Sick, Twisted Perverts of Gor
Posted: Tuesday, June 20, 2006
by Steve Sommers
Rexroi, and Evil Super-Villains need Love, Too
Fans of Science Fiction - good science fiction - know about the planet Gor, and what they know about it is that it's a planet they never want to visit - not even in the comfort of their own homes. I've got a lot of explaining to do for these folks, and I will. And if you aren't aware of what I'm talking about - well, then let me fill you in. There is a series of science fiction books written by John Norman (a pseudonym) set on a mythical planet called Gor, also called Counter Earth because it rotates on exactly the opposite side of the Sun, which - if you know anything about astronomy - you know is impossible. None the less, that's where Gor is located. Gor is a planet that's kept permanently primitive by a super-race of hyperintelligent insect overlords named Priest Kings who are at war with another more brutal species of bear-like creatures called Kurii. The Kurii want to take over not only Gor but Earth, too, but it's the only power of the fabulous Priest Kings who keep them at bay. The Priest Kings also maintain Gor in that convenient orbit just on the exact opposite side of the Sun. And the most important thing you need to know about Gor is that there are slaves and especially there are slave girls. Lots and lots of slave girls. I started reading these books when I was a teen-ager and - in the first books at least - the slave girl thing wasn't all that much of a feature of the books. The saga started out with the protaganist, Tarl Cabot growing to manhood in Bristol England among female relatives, believing that he had been abandoned by his father. One day when he was out hiking he was kidnaped by a Priest King spaceship and taken to Gor where he discovers his father, now the administrator of a fabled Gorean city Ko-Ro-Ba. Tarl's father had not abandoned him, but had instead been kidnaped before his son by another spaceship. Ko-Ro-Ba is at war with Ar. Tarl becomes a warrior and a rider of giant hawkish birds called Tarns and then through a series of adventures he becomes involved with the daughter of the Ubar (sort of a dictator) of Ar who is Marlenus of Ar. So far so good. A side note here: Everybody in this story is named 'somebody of somewhere', so that by this scheme I would be 'Steve of Minneapolis' and you would be 'you of from where ever you're from'. It just makes me wonder if every person who grew up and lives in the same city would have to keep saying that they were from the exact city they were living in and had lived in all their lives. It would be pretty silly. So that's about the story of the first book. As far as slavery - and especially female slavery - the narrator and hero of this book, Tarl, thinks it's just wrong. I've got to tell you that over the course of this long series of books (about twenty plus) he gradually changes his mind about that - and how! But the first half dozen or so books, not so much. It's in there, but it's only a small, small part and not so much. I took these books as mostly fantasy/adventure of the sort written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Mars series or Robert E. Howard's Conan series. Women didn't play such a big part in those books, but they didn't have to. It was the fighting and stuff that was most important. In later Gor books the S&M crap just took over the stories so that I would actually skim past those sections to continue with the real plot and just ignore those parts. You could usually figure out which where the places you could skip because John Norman would have these huge unbroken paragraphs which you learned to spot. His Bondage and Discipline gradually became more and more prevalent until - at the end - all of his female slaves are nothing but orgasm machines climaxing every time one of the masterful Gorean males so much as raised a whip. It wasn't erotic. It was just ludicrous. But I kept reading hoping that somewhere along the line John Norman would get back to plain old story telling, continuing the tale of the war between the two alien species. That never happened and I have a bunch of books I've pretty much never read because he never got back to it. At times I thought about who John Norman was. His name I spotted as a pen name right from the start and I also figured out that he must be somebody pretty educated because he used a bunch of history to create his particular world. My guess was that he was a pretty lonely middle-aged man who was furiously busy pleasuring himself with one hand while typing with the other. If he was married, I guessed that he was far from the fictional masterful men that he wrote about. In fact, I imagined him to be rather henpecked. My quick search of the internet showed that he was indeed a college professor, but not at a very prestigeous school and there were two pictures of him that I could find. One showed him with one hand over his mouth, but otherwise he looked slim, silver haired and possibly handsome. That picture looked like it might be from the seventies. Another later picture showed a full on face where he looked considerably older and possibly as if he'd had a stroke since it looked like half of his face was drooping. There are now many fetish communities (possibly all on-line) modeled after or devoted to the sort of 'philosophy' put out by these books. To my mind they look particularly icky - but hey, to each his own! I'm not here to judge and if adults want to willingly play at this stuff then I'm just fine with that. I do remember that there was a case in the Midwest where a serial killer was using one of these on-line communities to attract victims, but most people, I think, just take it as fun and games. I took one of my unread Gor books off my shelf just now. opened it up and realized that the writing actually isn't all that good. I don't think it was always that way. My memory was that in the first half a dozen or so books the writing was at the least competent and those first half dozen (or maybe only first four or five) books were engrossing enough to read and reread. They weren't great literature, but they were diverting enough. For some reason, I never held onto the books in the series that I liked the best. I don't know why. If you ever happen to get ahold of any of those initial books: I'd recommend them, maybe with a few reservations, maybe with a lot of reservations. But go ahead and read them. They won't kill you. They're only books.
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More commentsMost of the women on those gorean public boards have been slaves at one time or another. Once they snagged the unsuspecting master the collar comes off and their true colors show. Gone is the sweet and giving demeanor, and out comes the bossy, back biting females. Infact, once they are freed so to speak, they are worse than the men. It's a game people. You act one way to get your man, then once he is hooked....How can a woman change so swiftly? Further more, how can a woman who profoundly professes to be so submissive and always knew they were slaves all of a sudden want freedom and become so loud mouthed and rude? Answer is: They can't. It's all an act.
Notice how not one of them has posted. That's because they wont on anyones other than theirs. That way they control the content.
Being "Gorean" isn't about S&M, BDSM, or any of that. It "may" include elements of dominance and submission but doesn't have to.It is deeply rooted in the concept of primal nature and truth. It is a way of life that stresses personal freedom and the moralities of human beings.I know people who call themselves Gorean who only do so because they want to play slap and tickle with submissive women. I also know people who call themselves Gorean who do so because they embrace something much more profound than that.Before making broad statements about Goreans being unfaithful, perverted, old men, you may want to actually get to know the decent people who call themselves Gorean. They are out there and they aren't predators or sick people - they are simply people who found some allegorical truth behind the props in the books.Think Aesop, people.
*laughs* Ok I cannot help but laugh. My gorean Master is yes in real life married but his wife fully knows of his having me as his slave. Further more he is not ugly, I have seen him he is a very good looking man. He has in turn seen me, we are not ugly or old or perverted beings. For us being part of gor is about roleplay, it is fun, yes it is very sexual but we are both adults it is allowed. To be a slave is not to be weak, and it is my choice. Think of it what you will, belittle the books if you wish it but do not think you understand the relationship between me and my Master. For if you do not get it already you never will in a million years.
I find this rather entertaining. Different parts of it. Rather laughable really."I'm not here to judge and if adults want to willingly play at this stuff then I'm just fine with that."Look at the title of your page and the S&M comments you've made. Full blown hypocrisy. Also the only anger from "Goreans" I've noticed on this page has been anger at the narrow-minded misconception. Another thing for you "Goreans are evil and corrupted souls" people. Its saDomasochism, not satomasochism. Your 3rd grade spelling really demeans your point.Yes at this point I realize I sound like the "angry Gorean" spoken of early, and truth be told I'm moderately miffed. Not quite at what was said but how it was said. It wasn't coming to the idea with an open mind, reading understanding and seeing it as it is...it was....someone else told me that this was wrong and so I'll say it is as well.As for the man needing to feel confident etc by collaring a woman. I have no problem not collaring a woman. I can live and exist just fine without it. Have with an Ex for 3 years. It doesn't bother me to not, I want to but I don't need to.Simply put since I no longer feel like going on and into this. Open your mind. Make your own decisions on things. Not the decisions someone else told you with half explained reasons that kinda made sense at the time, but you couldn't even repeat accurately if asked. Should someone of the "non-angry, non-Goreans" (seeing as apparently all of the non-Goreans are calm and even-minded and the Goreans are angry unreasoning, people who lack self-confidence) I will gladly talk with you.(oh and for the "stereotype" above with 97% of men etc. I have my own for you. All of you narrow-minded people are strongly catholic. Your "stereotype" has no information to support it and in fact information against it and my "stereotype" has been proven time and time again.)For any possible catholic Goreans or non-Catholic people who agree that Goreans are "Sick, Twisted Perverts" I do humbly apologize for the insult.Dear Sir:"I find this rather entertaining. Different parts of it. Rather laughable really."Quite the same commentary could be made of your response, which, quite impeccably introduces my feelings on the matter: everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.While I partake in the lifestyle myself, I feel that squabbling over others’ reviews is rather pointless. Not everyone is going to agree with your way of life, as you, I am sure, do not agree with every lifestyle choice that you see.The author of this review was not writing on the sinfulness of the Gorean lifestyle, as you seem to have interpreted it. Nowhere in his article does he go off on a tangent that his way of life is correct, and anyone that does not agree with him will be eternally damned. The author even states,“I'm not here to judge and if adults want to willingly play at this stuff then I'm just fine with that.”In summary, the author gives his opinion of the books, not the lifestyle, saying that he felt that there was too much S&M included. It is as simple as that to me. I apologize if I also misinterpreted the author’s intentions.My conscience will not allow me to end this response without touching upon your ending comment. The “stereotype” that you included of Catholics was very petty. In criticizing a previous commenter’s response in a childish manner, you completely annihilated any respectable insight that your response provoked. Responding to a ludicrous stereotype with another wild accusation does not solve anything; it simply weakens your argument.I do not wish to start an argument between the two of us. I am trying to provide another logical human (you) with what I feel was misunderstood in the aforementioned article. I also wanted to give you a helpful tip for constructive criticism in the future.As said on Gor, “I wish you well.”
Gor is a place where natural order tends to prevail. Natural order states men are more dominant and women are more submissive. This is the typical order of things. This doesn't mean there aren't exceptions to the rule. There are some things they say that just blow my top. The allude to the idea of, "strong women simply haven't met the right Master yet." Well, I identify with a Free Woman Gorean, and I think that's ridiculous. It's like saying behind every strong male is a sissy boy wanting to be used and abused. However, while I am strong in personality, I have no problems being subordinate (not submissive or a slave) to my Gorean fiance. He is head of the house, and that's that.Gor is not about slaves. Sure, people own them, but the people that own, in the books, I would imagine, would be a VERY small number. The author alludes to a rough number of slaves on that planet. This number would be equal to only a mere 2% of the population. Thus, making owners even more scarce. Plus, it's expensive to support another human being. I know this from "normal" life. It's just not feasible to assume that everyone owned a slave.The philosophies of Gor are very real. Honor. Integrety. Accountability for yourself and those in your charge. Prudence. Justice. These are attributes that Gor philosophy teach. There are those who have posted before, saying "What if my daughter/son's teacher is Gorean? Do I want them teaching them about Gorean living?" If they are teaching them those prinicples, then YES! Who WOULDNT want their child to learn about honesty, integrity, and accountability?! Now, slavery? No. That is illegal. But there are those who DO dedicate their lives to being consensual slaves. (See the BDSM definition of consensual non-consent) When my children get old enough to intelligently ask and discuss alternate lifestyles, I would be more than happy to sit down with them. However, while they are younger, they should be raised as normally as possible.You should ask yourself. "Do I want my children to be taught by someone who practices BDSM? Polyamory? Catholicism? Buddhism?" It's along the same lines. If your daughter's teacher is Gorean, I SERIOUSLY doubt they're going to try and "convert" or influence your child. We're people, too, ya know... If my child's teacher is VERY Christian, but I'm Jewish, I would trust that they would not try to push their beliefs on my child, that they would simply instruct my child in math, reading, spelling, etc to the best of their ability. I would trust them to leave the "what is an appropriate lifestyle" teaching to the parents. As it should be done.My, my... what a tangent I went on there....My point, after all of this, being: I thank the author of this article for at least reading the books before writing a type of review. I think that they may have missed some fundamental things, and they may have gotten caught up in the "ooo naked slave girl", but that's ok. That's what Norman was going for to begin with. I'm sure Norman didn't think it would develop into a lifestyle that people live on a daily basis, but for some people, my Gorean Free Woman self included, it just works. It's not about owning a slave, or the romance therein. It's not about being a slave and serving and being "used". It's about being the best person you can be, no matter your station. Be who you are. Be what you are. Feel no shame for it. No one can expect any less of you. If that isn't a good principle to live by, I don't know what is :)I wish you well :)
Teachers who work with children should not be taking part in this crap. Especially the Catholic ones. Don't the priests cause them enough humiliation without the teachers being involved in this?
Yes but it's very unhealthy when they are catholic school teachers. I just found out my sons teacher is involved in this and I'm horrified. Thank goodness for the world wide web. A few key words, a couple of hours and the information is out there.
Snickers softly....really funny stuff, these comments are.
Remember in the end..it all only books, none of it is actually real, unless its something you want to "play" at home.
GOR is totally unacceptable in the workplace..you simply can't do it or get away with it (unless you like the idea of spending long hours in court defending youself). Now back to the books...I have all 28 volumes and happen to be a "Free" Woman. The books are somewhat enjoyable to read,even if its bad writing (thank god I collect books written by Ray Bradbury).!! ..Once again all I can say is If you like the idea of Gor, then go ahead with Consensul (sp?) play. In the long run its a matter of personal choice.
Regards....Elizaeth
For everyone that wishes for us Gorean Men to oust ourselves...i will be the first true person to do so. I AM BRENDAN CONDER, 22. You may look it up on facebook if you wish. I AM A GOREAN MAN, a Scribe no doubt. My heart goes to the education of Moral, Philosophical and the Humane ways of Life of Gor, which can be translated into Real life Circumstances....i do not care who you are, There is no Higher Honor, than Teaching the Misinformed how to show True Strength
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