Gor

Fandom
Name:	Gor (a series of books)
Abbreviation(s):
Creator:
Date(s):	1966 was the first book
Medium:	print
Country of Origin:
External Links:	Gor at Wikipedia
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Gor is the setting for an extended series of sword and planet novels by author and philosophy professor John Norman.

Some tropes of this fandom are Lost Colony and Slavefic.

Norman's critics denounce the Gor novels as poorly written, misogynistic trash. One writer said that Norman was "the most reviled author in the history of fantasy fiction."

an ad printed in the Star Trek Lives! convention program book

In 1988, DAW Books, which published the Gor series from the 8th volume (Hunters of Gor) through the 25th volume (Magicians of Gor), subsequently decided to cease publication of the books, citing low sales. In 1996, the author cited the reason as he was on a blacklist of authors disliked by feminists.

In 2001, Norman was excluded from Worldcon programming and in response, wrote an open letter, see it at Locus.

Fandom: Gorean Subculture

See Gorean subculture on Wikipedia.

Gorean subculture developed independent of Norman's involvement, particularly starting as a fan network after the Gor books went out of print in the late 1980s. It does not have a uniform following but encompasses different groups of varying views and practices.

Gorean subculture particularly focuses on the master-slave dynamic in sexual relationships and associated forms of female submission as portrayed in the novels. Therefore, although they are estimated to compose less than 5% of the total female population on Gor, training and keeping a female slave (often known as a kajira) is central to Gorean subculture. Formal slave training, slave positions and commands, as well as slave attire and beautification are practices central in Gorean subculture.

Literalists, otherwise known as lifestylers, incorporate elements from the Gorean culture and gender roles in their daily lives and some adherents of this approach were prosecuted for leading coercive sex cults. As opposed to literalists, the role players, divided into real-life sexual roleplayers (engaged or not engaged in BDSM practices) and online role-playing gamers (present particularly in Second Life) are not necessarily committed to Gorean philosophy and ideals.

Fanworks Inspired by "Gor"

• Free Amazons of Ghor (a Darkover skit): "[It was] a musical comedy written in 1979 by Randall Garrett, a science fiction writer and close friend of MZB, and Vicki Ann Heyrdon, his wife, also a writer. At the time, MZB and John Norman were DAW's two best-selling authors, so the premise of the play is that their fictionalized alter egos, Ms. Bee and Norman Gorman, agree to collaborate on a book, to 'rope in both your fans.' "Both our fans? Are you implying that we have only one fan each?" Randall wrote the words, and Vicki wrote the music. It was performed at one of the early Darkover Grand Council Meetings on the east coast as well was several Fantasy Worlds Festivals in California."
• Nowhere on Gor by Nancy Baker and Julie Lewis in Timeframe #2 (1980)
• The Brothel by Gayle F (1981)
• Blood and Gor by Brother Anthony Pryor in Cheap Treks #3 (1983)
• "CI5 Agent of Gor," (1990 Pros story printed in Short Circuit #3 by Susan Douglass
• HOUSEPLANTS OF GOR - a parody story about houseplants submitting to being watered rather than women to sex
• Lightning from a clear sky by systlin - This fic, and the writer's discussions about it on Tumblr, lead to an influx of other hatefic.
• The Mother of Abominations and the Conquest of Ar - Gor hatefic by Natalie Ironside, who recs systlin in the foreword. (2022)

Fandom Influences and Mentions

1974

A depressing thing was the usual overload of sex-object-type costumes on women in the costume show, There were at least two "rich" spoiled heiresses as captives in Gor, very little clad and in chains, which I didn't find entirely offset by the rather funny skit called "Buckets of Gore". In addition there was an extremely vicious and sadistic presentation by two people in "Planet of the Apes-type ape costumes.

1978

A word of concern - In SHATTERED CHAIN and FORBIDDEN TOWER [two books by Marion Zimmer Bradley], one of the main themes has to do with sex in some way. Now don't get me wrong, these novels are great, but another writer whose writings I was following went too far and became obsessed with sex and his work suffered greatly: Norman's "Gor" novels. My concern is that the Darkover novels don't follow the same downhill path.

"Gorean Turnabout" was a good story, despite how degrading and physically nauseating the Gor concept is.

1979

In this new rewrite [of the pro novel "Two to Conquer"], at least the characters are real people...though some of them are very dislikable people; Pat Matthews referred to Bard di Asturien as probably the most hateful hero outside the GOR novels. I suspect that's why the book has been going so slowly; I don't like my hero enough to enjoy spending time with him!

Do not be deceived by male Treklit. Hundreds of men read the Gor, Conan, Louis L'amour series. These are the male equivalent of the "warm, dumb, soppy, stuff". I do not know if it's nature or nurture but I've noticed men seem to read/write heroic fantasy and women are drawn to romance. I don't mind good, logical, well written Trek romance but much is on par with the worst Harlequin.

1980

[The story "Nowhere on Gor" by Nancy Baker and Julie Lewis] also had impact. Humorous, even frivolous treatment such as this is about all John Norman's work deserves.

1981

I had VERY mixed emotions about this A/U slave story, [ The Brother ]. Sometimes when I read it, I get a distinct feeling of "Starship Captains of Gor" i.e. Kirk doesn't really mind getting raped or abused as long as it is Spock who does it. On the other hand, a person kept in a state of continual abuse (as the brother-slave, Kirk, is) will many times grab at straws. In sheer desperation, he searches for the one who will somehow rescue him from the hell he endures daily. He will even accept a slightly less abusive state of bondage, believing that true freedom is absolutely unattainable. Spock, in a spate of self-hatred as well as aggression, abuses Kirk, trying to make Kirk hate him. But in the end, a reluctant and repentant Spock makes the decision to reach his hand out in aid. As in Gayle's CAVE OF THE HEART, no packages are neatly tied, no happily-ever-afters are guaranteed; I don't think one could be offered in this situation. I would like to see this theme expanded without any Gorean aspects.

1982

I wanted to drop a line to say how much I enjoyed Irma Hogg's brilliant satire "Doctor Who and Mickey Mouse Go to Gor." When I first saw the title, I expected something really terrible -- either a ghastly attempt at humor or poor pretentious writing that would take itself seriously. To my surprise, the story is magnificent. I especially loved the seduction scene between the Doctor and Minnie in the slave girl's tent.

1984

[This art] has power, life and grace and this is despite the fact that I don't normally like types with brawny supermacho type standing over slender female crouched at his feet *shades of Gor*!

1987

The cover art [of Time for Yesterday] is done, by Boris, and when a friend of mine, Esther Friesner, took one look at it, she burst out laughing and whooped — "Oh no! It's 'Vulcans of Gor!'" I had kiddingly told Boris that TFY would be a book where he could indulge himself and put a naked barbarian with a drippy sword on the cover and it would be right in keeping — and, by gum, that's what he did, so the last laugh is on me. It's certainly different, and thus bound to attract a lot of attention.

A more Earthly reaction was Michael Moorcock's try at banning Norman in the UK. The September 1986 SF Chronicle reported that Moorcock 'has been attempting to convince * retail distributor W.H. Smith to stop displaying John Norman's Gor books and magazines showing nude women' (p. 25). This move must have been highly endearing to DAW books, who publish Norman's fiction and the non-fiction Imaginative Sex (John Clute in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states this book 'argues the sexual bias of the novels very explicitly’ - presumably it is a bondage manual). DAW, incidentally, is now headed by a woman, Betsy Wollheim, and one wonders what she thinks of Norman.

The news of Moorcock drew a reply in the November SFC, from one Jessica Amanda Salmonson, which contained the extraordinary statement: 'I hate those novels, though counting a few sadomasochistic women among my dearer friends' (p. 16). Some of my best friends are... Joking apart, Salmonson defended Norman on the grounds of civil liberties: 'It is far more terrifying that someone of Michael Moorcock’s calibre is able to perform the mental gymnastics necessary to justify any level of bookburning’. In fact, Salmonson is right - Moorcock’s tactics are perilously close to those of the Moral Majority, who are rumoured to pressure distributors to withdraw gay literature in particular.

Sigh. Like Jerry Pournelle's wife, I could not be civil to John Norman if I met him at a cocktail party. However, by gritting my teeth I could possibly defend to the death his right to say that, deep down, I yearn to be whipped, branded and chained. (If anybody actually said that to me I’d...) Should the Moral Majority stop persecuting innocuous children's authors like Robert Cormier, and blacklist the Gor books, though, I doubt I’d be very outraged. But would they? The view of women in Gor is not a million miles from Biblically-sanctioned inferiority.

 

1989

Too many Kirk-enslaved stories show Kirk acquiescing too readily to slavery. Some of the A/U Kirk-enslaved stories could be entitled STARSHIP CAPTAINS OF GOR: Spock is the master and he's so SEXY, even when he is raping and beating the hell out of Kirk — and of course Kirk learns he really loves it.

1990

The only type of story which will get an almost automatic rejection would " be a "Gor" type story where one of the partners is raped by the other and learns to fall madly in love with him (I'm not too worried about receiving stories like this in B/D fandom as I am in some other fandoms).

If that relationship [between two male media characters] is attractive because it is equal, why are there a non negligible number of slash-zines, where one male partner dominates the other in such a fashion as to make John Norman's Gor series look non-sexist?

1994

Gor books: I find the friendship between the warriors rather slashy. I remember being rather disappointed at what the Free Amazons , (er, no, I think they are the panther girls, no? What are they called?) did with the captured slave girls. But the Ho-Tu and Sura love story was very sweet. A gorean man stays for years in the service of the master of the house who had had him castrated for the love of a slave girl, (in Assassin of Gor. It was cute.). I also like the training male couples of the assassins. I'm not going to let some literal minded fools spoil the Gor universe for me.

[The Blake's 7 fic Of Mice and Men is the] weirdest damn thing I've read in awhile. I agree it doesn't really qualify as slash; instead, it reads like a rather typical mainstream porn book (or fantasy porn book---can you say "Gor"?) with the names of the characters changed to those of B7 folk. It can be fascinating, in a morbid kinda way, to flip through, but it didn't work for me at all."

My earliest h/c fantasies were based on Grimm's and Andersen's fairy tales. And at age 5-8 I played out such fantasies with girlfriends. (You know, stories of the kind beautiful-princess-gets-kidnapped-by-villains-and-gets-tied-up-and-tortured... we never hurt each other, the 'torture' was usually just tickling or pretended whipping). We had no conscious idea that there were any underlying sexual implications, but we never wanted to be watched by grown-ups when playing this... (quoted anonymously)

I too, spent a lot of puberty time wrestling with my girlfriends using similar scenarios. I also ran into THE GOR SERIES in my local less-than-300 book library at the same time, and really became obsessed with slavery and bondage scenarios. Once I realized they talked about *SEX* too, boy was I embarrassed... (quoted anonymously)

I discovered John Norman's Gor series when I was eleven or twelve, and I read them avidly throughout my teens, even after he began to emphasize the sex ;-), which was about the same time he changed publishers (Ballantine to Daw). The attitudes expressed by Norman's protagonists are decidedly unPC; a lot of people object to these books for the way women are treated. The most recent Gor book was published two or three years ago now. It's my understanding that Norman had a falling out with Daw, so I may never find out what happens to Tarl Cabot (who has been an outlaw for the past several books with the Priest Kings out to kill him for some as yet unrevealed reason) and Gor (which is still in danger of attack by the Kurii). (Rachael Sabotini)

LOCUS did a poll of its readers not too long ago and John Norman and his Gor books topped the 'guilty pleasures' lists for both author and series. And as long as everybody else is admitting to it, I will 'fess up to having read them happily. I think his world is well thought out in many parts - his biggest flaw for me is that he writes as though his books were serialised, and repeats things at the beginning of every chapter. (quoted anonymously)

The supposed the chain of conclusion is somewhat like this: strong physical reaction to pain => high sensitivity => strong physical reaction to sexual pleasures (and that's what we're really after, no?) Ah! So that's why all the slaves were whipped on the "Auction Block of Gor." Now I know what to call this class of stories in fanfic, to go along with my 'shopping for curtains' stories' :)

1999

L'histoire d'Obi -- by Lilith Sedai. You almost need to be a fan of the Gor novels for this one to give you the full impact, the whole idea of 'pleasure slaves' is integral to tha[t] universe as it is to this one but Lilith does it stunningly well ...

Nope: to John Norman being God, actually :-). The more I think about it, the more parallels I see between the Gor books (or, the ones I've read, anyway) and the Bible. I think I shall stop thinking about this. I think I shall stop thinking about this _now_.

2000

The first couple[of the Gor books] are reasonable Burrough's imitations, but after that they go off into lots of B&D porn and bogus science on how women are naturally inferior and need to be dominated by strong men. It's a real shame and I can't think of another series which took such a drastic (and bad) turn.

I concur.... forget Gor. Even the first book was crap IMHO.

Caveat: I read the first 6 or 7 books in the series almost 30 years ago, and haven't read any of the more recent ones. Based on that, I'd say the first 4 or 5 books were OK, but then "Anita Blake syndrome" hit and the stories got pushed aside by weird BDSM stuff about how women were meant to be sex slaves of men (hmm, since those stories actually predate Anita Blake, maybe I should say rather that Anita's series fell to Gor Syndrome?).

However, even the later ones had cool cover illustrations - either Vallejo or some imitator.

I read the first 12 before I bounced away in the first couple of chapters of the 13th book. The philosophizing to plot ratio was completely tipped towards the former by this point and I think Norman had become a too absorbed in the philosophy he had created for Gorean society. I'd reiterate that the first three or four are decent S&S/adventure stories - anything after this becomes increasingly unreadable. As to Norman's philosophy: If you're into BDSM, you might get something out of them that would titilate [sic] you but even those moments are few and far between. The misogyny of the books has been noted but, to be honest, I don't really care much if fictional characters are mistreated. I think you get a disturbing window into Mr. Norman's bitterness regarding, perhaps, some women in his life. Some of the books contain women who seem like thinly veiled people from Norman's real life who have been transferred to his world for their comeuppance. I find these things rather distasteful but in the end it's no skin off my nose.

As adventure it's ok for a while - as BDSM lit, it could be better.

2013

Ask yourself this: Has there ever been a story about a guy who befriends a dragon, finds a beautiful woman, gets laid and saves the world? Is HE instantly labeled a "Gary Stu"??? No. How about "Tarnsman of Gor"? I read that one in high school too. As a female, it messed me up. Or how about ANY Conan the Barbarian book?

I think, it's not only what people write but what gets published. I know there are truly innovative writers out there and I wish that people were able to read their books. But on the other hand, I also think that our imagination is influenced by what we read and what we are told is acceptable. To deviate from that programming is difficult and I believe it requires both courage and a real urge to express yourself individually.

This reminds me of a critique I've seen of George R. R. Martin, and "fantasy" in general. If "fantasy" is a way to excuse anything a reader might think it is oppressive, then why is it that "fantasy" isn't broader in scope?

If you are literally able to make up *anything* for your own world in fiction, then why is it that so many choose to make up a world that re-creates our own hierarchies in a way that's retrograde, oppressive, and reinforcing of current or past oppressive norms? Why does "fantasy" so often mean "going back to an imagined past where Eurocentric, racist, slavery-based, violent, woman-owning, rapey, misogyny was super awesome and totally socially acceptable!!" (Gor. Just... really. Gor.)

If a writer is given liberty to be as "creative" they want, because of ART, why do so few people choose to create something new or progressive? Why is it that when "reality" is picked as an excuse for a world-building choice, it's almost always a hat-tip to a "reality" that assuages anxiety on the part of conservative ideologues?

2015

We start [our comments about Kirk/Spock print zine Charisma #1, the one] with the really awful cover. One of the ‘logic never happened!!’ Vulcans of Gor AU things, with a bare-chest nipple-pastie armor deal. If I were an archeologist, I’d conclude that in the past, people never experienced embarrassment. Spock’s expression indicates he’s been smacked in the face with something heavy moments before. The art is not great, but in and of itself not *terrible* – I’m more annoyed by the immense popularity of Vulcans of Gor.

Meta/Further Reading

• Chain gang: Fans of John Norman's novels about the planet Gor create virtual and real-life worlds in which women are slaves. by Julia Gracen (May 2000)
• John Norman - Libertarian (February 3, 2012)