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Gor
Gor, the Counter-Earth, is the alternate-world setting for John Norman's
"Chronicles of Gor", a series of 26 novels that combine philosophy,
erotica
and science fiction.
The customs, terminology and imagery depicted in these books has
inspired a
related BDSM-influenced subculture. On- and off-line followers of this
lifestyle are called Goreans.John Norman
John Norman, pen name of John Frederick Lange, Jr. (born June 3, 1931),
is
the author of the Gor series, which sold several million copies in the
1970s
and early 1980s, and still has many fervent fans today. He holds a
Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a philosophy professor at Queens
College of
the City University of New York in New York City.
As well as the Gor books, Norman published a non-fictional sex manual
"Imaginative Sex" in 1974, which presents a
series of elaborate fantasy scenarios to be acted out (rather than
advocating a real-world 24/7 lifestyle), and recommends that symbolic
substitutes (such as the sound of claps) should be used instead of
actual
physical chastisements (such as whippings). Most of the scenarios are
maledom / femsub, but a few portray men as the slaves of women, and
anticipate the eroticised first-person male slave narratives of some of
the
Gorean novels.
Norman developed similar male dominant, female submissive philosophies
in his other
fantasy/science fiction novels, but these failed to attract many fans.
They include Time Slave
(1975) and Ghost Dance (1979) which are set in a pseudo-historical
Earth, and a science
fiction trilogy, the Telnarian Histories (The Chieftain, The Captain,
and The King) that he
wrote in the early 1990s. The books
The first book, "Tarnsman of Gor", was published in 1967 and like most
of
the subsequent titles, was narrated by British college teacher
Tarl Cabot, master swordsman and possibly Norman's alter-ego, as he
engages in
adventures involving humans and alien species on Gor. Unlike later
books in the series,
Cabot rejects Gor's slave-owning society. He sets his slavegirl free,
and then sets off for a
swashbuckling adventure. In later books, Cabot slowly embraces slave-
owning, and
eventually owns several slaves. Books 7, 11, 19,
22, and 26 of the series are narrated by abducted Earth women who are
made slaves and
who describe how they come to enjoy their slavery. Books
14, 15 and 16 are narrated by male abductee (and initially slave) Jason
Marshall, who escapes from slavery and thus affirms Norman's male-
dominant philosophy.
Although bondage, sadism and slavery has always been present in the Gor
books, passages
of philosophical and psychological justification for male dominance
became longer and longer as the series continued, increasingly
detracting from the books' plots. Possible reasons for this include
Norman's
use of his then-popular series to battle the emerging feminist
movement, or
demand for his books was so great that they were printed without
editing by the later
publishers of the series. In
any case, the significant readership among people uncomfortable with
either
BDSM or his distracting justifications was lost. His philosophical
diatribes are so wordy, so
pedantic, and so formulaic that they have inspired numerous parodies
(for example,
Houseplant of
Gor). Themes
Norman repeatedly presents pseudo-Darwinian analyses of
gender differences to contend that women are the
submissive natural helpers, and figurative slaves, of men. His work
often takes this observation literally: heroes enslave heroines who,
upon
being enslaved, revel in the discovery of their natural place.
At right, versions of the female ("Kajira") and male ("Kajirus") forms
of the Kef symbol, which is the main Gorean slave marking.Goreans on Earth
The word Gorean is also applied to adherents of the philosophies
espoused in
Norman's writings, especially someone who lives a lifestyle based on
this
philosophy.
While the most conspicuous Gorean departure from mainstream modern
norms is
that Goreans allow and indeed promote sexual master/slave relationships,
many who take the Gorean worldview seriously would insist that being
Gorean
is not necessarily about either sex or slavery, but about the general
Gorean
philosophy: that is, living in accordance with a Nietzsche-esque natural
order, sponsoring a hierarchy of talent, especially strength.
For years there has been an active fan base on the Internet,
particularly on
IRC channels which sprang up during the mid-1990s, offering Gorean
roleplaying
in the style of online BDSM. Almost all writers and websites advocating
the
Gorean philosophy have grown out of online roleplay environments.Criticisms
- Goreanism is a naive application of Darwinism, confusing sexual
and social dominance.
- Everything useful in Gorean D/s is present in mainstream D/s;
everything unique to Gorean D/s is not useful in real-life D/s.
- The concept of failure expounded with Gorean D/s provides "slaves"
with a veto over the relationship.
External links
(This article incorporates text from the
Gor and
John Norman
articles in Wikipedia.)
This article is published under the terms of the
GFDL. People with profiles on
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