October 16, 2015

"If I read it right, you start out scared to talk to women, you learn all these techniques and score a lot..."

"... and then... you meet this woman for whom none of it works and you fall in love and swear off your player ways."/"Yes that’s exactly it, " says Neil Strauss. "Obviously I was a journalist, this community [of pickup artists] already existed, and I went in to describe my experience of it. But because no one had even heard of this world, and the techniques, let’s face it, are so objectifying and horrifying, that the book became the bible of what it was trying to chronicle in a more neutral way. So I think all of a sudden there were these horrid ideas that people read about in The Game and ... The Game became the origin of those ideas...."

The supposedly reformed Mr. Strauss proceeds to blame mothers, saying that what he and Robert Greene ("The Art of Seduction") and Tucker Max all have in common is:
We all have narcissistic mothers. So what happened? What happens when you grow up with your identity being squashed by this mother who never sees you but only sees herself, is you grow up with a fear of being overpowered by the feminine again....
He's still overpowered, in his mind, if he needs to say that. Picture it. His mother exists, and he's telling the world she "squashed" him and only saw herself. Who's squashing here and who's only seeing himself?

26 comments:

madAsHell said...

Tucker Max

He's full of stories about his sex life that never happened.

Drago said...

How dare these men speak about their upbringing and the influences of the opposite gender parent on their psyche the way women do!

David said...

It's mommy's fault. Boo hoo. Get over it man. And say something nice about your mom.

d-day said...

Oh, he's telling the world quite a bit more about his mom than shows up in the Atlantic interview. Some perspective, perhaps:

The next videotape – 'images I didn't even know existed in this world' – his father's secret life was exposed.
'The first thing on it was a tennis game with people in wheelchairs. Then there was a clip from a movie with a woman in a wheelchair begging in the streets for change. Then a swimming race with these people with no limbs just wriggling in the water. And at the end were all these old film clips of amputees.
'My father's got a thing for cripples. And my mother's a f**king cripple.
'She had no idea he had this obsession when she married him. That's why she hates him so much. She thinks she's the prize of his collection.'
His mother made him promise he would never reveal what he found. But 'that secret became an acid, corroding my relationships'.
And that secret landed him in a mental hospital where he was told he needed to reveal the contents of the tape for his own sanity.
. . .
In what is called an exorcism of childhood demons, he addressed the cover-up by his mother who drew him into the family secret and said she was living only for him, and his father who never protected him as a kid because he was busy with his secret life.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3274279/Body-parts-falling-colorful-sarongs-hog-tying-people-walking-collar-leash-gave-quit-Game-married-sex-addict-pick-artist-Neil-Strauss.html#ixzz3olyNQ3lL

Birkel said...

The last word betrays your point, which was not a question at all.

Own it.

Chuck said...

Interesting. Now what about the pathologies of the women who allow themselves to be seduced by these sociopathic phony weirdos?

Ann Althouse said...

"The last word betrays your point, which was not a question at all. Own it."

It's scarcely hidden what I think, but "himself" is the neutral word in traditional writing for the 3d person singular.

mccullough said...

For the third book he'll realize that it was really his father's fault for allowing his mother to dominate him and that this realization has helped him repair his relationship with his own son.

cold pizza said...

"There is no bond greater than that between a mother and her child's accomplishments." seen on the internet. -CP

CatherineM said...

Tucker Max is a liar and I assume this guy is too.

Birkel said...

So the use of the question mark was just a piece of flair?
(That is an actual question.)

Why use a question mark if the sentence was a statement.
(See what I did there.)
Own it.

Laslo Spatula said...

We all have abusive fathers. So what happened? What happens when you grow up with your identity being squashed by this farther who never sees you but only sees himself, is you grow up with a fear of being overpowered by the masculine again....

She's still overpowered, in her mind, if she needs to say that.

Picture it. Her Father exists, and she's telling the word he "squashed" her and only saw himself.

Who's squashing here and who's only seeing himself?


Just thought I'd repurpose the thought and see if the outcome is the same.


I am laslo.

Xmas said...

Laslo,

Sorry man, you're not gonna top the amputee fetish video description in this comment thread.

Bay Area Guy said...

I absolutely did not like Tucker Max books - saw them almost always at airport bookstores. I found his exploits too loud, tawdry and exaggerated.

However, with the rise of obnoxious feminism, that seeks to break down and restructure our culture and laws in the image of Betty Friedan or Hillary Clinton, I'd be willing to give Tucker a second look.

traditionalguy said...

He needs to meet more real women. Whatever he feels about dear old Mom, who had her own struggles, he can meet and Learn from many good women. His hang up is using sex conquest
as the only way to connect.

Gahrie said...

Where does this guy get the nerve to say something bad about a woman, especially if she is his own mother?

Gahrie said...

I mean seriously...hasn't he learned yet that nothing is ever the fault of a woman, and women are never responsible for anything bad?

Gahrie said...

Isn't there a re-education camp somewhere for this guy?

Bruce Hayden said...

PU Game really works. Maybe not as well as those selling training would like you to think, but it does very much appear to get beta males laid by a number of better looking/higher status women. Had a guy in the office next door into this stuff, and t got pretty bad, with the women after him. I think that he was a bit like JFK, Jr, repeatedly failing the bar exam, because he couldn't shed the women long enough to properly prepare for it. Except that this guy never did buckle down enough.

A lot of Game appears to be subtly making the woman being targeted a little insecure. Which is how it ultimately means beta males convincing higher status women that they are relatively lower status, in comparison to the women. Beta males successfullyy pretending to be alphas, and thus desirable. The greater the perceived social/dating distance between the two, the more desperate the women will be to do what it takes to be with the guys playing them.

tim in vermont said...

My brother told me a joke one time in college. We went to the same school.

"A friend of mine walked up to a girl in a bar and asked her to fuck him, she slapped him (women used to slap men then) and he came up to me with a red imprint on his face, I said "You sure get slapped a lot." He said "I get laid a lot too!"

I didn't understand it at the time, but that was good advice I needed to hear.

tim in vermont said...

PUA offers some good insights into female behavior. Number one is that she wants to get laid too, and there is a set of reasons (though the list is far from comprehensive) why a woman chooses to sleep with a guy and they are not all "He looks like Brad Pitt" or "He has a dick like Ron Jeremy." Two qualities unattainable by the vast majority of men.

Also the advice to own yourself and get over thinking about what you are not is something a lot of men need to hear.

Learning to overcome the fear of rejection and approach a woman, that is huge. That alone will get a guy relationships.

I think the whole culture of using women and discarding them "pump and dump," "penis in vagina is everything" as if you were playing golf and the entire object was to get it in the hole and you are done, that is borne of resentment and is pathetic.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

You know what feminists should do? They should offer their own PUA clinics. Volunteer to let men talk to women in a controlled setting, like the paid women at PUA seminars do, allow them to practice their skills.

Teach young men how to start a relationship with women. This would benefit both men and women at that age. Leave out the resentment of women, overcome it with gratitude to women. that would be useful and move the ball forward.

Except SJWs would certainly take over such an enterprise and use the time to bash men instead of helping them be better men.

walter said...

"He's still overpowered, in his mind, if he needs to say that. Picture it. His mother exists, and he's telling the word she "squashed" him and only saw herself."

The sort of thinking quite possibly deliverable by a female the rapist.
But you know..the whole power ultimate of parenting bit is embraced by all..until someone's parenting gets criticized. Same thing with male awareness...always need more..but hey, not like that.

But if the male "manipulation" of female behavior is called "game", what do you call women's exploitation of men's more appearance oriented attraction via endless cosmetics, synthetic enhancements and gravity defying garments?

walter said...

Oh wait..I know: Tradition
Or Patriarchy!

In some ways though, male game in many ways is just an extended riff/role reversal on that quaint notion of "Playing hard to get"

Smilin' Jack said...

"The Game" is a very entertaining book. But if you bought it to learn how to pick up hot women, you are the one who got played.