Low Key Gorean Community?

This is really getting tempting...

Back in the day, I found the the Gor books to be medicore pulp fiction, which is fine, it just wasn't a setting that interested me.. That didn't surprise me as I never liked D&D or LOTR and all my friends who did read the books were. I never imagined it would be the basis for a Real Life lifestyle. As long as leading that lifestyle is done consensually and doesn't viollate any laws, I really don't care what you do. Same goes for SL RP. Just don't bother those not interested with it outside of the RP area and I couldn't care less. The Mindset of the Culture is interesting and I understand both those that advocate it and those that are repulsed by it.

I don't think the real question is

"How" can they have Online Gor and largely ignore the books,

Theres hundreds of participants in Second Life to show you "how". If you go to a SL Gor sim having read 3 books thats 2 or 3 more than half the people you will meet.

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I think the real question is "Why"

On that, I do not know. I can guess though - Nearly nude slave girls, Swords, and "amazons" .

Comparing Gor to a religion is a mistake, IMHO. I won't speak to religions, but Gor is a fantasy. Yes, the author had an agenda, and certainly had a skewed view of human nature, but who cares? It's fantasy. One that the occasional person likes very much.

There are those who treat the books as a philosophy on how to live, and that's fine too. You do not have to agree with everything someone said to find nuggets of thought that appeal to you.



Heh, I want to find a community that has this sort of sense of humour, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Perhaps that helps define what I meant by "low key"?

To those who have made suggestions, thank you very much! I'm making a list. I hope to get a chance to visit some of the places soon.

Hi Severian,

I visited a place called Iaoma (?) on a little exploring mission a wee while ago and the people I met there seemed pretty laid back about everything and very open. So it might be worth having a look there (check the spelling though, I think it was something like that).

As far as the whole Gor/Role Playing thing goes, I've always been curious.

Ok I'll say here and now, I've never really taken part in RP .. you can call it lack of imagination if you want..

So if what I say sounds crass and simplistic, that's because it probably is..

If RP is even slightly do do with playing someone you're not in RL or someone you can't be in RL.. then I can understand the logic behind kids, and vampyres and god knows what else.

That's because we can't actually turn back the clock and be kids again, nor (in my experience anyway) can we become the undead.

There are however "alpha" men out there in RL who are dominant and if they choose can follow the Gor idealogy. I'm also guessing that a dominant "alpha" male doesn't have to RP being one, or RP finding submissive women. Why then come to SL to spend all your time replicating RL..?

So as far as Gor goes, doesn't that just mean that a lot of the women who RP kajira are probably quite dominant and in control in RL, and the men that RP "Masters".. are for the most part...well .. the opposite..?

Doesn't the idea of the potential (and let's face it quite likely) reality, ruin it a bit?

Don't hold back if I'm being an idiot.. or offensive.. I'm genuinely interested..

May or may not apply, as I know nothing about Gor, nor roleplay in a Gor sim. But what you have said seemed to be open for my comment, and so . . .

I am submissive in SL (don't get any ideas random strangers reading this, submissive to one). I am not dominant in RL, nor do I hold vast power and influence. I have come to realize, through all of this, that I am more submissive in RL than I had thought, but I am not a "submissive" in RL.

Hi Stephen

Good questions. Not idiotic at all.



Because it takes genuine interest on both sides of the D/s. An "alpha male" without a consenting (and enjoying) submissive female that acts "alpha" is just an asshole. And the Gor "rules" are quite harsh by some standards, so if that's you thing, you *really* want to find like minded people to interact with.

RL is static (at least it is for me - married). SL is dynamic. You can find new opportunities and situations. Right?



How people act in their fantasy life is not really linked with how they act in their "real" life. You never know who a person is sexually just by looking at them at work. I've also read on these forums that the kajira really run the sims in SL. Is that true? Oh, and many kajira are really male basement dwellers.

To go and stereotype all SL Gorean slave girls as "submissives" is really inaccurate.

Hi Colette,

Sorry if I was offensive.. but if not a submissive nature (albeit only to a chosen other), why would someone voluntarily enslave themselves?

I'm not completely dense and I do understand that there are various dimensions to what's going on, but again I'm just asking out of interest.

This is a good question.

Of course "Slave" is most definitely an exaggeration,

But even in the "RP slave girl" sense a large number do not act as if they are "enslaved"

...but kinda forgivable, in as much as those slaves are hard to distinguish to the naive eye, right?

Non-submissive Princesses in silk might be more accurate in many cases.

I think they are all supposed to be submissive, yes.

Fair enough...thanks for answering..

TELETUS

IM A BLACK GUARD THERE. VERY NICE COMUNITY. WE ARE A TRADING ISLAND/SHIPPING ROUTE. HAVE MNAY VISITORS AND A NICE SIZE COMUNITY. SUGEST YOU TRY IT OUT AND WALK AROUND

This happens on Gor too .. though technically it isnt supposed to.

slave girls are "supposedly" submissive to all Free,

and submissive to all slaves ranked higher than them.

I apologize for this delayed response. As a long-time observer of the Gorean practices in our fine virtual world, as well as a one-time reader of at least several pages of an authentic dog-eared Gor chronicle, I may provide helpful and in character responses to these dire yet unavoidable questions of modality.

- do the Gor crowd know it was ironic satire at the time?

It is my earnest belief that the Gor novels in particular and satire in general is purely up to the reader's interpretation. Removed from the burgeoning feminist propaganda of the late 1960s, Mr. Lange ne' John Norman's literary works continue to stand firmly athwart subversive social elements promotional of female roles outside of proper submission and the occasional inherently anti-order yet admirably strict and fair kajira.

Similarly, one must admit that there's an attractive balance to Swift's Proposal. Feeding the homeless to the hungry! I shall have to write my Congressman.

- Can you do an ironic satire with 20 sequels and bra-busting cover artwork?

It is held as true that the continuing release of our sacred texts outweighs any possible weakening of the truth of the message of those texts. We all maintain a proper collection of matted and framed prints of the great works adorning the texts which state our cultural truths. Also, the publisher's nephew needed the work.

- What's up with the body fascism, or did "slappy old munters of Gor" not make it to the top sellers list, back in '76?

If I remember correctly, that volume was eventually released as Slave Girl of Gor in 1977, after the initial title failed with test audiences.

- Are there any other book series invented in the 70's, now turned into quasi-religions, which could beneficially be taken up in SL and which might have a head start - say a movie tie-in or two?

Indeed, a good number of book series are on the hotlist for film series and quasi-religious efforts that, given at least several decades of social reform, might result in their practice outside of well armed compounds. My personal favorite, Emmanuel, has already seen a fairly successful series, although it notably lacks any details which would establish a timeline of miracles such as making water into wine, lighting shrubbery on fire, flying spacegoing DC-9 aircraft into active volcanos, or sending human beings into fourth-dimensional space with mind bullets. Panties fly off and that's about it.

- There seems to be a crossover point of some kind of social piety, that says you can't 'do' satire as RP: it would be unacceptable, for instance, to wander round as Oprah Winfrey, playing Gor's analogue of Osama bin Laden...

Observing proper context in the utterly serious roleplay environment of the Gorean sims is absolute Emily Post. One may not make immediate references to out-worlder events or liken, for instance, the late unpleasantness in Port Slaperthys to contemporary conflicts in the sandy East. However, one may certainly embody a rogue Kajira by the name of Abda Adira ("powerful black woman!" who happens to write bestselling Cuneiform tablets of law that subvert the proper teachings on the sharing of home stones. Those tablets then may strongly suggest that conflicted yet steadfastly beholden readers purchase additional stacks of similarly bestselling Cuneiform tablets from which one just happens to collect a proper share of gross receipts.

- using RP as a social experiment has a really low RL threshhold. So it's OK to have RP in AA meetings or in Marriage Guidance, abuse recovery, family therapy, and workplace group dynamics: but the minute there is no mummy figure around, it's a dangerous evil and has to be stamped out. Hmm; what's wrong with RPing being a mummy?

Bits dropping off?

Heh, and to think of me as a slave is very inaccurate (not to imply that your comment had anything to do with me). I freely submit, I am not a slave. heh.

Good luck. I hope you find it. having a healthy sense of humor is invaluable to any sort of RP, in my opinion, and where people fail is when they take it too seriously, or force themselves to abide by rules that are so ridiculously strict that they can't let their minds grow.

That also speaks to the issue of Gorean RP not being true to the books. I don't know why it would have to be. The books were just books. they weren't terribly well written, they were pedantic, contradictory in places, and were never meant to be used as a bible for RP, to the best of my knowledge. If people consider them a very basic skeleton for their RP, then build their story from there, it seems to be a much healthier, more creative and intelligent way to have fun, than to use the books as a rule-book and try to adhere to them perfectly.

I could probably throw together a framework for RP in under two hours that people could play with and enjoy for as long as they wanted, just as long as they had good imaginations and the ability to adapt to each other's interpretation of the story.

Heh, well, that is why I said that I am submissive to one. I am not a slave girl. Might be wholly inaccurate to put it this way, but think of a kitty "submitting" to their human. That will not mean anything to anyone who does not understand or know cats. And to those that know cats might look confused. I will add that I am more submissive than the average cat, but even cats "submit" from time to time for some petting, nearness, sitting together ((and I've had more than one can that just would stop demanding affection)).

For me the fun of RP is being able to develop a character and storyline , to feed off of other players, within a framework, not strictly bound by it. Where's the fun in holding to strict canon? It removes so much creativity.

It took you three lines to say what I said in two paragraphs. You win.

There are no cannons on Gor, the Golden Insect Priest King Things will microwave the cannon owner through their TV set gizmo.