"Gor" Topic

I seen various stuff (including a TV segment!) about the 'Gorean lifestyle', and how it is based on the books. Are they a bit Naff, or is it just the odd behaviour of those people who make me think they might be?

Gorean is often a more extreme variant of the domination/submission theme of BDSM.

There are those who claim it is more about the philosophy of the natural order of male over female and less about sex.

Either way Gorean falls outside the bounds of generally accepted 'normal' relationships.

Regards, the Gorb

I (unfortunately) know some local folks who are into that stuff… and lots of other things.
I'm fairly open minded about lots of stuff but this crowd seems to be really messed up.

I read some of the books long long long time ago and I liked them they were strange but had cool gaint birds that you flew and fought on and a wild animal called a sleen that i thought was cool. I know they had the BDSM stuff in it but I don't remember it being the biggest part of the story.

I made it to Book 4 before I gave up in disgust.
Even at that tender young age, I thought "That ain't right…"

One slight thing in its favor is that there is no room for homely or ugly people in the Gor universe.

Gor is Neanderthal, in the sense of mind set.

There was nothing 'Dirty' in the 6 or so I read – it was just sleazy mindset stuff.

Best bit were the chicks on the covers. They were HOT.

Pat

I read through the first three: the final chapter sprang the sexual submission stuff on you like an ambush; all the books after that, so I am to understand, reek (or rejoice, ymmv) with it….

Unfortunately, it is all that. Not recommended.

Sad silly, silly books that sad silly, silly people have taken as a life style.

Each to their own however, as long as it isn't criminal and they don't try to recruit me or mine.

Sorry- to clarify for the Gorb. What are the books like. I'm guessing the style is 'pulp'- is the writing as terrible as I expect it to be?

The writing style is fairly competent for "Lost World Romance", actually, at least in the first six. After that it goes downhill.

Read them for the travelog, skip over the gender politics and BDSM.

More specifically, start at the beginning. This is not a series to be read out of order. If you are sensitive to these sorts of things you won't get past book 4 or so. Average tolerance will get you to about books 6-8. The ability to ignore the nonsense and increasingly grinding writing style, OR a realization that the philosophy of the books is compatible with your own views, may get you through the series.

I got through Book 8. Book 6 nearly finished me. Book 7 was morally repellent (female POV being absorbed wholly into the culture) but a good read technically. Book 8 was a good tale lifted from elsewhere and badly re-written. I thought the cliches had been heavy before, but Book 8 put them all to shame. I slogged through it and never even considered buying Book 9.

The first two or three books (Tarnsman, Outlaw, and Priest-Kings of Gor) have a sort of hack Edgar Rice Burroughs/Lin Carter feel to them, with the addition of slave girl subplots. After that, the slavery/submission moves front-and-center, the writing becomes increasingly trite, and you're better off reading just about anything else, including your grandmother's 30-year-old Reader's Digests.

LOL. Is there a special level in hell for blatantly bad (exploitative) writing? Or is Norman numb to such scorn anywhere?