Reader Steve Tirone writes:
Do you know of any resources about bringing you sons up knowing Game? I’ve two young boys, and I want to clue them into Game so that they always know how to interact with girls, from the start. Any pointers would be appreciated.
That’s a very good question. *rubs chin*. In terms of resources specifically targeted to your needs, there aren’t any. I’ve previously compared the state of seduction to that of pre-Constantine Christianity – an underground movement lacking in philosophical unity or direction. Chuck Ross also made the same comparison recently. Right now, plowing through the available game literature is akin to being plopped out in the deep forest without so much as a compass to point you north.
My advice at the moment is to have your sons read the best available literature out there, preferably around puberty so they can get in on the ground floor. Hell, you may want to read the books yourself so you can help them along. Below, I’ve compiled a list of what I believe are the best books for learning game and the underlying principles of sexual dynamics. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it covers all the essentials.
The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women into Bed by Mystery – This is the veritable Bible of game, and like the Bible, it’s obtuse, written in a language no one understands, and requires an arsenal of footnotes to comprehend. Still, Mystery’s book serves as the foundation for the theories of the modern seduction community, and just about every pickup guru out there owes an intellectual debt to that quirky Canadian magician. It’s required reading for anyone interested in seduction, no matter your goals. The original e-book version is no longer commercially available, so pick up the dead tree edition, which is identical save for featuring a new foreword by Neil Strauss.
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss – Speaking of Style, his memoir about his rise to prominence in the seduction community is a must-read primarily because it allows you to see how Mystery-style game is deployed in an actual, real-world setting (both versions of The Mystery Method are deliberately thin on examples). Not only that, the book is great because Strauss ruthlessly depicts the seduction community in a brutal, honest fashion, showing both its good and bad sides.
Bang by Roosh Vörek - It’s game for the rest of us, and by “us” I mean “people who aren’t socially retarded nerds.” For more, read my review.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene – The second installment in Greene’s “amoral series,” it’s absolutely worthless as a self-help book. As a study of seduction throughout the ages, however, it is without peer. Greene’s laws of seduction are rooted in three millennia’s worth of historical and literary accounts spanning Western and Eastern culture, plus everything in between. Additionally, his taxonomy of seducers is helpful in that it will help you determine how to tailor your game to your personality. I credit this book with opening my eyes to the reality of game – it’s not a contemporary contrivance, but a modern reincarnation of something that’s literally existed since the dawn of time.
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene – Not directly related to game or gender differences, but the first installment of Greene’s “amoral series” is applicable to the topic in many ways. The 48 Laws of Power is basically the Cliffs Notes version of Machivelli, Gracián, and a few others, re-stated in a sensible order and in crystal-clear prose. Greene’s tome is required reading for anyone seeking power – and what is game, if nothing more than acquiring power over your love life?
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley – THE book on evolutionary psychology as it pertains to sex. So much of game theory (or the modern version of game theory that is rooted in evolutionary theory) springs forth from Ridley’s book that you can’t not read it.
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles by Robin Baker – Similar to The Red Queen, Baker’s book also informs a great deal of game’s Darwinian precepts.
Supplemental literary resources – If I listed all of the novels, poems, plays, and other works in the Western literary canon that (un)consciously display the principles and assumptions behind game in action, I’d end up listing half of the books ever written. That said, a few I consider enjoyable and informative reads are Selected Poems of Lord Byron (the 2001 Modern Library Classics paperback edition - see my overview of Byron for more), Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (see my analysis of the novel), and The Taming of the Shrew and Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (see Master Dogen’s analysis of the latter).
For more resources, including free blogs and websites, check out this post I left on The Spearhead’s forum, this thread on Roosh’s forum, and the first part of this Roissy post.
You’ll note that my list is heavy on theory and analysis and light on actual instruction. That’s because I think that only a handful of resources are really needed for a guy to start making changes in this department. Overloading with PUA manuals is problematic for three reasons. One, most seduction community material is overpriced. No way in hell am I paying seventy bones for a bleeping e-book. Two, a lot of PUA material is garbage, snake oil ripped off from other, more reliable sources combined with flat-out bullshit marketed to swindle suckers. Three, too much information on a topic like this has a paralyzing effect on the brain. Roosh also wrote about this in Bang, but when you internalize material from too many different sources, you can’t act because your brain is too busy trying to figure out what method is best for each situation. A little basic information is all that’s necessary to get out there and start improving your success rate.
Also, actually putting what you’ve learned into practice is just as important, possibly more so, than actually learning it. Make sure your sons don’t turn into phony players who know the material but don’t know how to use it. By age 14 they should be able to hold a conversation with a cute girl without wetting themselves. The earlier they start, the easier a time they’ll have when they’re older.
Finally, one lesson you should impart to them that is absent from from most game literature is this: their happiness and existence is dependent on no one but themselves. Not women, not society, but themselves. The biggest reason why I’m not and never will be a pickup artist, player, or what have you is because all of those men place too much of their self-worth in how many of the less-fair sex they can bed. Living for the sake of poon is unmasculine and unhealthy, and part of being a discerning man is knowing when the chase isn’t worth it. Sometimes it’s better to just drink alone, so to speak.
Good luck to you and your boys, man. If anyone has any suggestions for additions to my list, feel free to holler in the comments.
_______________________________________________________
Ferdinand Bardamu reads too much. He blogs at In Mala Fide. You can follow him on Twitter here.
