Considering that The Game starts with central character Mystery in a rejection-and-valium induced haze making an Interview with the Vampire-style "if I wanted to, I could-" speech to a psychiatric nurse, I'm not sure it's going far enough to say that the train wreck is "inevitable." :)
Most of the pickup artistry stuff I've read is Social Psychology plus kinesthesiology -- the wikipedia article on fundamental attribution bias is a good and more academic intro to the concepts at work. The Game's concern for "approach" echoes advice I've given to countless friends (and myself!) while they moped about unapproachable women: "Talk to her, you dope!" and "Be natural -- don't assume you're unworthy before you start." I find the "collector" aspect of the rake's lifestyle, and its disregard for the people on the other end, deeply creepy and hollow, though.
Personally, I view pickup artistry as I do to a lot of odd stuff in life: material for fiction. Ever since reading Dune as a kid I've been curious as to the effective techniques of Getting What You Want from people, instilling fear, love, trust in the shortest period of time possible. Being at work surrounded by good salesfolk is one kind of education in this; books like The Game are another. There's only a difference in degree and ambition between the kind of intense, megalomaniacal charisma and drive you need for being a full-on pickup artist and the same qualities needed to be a good cult leader, general, revolutionary, what have you.
Denovo, in Three Parts Dead, borrows some of Game technique now that I think about it: the teasing self-centered way he approaches relationships, the pleasant manipulation of social situations. He's interested in sex as an outgrowth of power, which is kind of the reverse of the pickup artist path, but that's a story for another time...
no subject
Most of the pickup artistry stuff I've read is Social Psychology plus kinesthesiology -- the wikipedia article on fundamental attribution bias is a good and more academic intro to the concepts at work. The Game's concern for "approach" echoes advice I've given to countless friends (and myself!) while they moped about unapproachable women: "Talk to her, you dope!" and "Be natural -- don't assume you're unworthy before you start." I find the "collector" aspect of the rake's lifestyle, and its disregard for the people on the other end, deeply creepy and hollow, though.
Personally, I view pickup artistry as I do to a lot of odd stuff in life: material for fiction. Ever since reading Dune as a kid I've been curious as to the effective techniques of Getting What You Want from people, instilling fear, love, trust in the shortest period of time possible. Being at work surrounded by good salesfolk is one kind of education in this; books like The Game are another. There's only a difference in degree and ambition between the kind of intense, megalomaniacal charisma and drive you need for being a full-on pickup artist and the same qualities needed to be a good cult leader, general, revolutionary, what have you.
Denovo, in Three Parts Dead, borrows some of Game technique now that I think about it: the teasing self-centered way he approaches relationships, the pleasant manipulation of social situations. He's interested in sex as an outgrowth of power, which is kind of the reverse of the pickup artist path, but that's a story for another time...