It was a very eager girl who made her way to the East coast of the United States this month to catch up with and interview Master Gabriel. One can find him in Northern Virginia, just outside of DC where he works as a network engineer. He mentions that he has "no wives, ex-wives, or children"; When asked what he does for fun his sense of humor is immediately apparent "I have one slave. I do *her* for fun."

~lucky girl ;)~

Master Gabriel also enjoys relaxing with Tai Chi, computer games, and an occasional game of Dungeons and Dragons. His other interests include reading, writing, and arguing about Gorean philosophy and practices.

Once this girl got herself back together after a rapidly distracted thought pattern at the "doing his slave for fun" statement, she was able to ask him the following questions:

How did you find Gor, Master?---Stumbled into it the first day I was in chat. I saw a chat room named "Jagged Dagger Tavern" in the Adult section of Yahoo’s chat server, and, honest to God, I thought "Cool! A fantasy roleplaying game with sex!" Fortunately, I discovered otherwise. A week later, I bought a complete set of Gor novels on Ebay from someone I later came to know as Pantheus. Small world, eh?

If you had never heard of the gorean lifestyle, do you envision your life being any different than it is now, Master? If so, in what ways?--Aside from the friendships I’ve formed through Gor, and my clearer understanding of the kinds of relationships with women I want and need, no, I think it would be much the same. I didn’t "become" Gorean; I simply learned that there were others who were much the same as I already was.

If the answer to the above was no, Master, what do you see as being the fundamental characteristics of your life and self that make you Gorean?-- A deep-down refusal to let anyone make decisions for me. If there is one single defining characteristic of the Gorean man, it is that he is always responsible for his own life and his own actions, never just along for the ride.

What is one thing that you think would be important for anyone who knows you to know about you, Master? What is the one thing you wouldn’t want anyone to know about you?--There’s a Chinese saying that one should live so as to be ashamed of nothing that others can say about you, even if what they say is not true. I can’t think of anything in my past that anyone could bring up to which I’d say much more than "Yeah, so?"

When did you first realize that something about you was different from other men in today’s society, Master? How did you first cope with that realization?-- I always knew I was different. Partly because I was raised that way...my dad made it perfectly clear that no matter what the other kids did, someone with *our* family name should know better and/or have more pride. And partly because even as a child, things made sense to me in a way that they didn’t to most other people... and things they thought perfectly reasonable struck me as nonsensical. I felt like a foreign exchange student for most of my school career... and I just took it in stride, and went about my business.

What advice would you give to anyone asking you about this lifestyle, Master? --Read all you can, be yourself, look past the fantasy to the realities underneath... and don’t try to mold yourself to Gor, or mold Gor to yourself; either you fit as you are; or you’ll be happier elsewhere.

Do you feel that your home environment contributed to the realization that you were gorean? Especially your upbringing, Master. --I grew up reading Heinlein; he, Norman, Rand, and Nietzsche all describe much the same sort of hero, what I call the "rational individualist." The only shift I had to make when I found Gor was to put aside the idea that personal responsibility and autonomy are the highest good for *everyone*, and recognize that for some, the need to serve is stronger and more fulfilling than the need to be free.

What is the one mistake (if any) that you have made that you feel has taught you the greatest lessons about yourself, Master? -- Self-discovery for me is a continual, gradual process, not a series of blinding revelations. even when I do come to some new realization, I also generally realize that I’d known that all along, just not in quite those words.

How did bringing a slave into your home fulltime change your life, Master?-- My laundry is done much more regularly now. *grin*

What advice would you offer to someone contemplating the step of adding aslave to their household on a fulltime basis, Master? -- One of the most obvious differences between Gor and Earth is that a man here does *not* have a slave culture around him, educating him from the time he’s first self-aware about how to train, keep, and handle slaves. Your first slave *will* be a learning experience, and quite probably an occasionally-frustrating one... just as entering into any other new, complex activity would be. There’s very little by way of either useful literature or recognized authorities in the way of care and feeding of human property; you’ll have to wing it in large part, and while natural intuition will carry you a good ways, you will hit rough spots. Remember that you’re not the only one. Ask for help or just trade ideas with other slave owners whose ideas about slavery are similar to yours... if you know any. And good luck.

Do you see any major differences between your relationship with your slave and any previous long-term relationships that did not involve a slave... outside of the obvious ones because of the dynamic, Master? -- I was always in charge... it’s just far more clearly defined, now.

The interview ended, this snoopy girl did the whirlwind tour of DC and prepared to make her way back home to wait for her next victim..er, interviewee. She said prepared, on account of she learned that swimming in the fountain in front of the Washington Monument is a real bad idea. ~clears her throat a bit~ can someone send bail money, please?

Until next month...
snoopy