|
|
|
|
|
|
Winnowing the Wheat from the Chaff One of the things which seems to be more prevalent recently is a confusion about exactly what constitutes being of Gor, as an ethos, a philosophy, in real life. Bearing in mind that many of those who have fallen prey to this confusion are on-line only, when it comes to Gor, it is perhaps not quite so surprising. This is not a slur, rather a simple fact. Very few have truly crossed the line and made the Gorean Way a part of their real, daily lives. Lately an article was written which portrayed Gor as primarily an on-line role-playing phenomena, with a hashed-over philosophy as thin veiling over BDSM erotica. It considered the men of the Gorean venue to be fundimentally frustrated, angry folk, who blamed their inadequacies and inability to fit in, upon their modern society. It considered the women to either be frigid Free Women or seductively infantile sluts. While there has been plenty of acrimony over this article, there has been little effort to address the very real issues which were raised by it. How did the writer, an articulate, intelligent woman, come by such observations? How much of what she wrote is dead-on accurate? And if some of it is accurate, why is that so? Is it acceptible? Instead, a substantial amount of effort has been put towards verbally attacking the writer, instead of dealing with the issues that were raised. What does that tell us? Rather than trying to address and apportion blame, it is more fruitful to consider possible causes for what was observed by that writer. She came into various on-line venues and discovered role-playing in the majority of cases. When she spoke to those who called themselves ‘lifestylers’, she encountered conflicting and ill–thought–out theories on what people claimed to believe. She got to listen to people describing their approval of clearly illegal activities, to attitudes that would be considered neurotic at best. While Gor has attracted it’s share of the mentally unstable, I think a more likely culprit in the majority of these cases is simple confusion about what constitutes the philosophy of Gor. What is it to be of Gor? The stock in trade answer; to follow the philosophy as set forth in the books. And this would be fine, if the books were clear and concise in the answer, yet we all know that is not the case. The books require careful and complete reading to gain a full understanding of the philosophy, and only a small percentage of those in on-line Gor have done so. And even if one reads all of the books, there is still the obstacle of analysis, figuring out what the full context of each point in question might be. Understanding the whole process embodied in a story–line, instead of just one part. Consider that most have read 6 or less of the Gor series. A typical distribution might be books 1 through 4, book 6, and book 9. A smaller percentage has read a few more than that, perhaps books 13 and 15. Access to the books is an on-going problem due to the cost and difficulty in locating and purchasing these old, out of print volumes. When the story of Tarl Cabot’s journey from being a man of Earth to becoming a Gorean takes all of the first 10 books to cover, how can anyone expect to understand the process by only reading a few scattered volumes? It’s like the fable of the three blind men who encounter an elephant; the one who touches the trunk says, "It’s a snake!". The one who feels the legs says, "It’s a forest!". The one who gets swatted by the tail says, "It’s a camel!". Such glorious confusion we have in Gorean venues, with almost as many different understandings of what Gor is, as there are people to put them forth, and few of them have the whole picture. Perhaps the most basic thing which must be done in order to understand what being of Gor really is, is the clear separation of fact from fantasy. Of philosophy from culture. We are not given clear manuals on what it is to be of Gor, we have a set of 25 fantasy/science fiction novels to work with. Most of that fantasy aspect, the Gorean culture, simply doesn't apply to the real world. Our cities don't have Home stones, though we may wish they did. The force of law is very real and very binding across our entire planet, while on the fantasy planet of Gor, one can easily disappear to another city. Honour as a social concept doesn't exist on Earth any longer, while on the fantasy planet of Gor it is as important as the air they breathe. Slavery is illegal on Earth, but it’s an honoured institution and highly profitable merchant business on the fantasy planet of Gor. These are examples of the cultural considerations, the easily seen ones. But what of the ones that are more closely intertwined in thought and understanding? For example, it has been said often on–line that all women belong in chains at the feet of men. In the books we can find numerous points of origin for such statements, the vast majority of which are frequently quoted out of context. The thought behind it is that women are genetically predisposed towards being in bondage to men, and that thought is not what Norman’s books are saying. Cave folks didn’t have chains and collars, they didn’t even have ropes! The books say that women are genetically predisposed towards being submissive to men, and that men are genetically predisposed towards being dominant over women. It then overlays that with the fantasy culture of Gor, a healthy dose of whips and chain, of dominance–and–helplessness–erotica, and an unbiased investigator in ircGor walks away with the intriguing notion that Goreans believe that the natural place of all women is chained at the feet of men. That’s quite a leap from the basic premise. If that were ‘natural’, women would be born with lil’ baby chains on their wrists and a cute lil’ collar on their necks. The only thing that whips and chains are ‘natural’ to is the fantasy culture of a fantasy planet, because on our Earth, those things are considered to be fetishes, sexual deviations, and sometimes even, sexual aberrations. On our Earth, people who use such devices are considered to be members of alternative lifestyles, lumped into the same category as other alternative lifestylers, such as homosexuals and BDSM extremists. That’s reality. We don’t live on the fantasy planet of Gor, we don’t live in the fantasy culture of Gor. We live, work, play, on the planet Earth, in a real life, modern society which we are a part of, even if only at the fringes. When someone who doesn’t understand what Gor is and sees the sort of things which are common in the on-line Gorean venues, it should come as no surprise that the confusion factor rears even higher. What’s truly amazing is that her article was as neutral as it turned out to be. Yes, neutral, because it could easily have been far more negative. So what is it that truly constitutes being of Gor? To find that, you have to separate the wheat from the chaff, the philosophy from the fantasy culture. Get to what’s real, and understand that the rest is entertainment. Not that there is anything wrong with entertainment, but it is of value to know the difference. At that point, one can take it into their real lives, and discover that there really isn’t any impediment to living the Gorean Way in real life. The principles and values from the actual philosophy still require will-power and strength to apply, they still require a potent integrity, but it is not impossible, and no laws need be broken. I stood amazed at the greatness and smallness of man. And then with shame I realized how nearly I myself had come to betraying my fellow creatures. I had intended to make use of that moment myself, pretending to have come with a message from the Priest-Kings, to encourage man to live as I wished him to live, to respect himself and others, to be kind and to be worthy of the heritage of a rational animal, and yet of what worth would these things be if they came not from the heart of man himself, but from his fear of Priest-Kings or his desire to please them? No, I would not try to reform man by pretending that my wishes for him were the wishes of Priest-Kings, even though this might be effective for a time, for the wishes that reform man, that make him what he is capable of becoming, and has not yet become, must be his own and not those of another. If man rises, he can do so only on his own two feet. - Priest Kings of Gor, page 299 Of what value are acts which come from fear or a desire to be pleasing, instead of from the heart? An interesting question. People have the right to role–play, to entertain themselves, to have fun. To live their lives as they see fit, within the boundaries of their societies laws. What they choose to do with that freedom is their own choice, and by their choice, we shall know them for who and what they are. But it’s still their choice. For those who wish to live the Gorean Way in real life, the task of understanding the full context of the books and what they are saying will require a bit of effort, because there’s more at stake than just entertainment. The way you will live the rest of your life hangs in the balance, it’s up to you how you choose to tip the scales.
- LionHeart |
