Before i write this post i want to start by saying that i am not criticising other people's choices or the way they live their lives, but merely stating my opinions as they are today.i've never really been particularly interested in Gor, probably due in large part to the fact that Sir isn't, so when we first met online (and used to spend hours chatting) it wasn't something He taught me or told me to research. Hence i never really 'got into it', even though i am aware of its existence and have a fair idea of the basics behind it. But recently flamesoul has taken on a Gor teacher, and i have started going into a small private Gorean channel and talking to a Gorean Master there, and with Sir's permission i have decided to read some of the books and do a little bit of research into it. So in this post i wanted to describe my initial impressions of Gor, and then see how my views on it change as i find out more.
What i *know* about Gor isn't all that much..... i know that it is based on the novels by John ummmm Norman?, about a different world where there are Free people and slaves, and i think that pretty much all the women are slaves. i know there's different food and drinks there than on Earth, oh and animals too. i know that slaves wear different coloured silks, according to how far they have progressed in their training, and that they are required to learn things like dancing, poetry, story-telling, etc. And i know that Gorean slaves are regarded as having no rights, and can even be killed just because their Master decides to.
What my impressions of Gor are, are that it seems stilted and overly-formal, and too fancy and flowery and based on rituals and protocol and etiquette and complex rules of interaction and speech. And also it seems very idealised and heavily steeped in fantasy; after all this is Earth not Gor, and there are a lot of differences between the two. i guess it just seems weird to me that people would try to live by the lifestyle of another world, especially a made up one, and especially when certain elements of that lifestyle are likely to get you into trouble (such as deciding to kill a slave just because). my other impression is that people who practice Gor are more likely to be in online-only interactions and relationships than those who practice more conventional types of D/s relationships, but i could of course be wrong there.
Please don't get annoyed by this post anyone, as i said it's just my uneducated initial impressions, which could well change after proper research :)
Mood: thoughtful 
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4 comments:
The only Gor book I've read is "Captive of Gor"; it seems to be the one that best explains the M/s relationship under the Gor eyes. I recommend it, if you want to see how Gor sees M/s.
I'm with you on Gor. It seems kind more like a fantasy science fiction type thing to me. Honestly, I think it is ridiculous.
ah, Gor...
IMHO, Gor is a fantasy role.
Gor is a fantasy world. it's not a fictional caccount of real-time. it's like star trek, or star wars, or whatever. you can pull serious lessons from there, yes, and nice rituals or roleplays, but, the fact of the matter is, it's a fantasy world. people who "live gorean" are akin to people who live ren-style or SCA all the time, i.e. never step out of their SCAdian roles EVER... or the guys who wear their star fleet jumpsuits to the mall and take chemisty classes so they can really study the structure of dilithium crystals.
i'm not saying it's not fun. it
is. it incredibly fun. and learning the traditions of a fake society and living them for a while (as in going to GorFest or some such other Gor centered event) is really neat! making sure your costumes match canon writings. making sure One's kajira is kneeling properly, with head facing the proper direction for Gorean slave, in general keping up with the minutia of living a fantasy role for a while... but the reality of 24/7 Master/slave life is much more than i could ever find in just copying what was in a bunch of Norman's books.
oh, and by the way, the writing is HORRIBLE. i mean awful. i think that was one of the reasons i was turned off to Gor for so long was that i had to fight myself to even keep reading, because the writing itself was so horrifically bad. seriously.
grammar is out the window, not only word repetition but SENTENCE repetition abounds as Norman uselessly re-working the same phrases over and over in a chapter, without it even having a literary prupose. "i was a girl of earth. i was an earth girl. i was not of gor, i was not a gor girl i was from earth..."
*gag* it's as if he THINKS he's writing well. and using a clever literary device, without having ever seen one used. or maybe He just forgot that the chick had told us she was an earth girl two sentences ago. any editing would have been an improvement, and in some cases a FIRE would have been the best bet.
the ideas are fun. the writing is nothing short of painfully, sickeningly awful.
well, that and the guy was a male supremacist. that's my biggest issue with Gor i think. it's not about Dominance and submission. it's not about joyful service. it's about men being dominant over women because women are worthless and deserve nothing better than to be at men's feet (regardless of the presence fo the 'free women' who are only free as long as they can 'prove' it. )and that men are the high point, women can never assume to be at that level. women are pathetic little creatures, who NEED to serve at a man's feet, and are worthlesss otherwise, fit only to be used or killed, at man's whim, and for his pleasure.
i'm no feminist. i'm egalitarian. if a woman chooses to serve a man, (as i have) wonderful! you serve, honey! serve the best you can. work hard! if your'e a MAN, however, you can choose to serve a woman. and she can be proud and capable in her ownership, and you can adore her feet and worship her like the wonderful woman she is to you. your Mistress, your Owner. gender has NOTHING to do with D/s or M/s, in my opinion. it has to do with a persons own preferences as to romantic or sexual partner, but nothing more. sex and gender are sidelines in service and submission, not reasons for such.
i dont like Gor in general because the philosophy is not one of freedom, but of oppression. it's not one of choice, but of force, and it's definitely not one of domination, but of supremacy. "ALL of this group of people are better than ALL of that group of people". i dont believe it in race, or religion, and i dont believe in in BDSM either.
wow. this got really long. *blush*
hi. i'm ~m. i'm one of three slaves in Sir's house.
Now I've finished chuckling at melanie's rant, I can leave My own comment ;)
As you can see, libs, Gor tends to provoke some rather heated debates, with viewpoints ranging from 'it's the only true form of D/s' to 'it's all fantasy and such a poor version of D/s as to be an embarrassment.' I'm not going to say too much about My views on Gor at this point, until you have read and researched further, but suffice it to say for now: I am somewhere in the middle of the two views - although I am not and would never be 'Gorean' Myself, I can accept it as a useful form of D/s for some people.
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