Pickup mania perhaps culminated with the ultimate validation of a mid-aughts trend: a 2007 VH1 reality show, hosted by 'Mystery', the main character of Strauss's book. Not only as an intriguing curiosity complete with its own language like “kino” (touching) and “HB8” (hot babe, 8 out of 10) and “negging” (a light insult as a mind trick to woo babes), but also as a source of inspiration for young men to believe oversize furry hats could win them the hearts of women. The book, which came out a decade ago, had a huge cultural impact.

In it, Strauss embeds with a group of pickup artists, ostensibly for journalism, and becomes a master pickup artist himself. It’s impossible to read The Truth without thinking of Strauss’s earlier book that deals with his personal dating life, The Game. In a happy ending, they are now married with a son. Eventually, he realized that he just wanted to be back with his old girlfriend, and he went to win her back.

I tried all these subcultures trying to find a new model, but I discovered it wasn’t the institution that was broken, it was me.” A long period of self-reflection occurred, guided partly by his friend the music producer Rick Rubin, who pops up at key moments in the book on a surfboard, full of bearded chill vibes and Zen wisdom. “So let’s go find something that works better. “It began saying marriage is an anachronism: Look at all these people cheating and in unhappy marriages it’s a broken institution,” Strauss said in an interview at BuzzFeed.

The popcorn orgy incident occurred after he cheated on his longtime girlfriend, tried sex addiction rehab, broke up with the girlfriend, gave up on monogamy, and set off on a series of adventures in polyamory. The Truth spans several years when the Rolling Stone writer and co-author of several celebrity autobiographies undertook a personal quest to understand the nature of relationships. If you can get kicked out of an orgy for anything, eating Trader Joe’s organic olive oil popcorn is the best possible reason.

The best part, imho, of Neil Strauss’s new book The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships is a scene where after breaking up with his girlfriend because he has decided he can’t live a monogamous lifestyle, he gets kicked out of an orgy by its New Agey organizer for eating popcorn from the snacks table during the orgy.

Mystery the game pickup artist