Pickings got even slimmer beyond Thunderdome. Image: Sweded.

During the first half of this decade, New York Times and Rolling Stone journalist Neil Strauss courted infamy by co-writing and ghostwriting self-destruction memoirs for Jane’s Addiction and RHCP guitarist Dave Navarro, industrial metal bogeyman Marilyn Manson, modern porn icon Jenna Jameson and the baddest of hard rock’s bad boys, Mötley Crüe.

While documenting their exploits, he garnered his own notoriety as Style, a master pick-up artist. The memoir of that bizarre episode in his life, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists, was a sensation. He was envied by men, pilloried by women, some not even feeling the need to read the book before passing either judgment.

Also during this time, Strauss started seeing disaster at every turn. His neuroses manifested in an obsession with survivalism. From Y2K to 9/11 all the way up to Obama’s presidential victory, this newly repentant urbanite put himself into debt learning how to handle firearms, ride motorcycles, skin animals, build shelters, pick locks, and save lives. Preparing for the shit to really hit the fan, politically, economically and socially, Strauss learnt another thing – how to find peace in the inevitability of death.

The Enthusiast sat down with Strauss to discuss Emergency, the chilling, inspiring and hugely entertaining chronicle of his experiences. And, since our waiter conspiratorially whispered to Strauss, “Oh, I didn’t know you were in town,” as if he were Tyler Durden, we couldn’t help but discuss The Game.

The Enthusiast: So, after all this, are you a pessimist or a realist?

Neil Strauss: “First of all, all pessimists say they’re realists. Here’s the distinction: a guy named Lovedrop in The Game, one of the PUAs, said, ‘There are negativity avoiders and positivity embracers’. A positivity embracer is someone who walks around seeing the positive signs, everything’s rosy and the future’s going to be great. A positivity embracer writes a book thinking about the great reviews it’s going to get, how they’re going to be critically lauded and on all the talk shows. A negativity avoider writes a book saying ‘I hope nobody gives me a shitty review’. You’re still compelled to greatness but one is to avoid criticism and the other is to gain praise. I would fall into the negativity avoiders, because of the way I was raised.”

“I was born into a home where nothing was ever good enough. When the Marilyn Manson book hit the New York Times bestseller list I was like ‘Check it out, mum,’ and she says, ‘Well, that’s good but it doesn’t count unless it’s for two weeks.’ [Laughs] And when The Game made the bestseller list and I was excited that it was a book entirely by myself, she said, ‘Well, the Manson book was on for six weeks, so you gotta beat that.’”

Well, it’s obvious that both Emergency and The Game are driven by your insecurities.

“Totally. They’re really books about fear. One is fear of social and sexual humiliation and the other is fear of dying and fear of powerlessness due to economic and political forces you can’t control. And they’re solutions to that fear. Fear is usually due to ignorance, right? So getting knowledge, understanding and experience cures that. Therefore you’re no longer intimidated by social situations and the economic and political situations.”

It’s revealing to think someone learning how to fend for themself is so exceptional. Our generation doesn’t seem to have the physical capabilities, or the confidence in our capabilities, that previous generations have.

“That’s exactly why I did it. Because on the one hand it’s about disasters and terrorism but on the other hand it was just cool and grounding to know how to do these things: to walk outside and know what plants are edible, to know how to build a shelter, to find water, to know how to milk a goat and make some fuckin’ cheese [laughs]. This is what human beings did before we ended up learning how to write HTML code at 14 years old.”

So what is it about our generation not wanting to get our hands dirty?

“For me, it goes back to being a negativity avoider. One negative I want to avoid is death. My inspiration to learn and do all this shit is because I know I’m going to die [laughs]. Before I die I want to learn as much as I can.”

I almost welcome the apocalypse, because I’m curious to see how I’d handle it. Do you look forward to it?

“I’m at peace with death because I’ve done this stuff. In other words, if someone sprayed gunfire in here and we both got it in the head, my final thoughts would be, ‘Okay, that’s fine.’”

In both these books you emerge as some sort of über-man. In The Game you became the ultimate pick-up artist and in Emergency you become a super survivalist. While writing, did you have to make efforts to humble yourself?

“I think it’s about being as honest as possible. Anyone who says, ‘I’m the king’, who is a total egomaniac, is obviously the most insecure person in the room. Why do you have to say that you’re better than anyone else? It’s not even logically rational. You’re saying it to compensate for your insecurities. So when I write something I’m trying to be as honest as possible. I’m not trying to purposefully humble myself, because embarrassing shit happens.”

But you should hugely proud of yourself.

“Not about urinating all over myself in a tent! [Laughs] Look, there are things people fantasise about; I’ve had some crazy post-Game experiences. To say exactly what would sound too much like bragging, but some of it was beyond what I thought was possible. And for most of it, the fantasy was greater than the reality. I also think with those who reach these achievements, who get really famous, it just magnifies what’s wrong with you. My interest wasn’t to be the best.”

“Both books never began as books. It’s not like I said to my publisher, ‘Let’s do a book on survivalism and a book on pick-up artists’. I started pursuing these things to make up for something lacking in my own life.”

Strauss with "hot blonde" camouflage.

All right, at what point did you know there was a story in all of these experiences?

“I can tell you the exact point in each book. In The Game it was when I was taking a road trip with Mystery to all these crazy places. It was during that road trip that I thought, ‘This guy’s crazy, this shit is getting out of hand.’ And finding that community was like finding an underground rock band that you want to share with everybody and you’ll know they’ll like it. With Emergency it was when I was with all the billionaires who were trying to escape the country. I thought, ‘This thing’s bigger than just my own weird ideas.”

In each book there’s a point where you indicate that you’re out of control. Are you excusing your actions?

“It’s possible to go into something too deep and lose perspective. Like every relationship that doesn’t work out. After you’ve gone in too deep and you step back, that’s when you have 20/20 hindsight.”

Taking notes at the time and writing them up afterwards gave you that perspective?

“I don’t really understand a book until after it’s done and I start doing interviews and I have to ask myself ‘What was that about?’ and try to explain it. Like when I told you that both books were about fear, I didn’t realise that when I was writing them, I just realised that afterwards.”

Part two of the interview is here.