Neil Strauss
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pioneers of the seduction community |
|---|
| Neil Strauss (Style) |
| Mystery |
| David DeAngelo |
| Savoy |
| Ross Jeffries |
| Tyler Durden |
| Juggler |
| Lance Mason |
| Zan Perrion |
Neil Strauss (also known by his pen names Style or Chris Powles), is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter. He is known best for his best-selling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, where he reports his journey to the seduction community to become a pick-up artist. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also writes regularly for The New York Times.
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[edit] Biography
After finishing a private Chicago high school, the Latin School of Chicago, Strauss attended Vassar College.[1] He began his career writing for Ear, an avant-garde magazine, before moving on to the Village Voice, where he did everything from copy-editing to fact-checking.[2] He was invited by Jon Pareles[3] to become a music critic at The New York Times, where he wrote the Pop Life column. He was then invited by Jann Wenner to become a contributing editor at Rolling Stone where he wrote cover stories on Kurt Cobain, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, the Wu-Tang Clan, Gwen Stefani and Marilyn Manson. He won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for his coverage of Kurt Cobain's suicide for Rolling Stone and his profile of Eric Clapton in The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. He was also featured in Beck's music video Sexx Laws which also featured Jack Black.
Neil Strauss was a co-writer or ghostwriter of several best-selling books for various celebrities, including The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell with Marilyn Manson, The Dirt with Mötley Crüe, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale with Jenna Jameson, and Don't Try This At Home with Dave Navarro.
After leaving The New York Times to ghostwrite the memoir of Jameson, Strauss authored The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (Regan Books, 2005), a book about a sub-culture of pick-up artists known as the seduction community. The book made a month-long appearance in the New York Times bestsellers list in September-October 2005, and reached the #1 position on Amazon.com immediately after its release in the United States.
His follow-up book, a controversial graphic novel How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, came out in 2006 on September 26. By 2006 Neil Strauss also came out with "Shoot", a short film about becoming a rockstar that he co-wrote, directed and performed in. In 2007, he released a follow-up to The Game, Rules of the Game, a two-book boxed set.
His newest book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (Harper, 2009), for which he spent three years undercover amongst survivalists, tax-dodgers, billionaire businessmen, and the government itself, was hailed by Rolling Stone as an "escape plan" for the current world crisis.[4]
[edit] Seduction community
In the seduction community, Strauss is known by the pseudonym "Style" (also known as "Chris Powles").[citation needed] In 2004 he published an article in the New York Times about his experiences.[5] Even though he claims in his book "The Game" that it took him two years to become the world´s greatest pick-up artist he was involved in the community at least from 1998 when he posted on the old version of the newsgroup alt.seduction.fast under the name Chris Powles.[citation needed][who?]
[edit] The Game
In The Game, Strauss tells the tale of his transformation into "Style," a pickup artist under the tutelage of Mystery. The book charts two years in his life and contends that the first time Strauss was involved in the community was near the times that Mystery had his first pickup-workshop back in 2001, which Strauss attended. In reality the first time Neil Strauss had been involved in the community was back in 1998 when he had posted on the old version of seduction-site asf under the name Chris Powles.[citation needed] The places and characters were made a bit off in the book to make the story more entertaining and easier to follow.[citation needed] For example, the character "Extramask" in the book never attended the first Mystery workshop that Neil Strauss attended, and the first pick-up summit mentioned in the book, was actually the second annual pickup-summit.[citation needed] In addition to documenting his experiences with pickup artists like Mystery and Ross Jeffries, it also describes his interactions with celebrities including Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, and Courtney Love. Strauss writes of his distrust of pickup artists "Tyler Durden" and "Papa," the co-founders of Real Social Dynamics. In promoting his book, Strauss appeared on various TV shows, including The View[6] and ABC Primetime, and he participated in many book signings[7] .[8]
[edit] The Annihilation Method
After publishing the book, Strauss temporarily retired as a pickup artist and settled with a long-term girlfriend Lisa Leveridge, who played guitar in Courtney Love's all-female band The Chelsea.[9] An article in the Sunday Mirror, suggested that Leveridge broke up with Strauss in February 2006 to date Robbie Williams.[10] Strauss denied the Williams rumor, but confirmed his breakup with Leveridge on his mailing list a few months later.
In Late 2005, Strauss passed his knowledge, which he has titled the "Annihilation Method", to 5 selected followers at a three-day seminar at his California home. In June 2006 he sold 375 exclusive copies of the "Annihilation Method" program to those who arrived first on his website, only375.com. Strauss completed an interview with the popular seduction blog The Attraction Chronicles in mid-June 2006 that helped to give members of the community a glimpse into his goals and future influence in the seduction community.[11] Strauss recently held a private reunion teleconference (Oct 12, 2007) with the men known as the "375" to see how they'd progressed in their lives.
[edit] Stylelife
Through his VIP mailing list, Strauss announced the Stylelife Challenge on May 31, 2006. The challenge was for those who have trouble with women to get a date in 30 days or less. During the entire month of July 2006, participants were given daily challenges on the Stylelife. These challenges were designed to help men makeover their look, overcome their fears, and get a date within a month. While the primary goal was simply for participants to get a date, the most improved won a week-end in San Diego with the famous Inner Game guru "Hypnotica" (see "Rasputin" in the Game). The Grand prize winner was "Taste".
On March 10, 2007, through his VIP mailing list, Strauss announced the Stylelife Academy, which he describes as the first online school for self-improvement and attraction. Enrolled students study a variety of subjects ranging from mind-shaping, to body language, to story telling, to being a good conversationalist in daily online classes.
[edit] Rules of the Game
While The Game was a memoir of Strauss' time in the seduction community, Rules of the Game is more of a how-to book on strategies for improving men's social lives. The book is split into two volumes: "The Stylelife Challenge: Master the Game in 30 Days" and "The Style Diaries: The Pickup Artist's Companion."
The "Stylelife Challenge" provides an introductory 30-day plan that includes techniques such as how to refine one's identity, how to approach strangers, how to get a phone number, how to perform cold reading, and other skills that will improve social success. This plan was introduced on the Stylelife website before.
"Style's Diaries" is a collection of short stories that were not included in The Game. These ribald tales include the time Strauss quite possibly married a woman in Reykjavik, Iceland, a frightening seduction experience in Bangladesh, and other adventures. The collection of short stories also contains a comic strip by former Marvel and DC Comics illustrator Bernard Chang. Chang previously collaborated with Strauss on the bestselling "The Game" as well as the graphic novel "How to Make Money Like a Porn Star."'
[edit] VIP Book Club
In January, 2007, Strauss decided to form a book club composed of members of his personal mailing list neilstrauss.com. The purpose of the club is to challenge non-readers with works of serious literature. The club meets every Monday. Its reading selections so far have included Finnegans Wake by James Joyce and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy[12]
[edit] Bibliography
- The Long Hard Road Out of Hell with Marilyn Manson (1998) ISBN 0-06-098746-4
- The Dirt with Mötley Crüe (2001) ISBN 0-06-098915-7
- Don't Try This At Home with Dave Navarro (2004) ISBN 0-06-039368-8 ISBN 0-06-098853-3
- How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale with Jenna Jameson (2004) ISBN 0-06-053909-7
- The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (2005) ISBN 0-06-055473-8
- How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, illustrated by Bernard Chang (2006) ISBN 0-06-088405-3
- Rules of the Game (2007) ISBN 0-06-154045-5
- Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (2009) ISBN 0-06-089877-1
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0106/0106thegame.txt
- ^ Slushpile interview with Strauss
- ^ Interview with Strauss on MediaBistro
- ^ Rolling Stone Emergency review
- ^ Neil Strauss: "He Aims! He Shoots! Yes!!" The New York Times, January 25, 2004
- ^ Neil Strauss on The View
- ^ Neil Strauss Book Signing Video from Los Angeles, Calif
- ^ Neil Strauss on ABC Primetime Live
- ^ Emma Forrest: "All the right moves." The Observer, September 11, 2005
- ^ "Exclusive: She's the 6ft One", SundayMirror.co.uk, February 19, 2006
- ^ Neil Strauss Interview
- ^ Neil Strauss VIP List emails sent January 28, 2007 and March 15, 2008
