This month we continue with Book II, Outlaw of Gor.

Chapter 4

Tarl, confused by Zosk's reaction to him, decides to travel on to Ko-ro-ba through the night. It is dangerous to travel at night, both because one cannot see well, and because there are creatures about. This particular night is even more dangerous than usual because a storm rages. Tarl keeps moving, getting "bit" by a leech plant at one point.

The plant itself is not very dangerous, but normally the roads are kept clear of such things. Tarl develops a nagging suspicion. The pasang stones confirm he is near Ko-ro-ba, yet he is confused why he can see no lights.

The storm having abated for a time, redoubles its fury. A flash of lightning reveals a charging sleen and Tarl gleefully meets his charge. Tarl has been wondering at the strangeness of things and has been entertaining suspicion that the mysterious Priest-Kings are somehow involved. He is relieved, therefore, by a danger which is concrete and which can be fought. Of course, Tarl kills it. He then eats the heart raw and is "another predator among predators." Norman's take on evolution is already showing.

We learn the Gorean proverb that says a man who is returning to his city is not to be detained.

Tarl drinks some of the sleen's blood and gazes into it according to Gorean superstition. He does not see his own reflection, but something else entirely. Remember this scene when we get to Priest-Kings of Gor.

Chapter 5

We learn a little of the geography of not only Ko-ro-ba, but Thentis, Ar, and Port Kar as well. Tarl reaches the top of a long hill and waits for a flash of lightning. As he proclaims his love for Talena, the lightning reveals that the city is gone.

Suddenly an Initiate is behind Tarl. He turns to face him. Upon studying him closely, Tarl notices he is unlike any Initiate he's ever known. He wonders if the man is a Priest-King. The Initiate- who-doesn't-look-like-an-Initiate explains that by the will of the Priest-Kings Ko-ro-ba has been destroyed, her inhabitants scattered to the winds, and that not a stone may stand upon a stone.

The Initiate commands Tarl to submit. Tarl refuses. The Initiate then says:

"Then be it so," he said, "you are henceforth condemned to wander the world alone and friendless, with no city, with no walls to call your own, with no Home Stone to cherish. You are henceforth a man without a city, you are a warning to all not to scorn the will of the Priest-Kings-- beyond this you are nothing"

At a casual glance, it may seem that the words "Home Stone" (two words not one) are synonymous with the word "city." This is simply not true. Notice that Tarl is told he is both without a city and without a Home Stone. They are not the same thing. A Home Stone is a stone, not a location.

But then the Initiate, no longer seeming the same, tells Tarl to throw himself upon his sword and frustrate the will of Priest-Kings. For this act, the man dies. Tarl decides the answers to his questions are to be found in the Sardar and off he goes.

Chapter 6

We learn of the Sardar fairs held four times a year in conjunction with the solstices and equinoxes. [Although we are accustomed to keeping the Gorean calendar according to Earth's solstices and equinoxes, there is no reason for them to actually coincide. I won't bore you here with the astrophysics.] The fairs, we learn, provide the only opportunity for men [the gender specific language is Norman's] of otherwise hostile cities to "mingle without bloodshed, [in] times of truce, times of contests and games, of bargaining and marketing" and "make use of the fairs to diseminate and exchange information pertaining to their respective crafts."

Tarl speculates that the fairs also serve to keep the common Gorean language common. Those who cannot speak "The Language" are considered as almost not human. I suspect that Norman set up a common language simply so that Tarl could travel to all the parts of Gor and speak to anyone he might meet. It certainly removes an obstacle. Even at this early point, I believe Norman was thinking several books ahead. "Priest-Kings" at least has already been plotted as "Outlaw" serves primarily as a preface for it.. "Nomads" too, as a sequel to "Priest-Kings," may already have been outlined by this time. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

We learn that Goreans have "little sensitivity to race, but much to language and city." Goreans too find reasons to hate their fellow men. I point out, again, that Goreans are not without fault. While in many ways, they may be representative of Norman's (and our) ideal civilization, there exist Goreans who fall short - frequently far short - of that ideal.

Tarl makes his way across country living off the land. He describes the relationship between outlaws and peasants as symbiotic. Since he bears the insignia of no city on his garments, and since Ko-ro-ba is no more, Tarl is an outlaw. He is a man with no Home Stone. He lives outside the social order of the cities. Yet, as we see, the outlaw is not unknown on Gor.

Still, although an accepted, though perhaps unspoken, part of Gorean culture, the outlaw avoids the cities of Gor. To "enter a city without permission or satisfactory reason is tantamount to a capital crime, and the punishment is usually a swift and brutal impalement." "The Gorean is suspicious of the stranger" and "the same word is used for both stranger and enemy." [In Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines, the same word is used for both 'love' and 'expensive.' Language tells us a lot about a culture.]

There is, we are told, one city which is a notable exception to the common Gorean "hospitality" and that is Tharna. Also unusual about Tharna is the fact that she [the gender specific language is Norman's] is ruled by a female and that the free women of the city enjoy positions of privilege and opportunity.

This is not, we learn, the norm. Free women of other cities "wear the Robes of Concealment, confine their activities largely to their own quarters, and speak only to their blood relatives and, eventually, the Free Companion."

Tarl speculates that this "foolish suppression" of women is the cause of the harshness and barbarity of Gor. This is still the "young Tarl" or the "Earth Tarl" speaking. He has not yet been assimilated fully. That takes several books. We are making a journey of transition with Tarl.

Ko-ro-ba also differs, or differed since it is at this point non-existant, in her treatment of free women. The free women of Ko-ro-ba are "permitted status within the caste system," lead a "relatively unrestricted existence," even going so far as to permit them to leave their quarters "without first obtaining permission from a male relative or Free Companion." All of this, we are told is in contrast to the "normal" treatment that women receive in other cities.

Tarl is considering hiring himself out in Tharna to earn enough money to purchase a tarn. He even notes that, according to the Gorean way of thinking he is, as an outlaw, entitled to take the tarn or its purchase price any way he wants to.

While considering this, he notices a female alone. This is unusual. Women are "often regarded, unfortunately, as little more than love prizes, the fruits of conquest and seizure. Too often they are seen less as persons, human beings with rights, individuals worthy of concern and regard than as potential pleasure slaves, silken, bangled prisoners, possible adornments to the pleasure gardens of their captors." Note the words "unfortunately" and "too often." Again, this is the "young Tarl," the "Tarl-who-is-not-yet-fully-Gorean." This is not the attitude that the same Tarl takes ten or twenty books later. So, even while he does not yet understand or agree with the Gorean philosophy regarding women and slaves, he explains it to us. Women are objectified. They are often treated without "concern" or "regard." Yes, they may be "silken." Not because they have earned any such item, but rather because the adornment is itself adorned to enhance its beauty.

The institution of capture is "woven into the very fabric of Gorean life." Few seem to object to it, especially the women. There is an excellent passage, too long to quote here, about a typical abduction of a female by a young tarnsman. The standard Norman boilerplate of angry defiant woman reduced to helpless writhing slave is presented in two pages. Later, of course, Norman expands it into an entire novel... or four.

This is followed by the oft quoted passage about strictness vs cruelty. Note that "this does not mean that she will not expect to be beaten if she disobeys, or fails to please her master." It means that beatings, though perhaps administered harshly, strictly, and with some degree of frequency are not wantonly cruel or sadistic.

A disturbing passage follows where Tarl explains that it is not unusual for a Master, in effect, to wear the collar while the slave girls wheedles her way from one whim to the next. We see such things rarely in the next twenty-three books but they are seen. The men to whom this happens are universally portrayed as weak. Sometimes the men or the women in such cases are set back on their paths. In this case, I can only speculate that just as Tarl is "young" in the ways of Gor, Norman is too. Either way, we see again that not all Goreans are perfectly... Gorean :)

The girl approaches and submits to Tarl. He does not, rather surprisingly to her, enslave her immediately. Four warriors of Tharna approach. One of them is Thorn, who we will get to know later. They demand the woman. Tarl's response?

"'She is mine,' I said, 'and you may not have her.' "The girl gave a gasp of astonishment and looked at me questioningly. "'Unless you pay her price,' I added. "The girl closed her eyes, crushed. "'And her price?' asked Thorn. "'Her price is steel," I said.

Until next time, Goreans, I wish you well. Zeb