"25,000 'Real Goreans' in the UK?" Topic

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Now I've seen everything!

"Mr Thompson, who was once banned from one shop for turning up with a girl on a leash…"

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

If I heard there were 250 'Real Goreans' in the entire USA, I could believe it, but 25,000 in the UK? Purleaze!

'Hi Honey, just been down the shops' 'Buy anything nice?' 'Just a Canadian- got her in the sale, bloody bargain!' 'We've got 3 slaves already, where we going to put her? She's not going in the living room, you'll have to keep her in the garage!' 'But there's no room in there with the High Tharlarion!!!'

etc.

Its the way these guys function like a sect- role-players and fetishists using the sacred texts of John Norman for other than theirobvious intended purpose as a genuine corpus of ethics for life in the real world , are the despised liberals and heretics.

60,000,000 Brits…

25,000 'Goreans'

That means 1 in 2400 Britons is a Real Gorean.

Do the political parties know this? Should they be tailoring their policies to get the Gorean vote?

You're all just jelous!!!

I started reading the Gor books back in the 70's. I foudn them quite dull and boring. So much for my sex life.

Gah! The Gor series is the only set of books that I've actually gotten rid of. That guy is more wordy than Charles Dickens spends a lot of page space on minutae.

Previously, the only group I heard of that replicated anything of his world was an SCA fighting group that modelled itself after the Tuchuks (barbarians). Ironically, I overheard a pair of them walking back from a large battle in full armor, talking about a brain surgery they had performed the week prior.

Wyatt

Previously, the only group I heard of that replicated anything of his world was an SCA fighting group that modelled itself after the Tuchuks (barbarians). Ironically, I overheard a pair of them walking back from a large battle in full armor, talking about a brain surgery they had performed the week prior.

After the SCA fight they probably really believed they had done brain surgery

In spite of their reputation amongst the more foppish SCAdians, the 'chuks are generally far more honourable on the field in my experience than a LOT of the white belts… go figure.
And I don't doubt there are doctors and lawyers among their numbers, just like there are doctor and lawyer bikers. Much the same grou really.

Best Tuchuk story I can recall was when their neighbors at Pennsic complained to the Cooper's staff about the wild ritual taking place in the 'chuk camp. Upon investigation the wild ritual was a Steelers game on a TV they had brought with them…

I find it hard to believe 25,000 have even managed to read a whole Gor book without giving it up halfway through and watching paint dry instead.

Eh. Aside from the "female submissive" ranting the first half dozen books are fairly readable, and the descriptions of the various city-state cultures are quite harvestable for gaming or similar (like the SCA Tuchuks). After those, however, the writing quickly became dominated by either those same rantings or by lengthy self-loathing internal monologues. There is still good cultural material to be mined, but you have to have a stronger stomach for it as the series progresses.

I made it to book 8 before giving up. That Book 8 also contains a rather blatant retelling of the archtypical "killer at our backs" marching story (wherein the teller stalks a moving column of warriors, peeling the hapless rearguard off one by one) and several other old war stories didn't help my appreciation at all.

I suspect Book 7 is the bible for these "real Goreans", as it is the first-person account of a fiercely independent Earth woman's abduction and transformation into an ideal Gorean slave girl. That this would catalyse the creation of a real world group, sadly, doesn't surprise me, but I guess it does take all types…

Maybe I was trying to read one of the later ones – I do remember there were a lot to choose from….

I'll bet that about 25,000 of them are male.

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

TheSecretAliasofCooperSteve: "… using the sacred texts of John Norman for other than their obvious intended purpose …"

Um, I'm guessing then you haven't seen Dr. Norman's other book, "Imaginative Sex". I've only skimmed it, and I was 13 at the time, but as I recall it's a catalog of various sexual roleplay scenarios. Made it very clear to me exactly what was going on with the Gor series — a bunch of longer sexual roleplay scenarios.

Ehh… I think I've read them all (including IS) but I must admit I learned early on how to flip ahead until he got back to the storyline. And the ones like number 7 that spend most of the book driveling on about master/slave foofaraw are the ones I didn't keep.

I read them for fun, like I read Lin Carter or lou Cameron novels, looking for a good light adventure, without too much depth. They pass the time.

I have met a few who referred to them as the 'Sacred Tomes' but honestly, I just don't want to know anything more from somebody who's said that.

"Real Goreans", though, what foolishness. I'm surprised they all haven't died the flame death already — they must be using SOME form of proscribed technology. I'll be making my own report to the Priest Kings about this…

John Norman? An American philosophy academic? How exactly did these loons avoid arrest on drug charges ('cause they're obviously high on something)?

You think Goreans are bad? There's this bunch of loons that follow L Ron Hubbard…now they really are scary. What were they called again….? Answers on a postcard to South Park, Colorado…

"You think Goreans are bad? There's this bunch of loons that follow L Ron Hubbard…now they really are scary."

I heard a bunch of these hang out in some suburb of Los Angeles and pull stunts that gets them on last night talk shows…

or late night, as the case may be…

Have you ever watched Sin Cities? Or Kink? They are on Showcase up here in Canada, and are basically video documentaries of various bizarre sexual fetishes from around the World. I have only caught bits of some of them, but Kink is REALLY messed up – some guy had ball bearings inserted into his Scrotum! :-0 A real freak show!

Farstar 18 May 2006 1:36 p.m. PST
"I suspect Book 7 is the bible for these 'real Goreans', as it is the first-person account of a fiercely independent Earth woman's abduction and transformation into an ideal Gorean slave girl"

That would be my guess as well. IIRC the book at which I decided enough is enough already. Not that the volumes 1 to 6 were shining literary gems either…

Anyhow, 25,000 of this particular "sect" in the UK alone is a little hard to swallow.

The BBC report on this says 25,000 members worldwide which is a bit more believable.

More delicious detail in today's paper… the guy wasn't banned from any old shop for taking in a woman on a lead… it was the butchers.

This is going on in Darlington, presumably known as 'Glorious Dar' to Real Goreans.

This is seriously akin to claiming to be a 'Real Hobbit' or being so enamoured with the work of Jonathon Swift that you move into a stable in a menage with a couple of horses.

The guy apparently first read John Norman when he was 13, and decided at 16 to adopt the lifestyle. This was remarkable enough in itself, even more remarkable that he seems to have pulled it off. Incidentally, the female fan-base is huge.
Apparently the Canadian had burned her passport on joining the 'sect' but did take advantage of police help to go home. So a bit of a backslider as far as the ethos goes… the photos showed her in very bog-standard S&M restraints, the only thing vaguely Gorean about her was her rather nasty pleated skirt which looked like something from the 70s.

The best of this is that if this does get recognition as a 'religion', would keeping a slave qualify your home as a 'place of worship' (Temple of the Priest-Kings?) and thus exempt you from Council Tax? It really does seem a plan with no drawbacks, as long as you can live without meat or have a butcher who is a co-religionist.

Could butchers be prosecuted under religious hatred for barring people on leads? Surely akin to objecting to a Turban, Kippor or Burkah?

Incidentally Tuchuks walking around in full armour would be against the Weapons Laws of the Priest-Kings and they would have been death-rayed by stealth flying-saucers.

My mum bought me the first 15 or so in a flea-market… went 'oh, these are science Fiction… Pat likes Science Fiction.. I will get him these.!

I was 10……. The first few were ok, after a while i started going "hey, hang on a minute…."

(She also gave me The Fog when i was 12. But her all-time achievment was the Illustrated Harry Harrison Book 'Planet Story'. Now that was a book for a barely pubescent boy!)

But reading the article in the paper this morning I was both gob-smacked (Worshipping the Gor Books? of all the things to worship, GOR????) and a powerful wave of nostalgia – I am almost tempted to hunt some out and read them again.

Pat

Now you have gone and piqued my morbid interest, and my Gorean Wisdom is decidedly rusty (obviously won't dare to use Google in fear of getting death-rayed)…

How does the live-without-meat part get into this? I sorta assumed going to the butcher's was preparation for some sanguinary excess. I seem to faintly recall a scene of doin' the nasty in a pool of blood and entrails in one of the "books".

"Worshipping the Gor Books? of all the things to worship, GOR???"

Yes- no need to ask what planet these guys are coming from eh?

Being a 'real Gorean' without being on another planet with lesser gravity, eternal youth, riding birds and dinosaurs, artificially restricted technology and a bunch of giant golden supra-insectoids squabbling with a bunch of 8' carnivores for the whole caboddle, does fall rather flat. As does applying the extremely tenous internal logic of these Opussssses (opi?) to everyday life.

What next? Real Panther Girls lurking in the woods while I'm trying to walk the dog?

Today's paper talked about 350, but it was ambguous whether this meant the Laotian splinter sect or the wider Goreans (who apparently are 'a bit rougher' than the Laotians!!! Yes those figures do sound more believable.

"Yes- no need to ask what planet these guys are coming from eh?"

Darlington. It answers it all really. If I lived in Darlington I too would start seeking Alternate Lifestyles. Or at least A Lifestyle.

Pat

Never been. Is it worse than Loughborough?

"How does the live-without-meat part get into this?"

Nothing to do with Gorean lifestyle, you are just barred from the local butchers. 'If its on a lead, its a dog, you're not blind, so get out of my shop!'

Personally I thought the Gorean lifestyle of warm beer and warm wine didn't sound all that great. And we're not talking 'warm beer' like the fine ales of England , either

Ah, quite. Was wondering if Norman inserted some food fetish about only eating freshly-butchered meat in there somewheres…

-Sorry sir – no dogs except Guide Dogs.
-But this IS a guide Dog
-(leans over counter, stares at leather clad canadian girl on leash) Sir, Guide dogs are either Labradors or Retrievers.
- why, what have they given ME?

No – it's not comparable to Loughborough. Have you ever been to Barrow? Its like that, but without the 24-hour Cafe Culture and Night-life.

Pat

Tnjrp- are you thinking of the bit in MARAUDERS where the victorious pseudo-Viking trusses his girl to the still warm carvass of a furry alien space-wolf and has his wicked way?

Possibly. Honestly, can't recall exactly. And I'd appreciate you NOT jogging my memory (-;)

I'd never heard of Gor until now, but the ability to have a selection of women to do everything for me and to fulfil any desire I have sounds great – where do I sign up?

"I'd appreciate you NOT jogging my memory (-;)"

You complete Wuss! You haven't lived until you've ravished your wench on a still-steaming enemy of your species! How like a weak, miserable man of Earth! (:-P)

You may have gathered there is a vein of machismo/fascismo in these masterpieces…

TheSecretAliasofCooperSteve 19 May 2006 5:25 a.m. PST
"You haven't lived until you've ravished your wench on a still-steaming enemy of your species!"

I will have to quote you on that, you know (-:)

Anyhow, as I mentioned above, I have sampled the Holy Writings of Prophet Norman and as I recall it, the vein you refer to was split wide open and spurting…

Don't remember that one, but I wouldn't put it past Prof. Lange. There was a grandeur to his bad taste. I heard he was a professor of sociology (heaven knows at what academic establishment!) and his academic outpourings were even more outrageous than his sci-fi…

Barrow? Driven through, past 'The Kipper', but by the sound of it the digging up of a plesiosaur was the most exciting thing that ever happened there…

Loughborough has some good pubs. In walking distance of mother-in-law's house. Which is nice. But other than that its a hole (Having studied there 3 years and worked there 2…)

We mentioned to our elderly neighbours once that we'd spent a week in Mablethorpe, she got very excited and announced that they had been to Mablethorpe every year for the past 60 years because 'there's SO much to do!!!'.

We are still trying to work that one out. We can only assume that there is a hidden earthly paradise in a bunker system under the sand dunes that the initiated know how to find, because its the drop-off of civillisation to anyone else.

It's in the sand! (poor reference to an old British TV ad)

Lost me there AS?

Sane Max: "(She also gave me The Fog when i was 12. But her all-time achievment was the Illustrated Harry Harrison Book 'Planet Story'. Now that was a book for a barely pubescent boy!)"

What, you too? Although I might have been 13 when my grandmother gave it to me. I still remember that book fondly…who can forget "like a pair of dirigibles emerging from their hanger…" when it's imprinted on you that young?

Rich

I am waiting for Judas Iscariot to comment here before I raise my voice . . . At least he would sympathise with my involvement. :)

"Bet most of these guys would lose in HtH combat."

They'd end up in the galleys or get eaten by a sleen faster than you can say 'ahn'

"I'm guessing then you haven't seen Dr. Norman's other book, "Imaginative Sex". I've only skimmed it, and I was 13 at the time, but as I recall it's a catalog of various sexual roleplay scenarios."

I've actually read the introduction and some of the scenarios.
Woman kidnapped by bandits
Woman kidnapped by pirates
Woman kidnapped by desert raiders
Woman kidnapped by aliens
etc.
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"The best of this is that if this does get recognition as a 'religion', would keeping a slave qualify your home as a 'place of worship"

In the US that would create a contradiction between the 1st Amendment to the Constitution (freedom of religion) and the 13th Amendment (abolition of slavery).
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"I heard he was a professor of sociology (heaven knows at what academic establishment!)"

Philosphy, actually, at Queens College, City University of New York where he's known as the author of "The Cognitivity Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Claims of Philosophy." (yawn).
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There are some interesting pastiches of Gor
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and the Thread Necromancy of the Week award goes to…

Is this sort of exhumation archaeology or just looting?

Anything I say will just get me in trouble. Only Gor isn't the only set of life-stylists that Norman inspired.