What Is Gor?
And Where did
it come from?
Gor is a counter-Earth,
a barbaric Society different from yet a mirror to , our own. In Gor, John
Norman created a world ruled by strict codes of conduct and fierce emotions:
loyalty, honor passion. In some ways Gor is no different from another sf/fantasy
worlds coming into print in the "New Wave" of the late sixties and
early seventies, worlds like Anne McCaffy's Pern {DragonFlight, 1968} and
Michael Moorcock's Melnibone {Elric of Melnibone, 1972}
Each epic depicts
a world of strong emotions- emotions that echo the legends os the past
, free of the modem world's cynicism and skepticism. And both Pern and
Melnibone are populated with character's who engage in romantic and sexual
practices befitting their creator's visions of same. Here, though, is where
Gor differs,. Imagine the hordes of callow youths {like myself} combing
through the pages of paperbacks to find a sentence here or there alluding
the Elric making love to a beautiful woman on the sands of a secluded cave
or lessa and F`lar paralleling their dragon's passionate flight. Hot Stuff!
But for the budding sadomasochists and the D/s enthusiasts {like myself}
that's nothing compared to the allusions and interpersonal relations to
be found on Gor, a world where pleasures slaves are bred for passion, where
warriors bind their brides to the backs of giant falcons to deflower them.
I must admit,
though, that my first encounter with the world of Gor came not through
the voracious paperback consumption of my youth; I was caught up in Roger
Zelazny's Amber, Frank Herbert's Dune, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover,
but I never got around to the Gor books. Now, fast forward to my
adulthood, and my entry into the S/M scene. I had just written my
first S/M science fiction story, "Telepaths Don't Need Safewords," a story
through which I tried to incorporate ideals of loyalty, self-discipline,
and honor--concepts which excited and aroused me as much as any getishistic
whip worship or sexual thrill. I was a hot, young uppity masochist
in search of a top, with no idea what a whip felt like nor any idea of
the submissive depths in my own soul. And I believe it was no accident
that the man who trained me was, in some respects, a Gorean.
He had read the
books when younger--one could say they were a part of what shaped his ideals
about dominance and submission, or perhaps that they resonated with the
ideals he already held. Although he did not play this way with me,
I knew he had trained other women as if they were Gorean slaves and spoke
of the books often. He was not alone. As I moved among various
circles of the leather community, I found a strong common thread:
many people had read these books and liked what they read. Some fantasy
novels had capture-and-torture scenes which made perfectly good S/M jerk-off
material. But with the Gor books, there was more going on than hero's
suffering at the hands of villains. Here were men and women forming
lasting bonds through mastery and slavery; here were codes of conduct that
encapsulated the give-and-take of a D/s relationship; here was the closest
thing to positive role-models a prospective master or slave could find.
On Gor, a woman may submit to a man, wrists crossed, knowing he may then
do as he pleases. But he is bound by his own codes of conduct:
if he accepts her submission he accepts the responsibility for protecting
her, fighting for her if necessary. She chooses to submit, he chooses
whether to accept. Although Gor is populated with various types of
slaves, some born and bred, others captured from rival tribes, Norman continually
creates situations in which characters choose their roles, walking the
fine line of the ethics of con sensuality.
Yes, that's really
the heart of it: ethics. Under Gorean codes of conduct and
law, it is utterly ethical when the situation demands that our hero enslave
our heroine. And because Norman has created a main character, Tarl
Cabot, who was raised on Earth, he is able to compare Earth's standards
of ethical behavior with those of Gor. And we, as readers, can share
this imagination, this fantasy world where being master and slave is honorable.
I've played the part of Gorean slave: she is feisty and willful,
but also loyal and devoted, in need of correction and her master's attention,
but she takes pride in serving her master well.
S/M role playing
can, of course, encompass myriad roles: Nazi and captured Allied
pilot, doctor and patient, drill sergeant and raw recruit, pirate and princess.
Many of them are fun for an evening's sex play, but for D/s players in
search of a common image of ownership and bonding master to slave, they
find that image in Gor. This is why I am never surprised to discover,
along with The Story of O, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Macho Sluts
and other "classics" of S/M literature, one or two (or many!) Gor books
on the shelves of other S/M players. And this is why it is so appropriate
for Richard Kasak and Masquerade Books to be bringing this series back
into print.
Perhaps I should
say a few words about why the books were out of print. Science fiction
and fantasy publishing, as a whole, is a mass market enterprise where new
novels can go in and out of print in a matter of months, but perennial
bestsellers--like Frank Herbert's Dune, and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series,
and of course J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, are continually reprinted
and repackaged for the ever-new young audience. But therei n lies
a contradiction that sf/fantasy has never quite worked out for itself--is
it for adults or children? The Boston Public Library has both books
I mentioned earlier, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight and Michael Moorcock's
Elric of Melnibone, shelved and catalogued as "young adult" books.
Many science fiction publishers think of their audience as fourteen year
old boys, despite the fact that science fiction paperbacks are bought mostly
by adults over the age of twenty-five, and almost half of them are women.
But reality often has too small an impact on editorial decisions.
After dozens of books in the series, with perennially strong back list
sales, the Gor series was abandoned by its publisher. I do not claim
to know the full story, as time has no doubt obscured some portions of
the truth and exaggerated others, but the basic result of the various forces
at work (which included the insidious influence of political correctness,
the anti-sex attitude which prevailed in the 1980s, the cut-throat business
practices of mass market publishing, and the perhaps false perception that
the reading public was "tired" of the series) was a bad rap for Gor.
Despite John Norman's track record as a best-selling author, he found himself
unable to sell a new manuscript anywhere in the industry, and the old books
were mothballed by their publishers. Soon the only place to look
for a Gor book was in used bookstores, and the scarcity of them there (yes,
I looked) attested to the fact that those who had them were keeping them
and those who wanted them were snatching them up quickly.
In 1992, shortly
after the first publication of Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, my little
self-published chapbook of S/M science fiction stories, I met John Norman
at a science fiction convention. I worked up the nerve to stop him
in the hallway after a panel discussion he had participated in and, mumbling
something about his work and mangling badly any point I may have tried
to make, I thrust my chapbook into his hands and hurried away. I
was completely thrilled a few months later when I received a letter from
him praising my efforts to combine explicit sexual description with science
fiction. "It is time science fiction and fantasy grew up!" he wrote.
Well, the establishment
changes slowly, and the battles of political correctness are still being
waged.... Let us forget them for now. Because the Gor series
is in print again--from a publisher who delights in challenging established
norms and "correctness" rhetoric, and who wholeheartedly supports adult
explorations of sexual fantasy. Masquerade Books is the publisher
of John Preston's Mr. Benson, Leopold Von SacherMasoch's Venus in Furs,
Sara Adamson's The Marketplace. Tarnsman of Gor will be at home among
such books, just as it is on the shelves of S/M players everywhere.
--Cecilia Tan,
March 1996
Home