Banging Denmark
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley August 29, 2019
Author Van Badham
Distributor: New South Books
ISBN: 9781742236452
Publisher: New South Publications
Release Date: August 2019
Website: https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au
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Banging Denmark is a work that totally lives up to the connotations drawn with the front over, that of sex, more sex and the sad and political state of the young men who seem to think notches on the bedpost makes them men, as do some young women who by the same yardarm, seem to think the same notches make them some sort of sex goddesses.
Written as a direct result of watching one of her friends fall for nothing more than a pick-up artist, Van Badham has taken this tragic practice out into the open in what could almost be considered as a farce, based on a pick-up artist Guru Guy De Witt, otherwise known as Jake Newhouse. Jake aka Guy de Witt, discovers a woman at the library he desperately wants to get to know. She is not falling for any of his many touted pickup lines.
In desperation he tracks down feminist academic Ishtar (Ish) Madigan, a woman he has previously sued for her attack on his lifestyle, sending her broke. She is discovered living in the photocopier room at her University, relying on friends to supply her with food.
Anne Toft, a librarian and the woman ‘Guy’ wants to know better, is on study placement from Denmark. She is shrewd, knowledgeable and not all that interested in men, especially Guy and his tired old pickup techniques.
As the story unfolds, a story which takes a little time to understand, the sad reality of life as a pick up artist, and a Guru in the field, becomes very transparent as nothing more than a hollow shell; a world that is more often than not inhabited by men who are ‘úbergeeky’ and women who are happy to use them for their own reasons and vice versa. And then of course, there are all the others!
Based around the book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists from investigative journalist Neil Strauss written in 2005, with a follow-up in 2007, Banging Denmark fast becomes a somewhat hilarious romp, using polar opposites in Jake and Ish to make the point that desperation for intimacy comes in many styles, but should not ever been seen as a ‘game’, because that too comes with its own destruction.
A most intriguing read on the very modern world of dating, sex and expectation which has the wonderful benefit of turning the tables on one Guy De Witt, Guru of the pick-up artist, lifestyle coach and manosphere sex guru!
As a book it is a fascinating, but somewhat sad read, as a play, with the flamboyant additions of the actors, some of the more outrageous lines and a minimalist set, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions, Banging Denmark should/would/could be a huge success.