I like this better than pornography.

Many contemporary chess Grandmasters consider almost useless to study games from the old masters due to computer engines being far stronger than any chess player that has ever played the game. Magnus Carlsen disagrees, and he is the best chess player in the world. What I mean with this is that I highly recommend this book to contemporary sociopaths, pick-up artists, etc., despite their knowledge of NPL, every guru of seduction from the last two decades and both indirect and physical game.

Picking up women in the internet era (doesn't matter if you gamed her on da street, yo, 24/7 connection to the internet and smartphones are always implied nowadays so then it comes text game and whether psychologically fruitful, enjoyable to some extent in its own manipulative terms... it gets tiring and dull really easily and really soon) is not as adventurous/interesting/enjoyable as in the times of Ovid, for sure.
Sex, nowadays, pales in comparison too: after having consumed a fair amount of online hardcore porn, feels like watching a terror movie from Bela Lugosi —still artistic, but instead of terrifying for us it is just funny, and sex being dirty, being good, compared to our favourite xvids, well... what’s a brotha supposed to say, what’s a brotha 2 do…

On the bright side, being a toyboy in our times (8-star hotels, jacuzzi, flights, infinite pools, technology, designer clothes, Michelin restaurants, etc.) seems way cooler, so always worthy to keep on reading books like this one to improve one's game (even if only theoretically) if interested in achieving or maintaining that toyboy status.

The first two parts of the book are for men; the third and final chapter, mindgame advice for women (I was gladly surprised by this myself 0:‑)


P.S. This book is, at first glance, machist; for the lucid and/or experienced, it is more feminist than anything else, being 1/3 of the book mindgame advice for women themselves and the whole thing about men acting like clowns in the theater of love, like slaves (servus) of the beloved woman (his owner or domine). When you “play” a girl (who in the first place wants you to if she’s attracted to you or potentially interested in you causing her emotions), you are objectifying yourself as the product she wants you to be (at the end of the first part Ovid cannot help but say that the best strategy, the best advice, it is to act the way the particular woman you are interested wants you to), and find out, if you fall in love and it doesn’t turn out in a happy ending for you, that you and not her were the one fooled since the start.
For the many, “the game” looks like men treating women like objects (hotties), but the shy/geeky/romantic/whatever guys who learnt how to play it know that it has more to do with them selling themselves in a faux way to be lately appreciated for what they truly are (or the relationship wouldn’t ultimately work, lacking any of the two interest for the real other) and/or being their best self (nobody is their “best” self in a natural manner) 24/7 (remember Taxi Driver? Well, in real life men don’t to have to make such a stupid/huge/obvious mistake to ruin an interaction with a woman or a potential relationship with her) than anything else.

Those who think “the game” is a men’s thing to trick women instead of women wanting men to act like they want them to act (emotionally empathetic, no matter if in a narcissistic way —everything but a brutally rationalist calculator “I like you and you could like me because I have this and that, so... 1+1... See you tomorrow at 7?”)… don’t know much about men, love nor women.

Ammetto di avere iniziato questo poema con una certa preoccupazione: sarà difficile? Non ci capirò niente? Sarà una cosa super maschilista?
Ora, sarò io che ho introiettato una mentalità maschilista, ma, se devo essere sincera, pensavo peggio. L'unico passaggio che mi ha davvero disturbata, e tanto, è quello in cui dice che una donna che si nega, non lo pensa davvero e in realtà sta solo facendo la preziosa... La solita vecchia storia, vecchissima visto che questo poema ha 2000 anni.
Letto nel 2021, i consigli di Ovidio appaiono banali, ma se lui è il primo ad averli messi per iscritto, ha il merito (o torto a seconda dei punti di vista) di essere stato un capostipite: perché da lui hanno copiato a piene mani scrittori e giornalisti e quello che lui ha scritto nell'anno 1 ce lo ritroviamo tutt'ora sulle riviste, sui blog, sulla posta del cuore.
La lettura di Ovidio però è godibile, divertente, infarcita di mitologia (ma con le note e l'elenco dei personaggi a fine libro tutto diventa chiaro), un po' servile nei confronti di Augusto, ma di qualità infinitamente superiore a tanto di quello che ci passa per le mani con la denominazione di letteratura amorosa o, peggio ancora, erotica.

Essentially, "how to woo women," this work is evergreen. The first two books are written for men, looking for women. The third book is for women, seeking to be found by a man. Inside the covers, you'll find advice like how to "love" a woman, how to comfort her when she is emotional, how to groom yourself so that you can keep a woman, and one of my favorites, "make her miss you, but not too much." For women, how to understand a man's intent based on his letters, how to laugh at his jokes, and guarding your heart against false lovers. Although a lot of it would be considered sexist in the present tense, much of this book can be adapted to modern love. Regardless, it's an entertaining read.