Neil Strauss, The Game by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub
Published: 2013-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Mystery was back.

No. 9, his roommate, called and told me Mystery had been released from the hospital and was staying with his family. He was expecting him back at the apartment the following week, when Tyler Durden would be driving in to take a one-on-one workshop. It was probably too soon to be teaching again, but Mystery needed to pay the rent—and Tyler was determined to meet him.

"I came out of this strange emotional journey with some incredible cognitive models," Mystery told me a few days later.

His voice was Anthony Robbins clear again, his mind lucid. Life appeared to matter once more. However, something seemed different. He was in manic mode—more so than ever—but it was a new type of manic mode.

He hadn't exactly returned; he had transformed.

"I have my life goals set," he continued. "The motivational carrots are all dangling properly in front of me. This year, I will build the foundation to take down Copperfield. I've decided to beat him. I am a superstar. My brain pupated into a butterfly."

I asked him if he was on any medication. He said he wasn't.

"I've given it a great deal of thought," he went on. "I only get depressed when I isolate myself. Look at what got me there: the pair-bond break with Patricia, new hotties staling and blurring,7 no career momentum, and being alone in the apartment with no one to talk to. So we need to design a social environment with people to motivate me—something like Sweater's place in Australia. We can all motivate each other. While I was at the hospital, I took a lot of notes on this idea. I showed them to my psychiatrist. Even he was impressed. I'm calling it Project Hollywood."

That moment was the first time I heard the phrase Project Hollywood.

I didn't think much about it at the time. I figured it would end up like Project Bliss: another stillborn scheme consigned to the trashcan of mental masturbation.

7Staling and blurring occur when a woman stops returning phone calls. See glossary.

"I shine," he went on. "I see this now. I'm a superstar, just like I'm tall. I'm simply a superstar who's been holding himself back. And I'd like you to come be a star with me."

It was good to have Mystery back. Flawed though he was, he had a certain charm. Some would call it narcissism, and they wouldn't be wrong, but at least he saw greatness reflected not just in the mirror but also in the potential of those around him. That's what had made him such an influential teacher.

"Dude, I'm already a star, at least in the community," I told him.

"While you were gone, I was voted number one pickup artist—above even you. It's insane. A guy from England I've never even met before called the other day and said he pretends to be me when he's fucking girls. It makes him feel more powerful. What do you think of that?"

It was getting harder to live up to my name. One

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