A book which explains how a woman can be sexually attractive, and how to entice others. ( )

A book which explains how a woman can be sexually attractive, and how to entice others. ( )

Exellent insights into human behaviour, high heels, and modern witchcraft. ( )

I no longer identify as a Satanist, though I still appreciate Anton LaVey as an American humourist, and this book is filled with his own brand of tongue-firmly-in-cheek wit interlaced with his own ideas on feminine power and mystique (and his own ideas of the idea woman). I'm not going to spoil it for those who haven't read it yet, but there's a section where, I (and a few other Satanists) swear that LaVey had to take a break in writing to masturbate.

This book introduces people to LaVey's "personality synthesizer clock", which, in my own experiences, has usually been right in getting a rough estimate of a person's personality based on physical appearances -- it's not 100% correct, but typically speaking, it's pretty right maybe 70% of the time. LaVey doesn't speculate on why this may be, and seemingly chalks it up to "nature", though it would be nice to have an idea on why he does this rather than just the indication that he does. Now with LaVey, this perceived flaw could go two ways -- if you "understand" his style of writing and humour, then you can just brush this off, but if you don't, then he's talking down to you (in which case, the joke's on you).

Another flaw I see in the book is LaVey's concentration on women seated at his favoured "clock position", Sixes (full hips and thighs, moderate breasts, very supple flesh), leads to easy misinterpretation of his work. On Satanist-oriented Internet fora, I've often seen women somehow take this concentration to mean that all Satanic women should be Sixes, and they will often loudly proclaim themselves as such, even dressing in manners to deliberately appear "Sixish" -- even when they're very glaringly Nines (think Roseanne Barr) or Threes (think Kate Moss). Of course, LaVey also made all appearances to be a Twelve, which, by his own definitions, would be better-suited to define, say, Governor Schwarzenegger, and LaVey himself is a dead Ten-Thirty (like myself), if he's a minute. Harmless self-deception, or another grandiose joke on the non-Satanic? Well, LaVey has long been ferried away by Charon now, so who can say?

A good read, very funny in parts, but keep a level head about it. An interesting take on pop-psychology and gender studies. ( )

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