they got there. These are the guys who will actively put down self help techniques, misery loves company.

Everyone is so quick to sum up every guy at a club as a douche bag but you don't know that. You can only sum up every man in a club as a douche if you also think every man in the army is a redneck and every man in a rural area is a teabagger.

@61 Masturbation is not an outlet for sexual frustration. It doesn't cure the underlying problem, it's simply a treatment to resolve the symptoms.

@62- Masturbation is on outlet for sexual frustration. It doesn't replace the need for human connection, but cruising for one-night stands won't fix that either, and masturbation is cheaper.

Yeah! Teach men how to better manipulate women! THAT will go over well!

I have read the book and it was an entertaining expose' and indictment of the "pick up artist" community. The foundation of the techniques used by the PUAs is neuro-linguistic programming, conceived in the 1970s by Richard Bander and John Grinder. Their book "Frogs into Princes" was discovered by an early PUA named Ross Jeffries, who Strauss writes about in The Game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-lingu…

Using the principles of NLP, the PUAs convinced themselves that they had discovered secret magic techniques to persuade women to sleep with someone even as undesirable as them. Of course this was a lie, but in NLP it doesn't matter if a lie helps you overcome negative thought patterns and social phobias, as long as you get the desired result.

In The Game I believe it was Jeffries who claimed to have "seen the Matrix" when he discovered how to pick up women, but the book actually exposes the wizard behind the curtain. For all the pickup gurus and their methods, which they were teaching at their $1500 weekend seminars, were essentially promoting the same things:

Learn the rules of social interaction.

Learn how to dress and act like a grown-ass man.

Develop the art of conversation and be interesting.

Be confident; rejection won't kill you.

Don't be like everyone else.

In the end it was revealed that these men really weren't changed; they still operated with a basic sense of low self-esteem and never really believed that they were charming and fun to be with; no it was their "method" that tricked these women. Depression and ennui eventually set in; especially among the men who really were the sensitive and shy type when they realized that they had turned into shallow douchebags. This is the point "The Game" makes in an entertaining narrative form.

So far I haven't seen a single negative criticism of the book by people who actually read it; having a friend repeat a snippet of it to you that someone told them is not enough to go on.

My impression of the book was that it was a guide for sleazess. However, having read the comments here and having read some info on the book and on Strauss, I must admit to being interested. I see no reason why a look into this subculture wouldn't be interesting, and it seems that any such book would have to relate what it is that such doucgebags do. Plus, Strauss decently credentialed for an investigative journalism beforehand (i.e. it seems like he was a journalist who wrote a book about douches, not just a douche who wanted to play journalist to write a douche book). If I read a book about cult leaders, I would expect to read about how they attract followers. I would also find it quite sad if the write of such a book decided to put the information to use in order to form a cult.

Rules of the Game, however, Strauss's new book, is apparently the how-to manual follow up. So maybe Strauss still wins the Douchiest Author of All Time, but for the sequel.

*WAS a decently credentialed

*WAS decently credentialed

dammit

There are basically two perspectives that contribute to the idea that The Game is a douchey douche book for douches.

1. The Misandrist POV: Male sexuality is bad/dangerous/unpleasant and men should not attempt to approach women they don't know when they're looking for sex.

This is almost never stated explicitly, but it's implied in many of the comments you see here. Oddly enough, you hear this from men as much as you do women, mainly "nice guys" who think playing up the extent of their emasculation will win them points with the internalized female archetypes they're devoted to pleasing.

2. The Idealist POV: People should relate to each other in an authentic manner without attempting to influence the way that people perceive them.

Sure! And we should all ride our unicorns once a day up the rainbow road to gumdrop mountain! Social interaction with people you are not intimate with is inherently inauthentic. You are concealing information. You are choosing information to reveal. You are attempting to influence them. The Game is simply a set of instructions for doing what everybody already does....BETTER.

I think it's a sad statement about the nature of our current social environment that when someone writes a well researched and effective book to help men get what they want, men and women alike (especially those who like to think of themselves as "enlightened" or "socially conscious") join together to heap scorn on both the writer and the people who try to use his work to better their lives.

It's pretty simple: The Game is a guide for getting what you want as a sexually active single man. If you have a problem with sexually active single men getting what they want, you will have a problem with The Game...and you're a fucking douche.

There are basically two perspectives that contribute to the idea that The Game is a douchey douche book for douches.

1. The Misandrist POV: Male sexuality is bad/dangerous/unpleasant and men should not attempt to approach women they don't know when they're looking for sex.

This is almost never stated explicitly, but it's implied in many of the comments you see here. Oddly enough, you hear this from men as much as you do women, mainly "nice guys" who think playing up the extent of their emasculation will win them points with the internalized female archetypes they're devoted to pleasing.

2. The Idealist POV: People should relate to each other in an authentic manner without attempting to influence the way that people perceive them.

Sure! And we should all ride our unicorns once a day up the rainbow road to gumdrop mountain! Social interaction with people you are not intimate with is inherently inauthentic. You are concealing information. You are choosing information to reveal. You are attempting to influence them. The Game is simply a set of instructions for doing what everybody already does....BETTER.

I think it's a sad statement about the nature of our current social environment that when someone writes a well researched and effective book to help men get what they want, men and women alike (especially those who like to think of themselves as "enlightened" or "socially conscious") join together to heap scorn on both the writer and the people who try to use his work to better their lives.

It's pretty simple: The Game is a guide for getting what you want as a sexually active single man. If you have a problem with sexually active single men getting what they want, you will have a problem with The Game...and you're a fucking douche.