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Roleplayers: Gorsketeers
Introduction
Introduction
The online world of Gorean roleplay is not a topic area for The Gorean Voice except for the occasional warning. As the new editor, I offer two warnings in the form of companion articles. This article focuses on pathetic ignorance and has a light tone. The other piece, Roleplayers: Gor on Elm Street, focuses on the dangerous, serious side of online pretenders/predators and has a serious tone. Both articles are written for people who are fans of John Norman and who find that what he has to say about life, relationships, and, in a word, philosophy strikes a chord. Whether you are new to Gor or have been around a while in roleplay settings that now cause you to think, “Something is not right here,” what distinguishes you from the growing pack of people in online Gor is that you take Norman seriously. You see a clear difference in attitude between the thoughtful discussion sites and those places of pure fantasy that alternate from pointless boredom to chest-thumping “I am right” pseudo-discussions with speed-posted proof-texts to storylines and personae that would never be found in any Norman writing. The encouragement for newbies is that you do not have to put up with the idiotic, and my hope is that you will not put up with it once it has been labelled for what it is. If you find yourself in a pseudo-Gorean place, you can leave. If you find yourself caught up in moronic pseudo-Gorean expressions, you can stop. The fun for you older souls who have found Norman’s works for real is the affirmation that “sandbox Gor” holds nothing of value. People have their own definitions of roleplayer. For purposes of these companion articles, a roleplayer is a person who is not what he or she postures as being. The self-presentation changes with a flick of the computer power button. The Gorean appearance is only a costume, a mask, an illusion. Some people interact in Gorean context specifically because the persona is unlike themselves, and they take an online vacation from their reality with no desire to make it anything other than sandbox play or an alternative operatic performance. They do not express themselves as they are but instead act out a role to which they have no inner resonance. Put simply, they are fakes. They are not fans of John Norman except as he is useful to their purposes. Gor becomes a tool like any other. Gorsketeers This article addresses a particular kind of roleplayer, the phenomenon which I call Gorsketeers, those childish representatives of what is popularly known as “Disney Gor,” which I also call “Pseudo-Gor.” Understand that these people are not Gorean. They are not “in the discovery stages of their Gorean nature,” as some might wish to assume. They are, simply, not Gorean, and whether or not they become Gorean or something else in the future means nothing for the present. They are not “presenting variations of what it means to be Gorean and being true to their understanding of Gor, which is OK since after all, everyone has a unique interpretation of Gor,” as some of them excuse themselves. Instead, they are in reality not Gorean. It does not matter what they are, and I have no need to classify them. It only matters that they are not Gorean. The honest people who openly call themselves “Semi-Gorean” or “Part Gorean” do not fall under this criticism because they do not falsely advertise themselves. They state from the beginning that they are not Gorean. People who are not Gorean have nothing in common with you even when they use a recognizable vocabulary. Some Gorsketeers are eager to disassociate themselves from lifestylers and to, in PC fashion, vociferously eschew any thought of actually believing in a philosophy that has as one of its components a sociobiology based on gender. These self-identify as actors and are proud to be merely taking on an acting role with Gorean backgrounds and props and with Gorean stylized scripted language and action cues. Other Gorsketeers crave recognition as being Gorean. Often, the people who most loudly proclaim themselves to be “strong Gorean roleplayers,” as if the mere self-assertion meant anything at all, are nothing more than Gorsketeers. Understand that not every Gorsketeer knows enough to recognize that he or she is such, and because other people may be unsophisticated enough, or, out of politeness or disinterest, simply unwilling to call attention to that fact, Gorsketeers can remain comfortably in Gorean company. Whether a given Gorsketeer is deliberately faking it or is merely self-deceived and clueless, a Gorsketeer will exhibit un-Gorean characteristics and will create the worst examples of online Gor. This is the natural result of the truth that they do not belong in Gorean settings and they have no place speaking of Gorean things. This should not be unexpected. The popularization of important ideas often leads to their trivialization and to the trendy watering down of their significance. The Native American supernatural Kokopelli becomes mere marketing adornment for tee-shirts and baseball caps, the beret-wearing Che Guevara image is reduced to a beret-wearing Taco Bell talking Chihuahua, and “Free Tibet” bumper stickers endorsed by Hollywood celebrities may be, if such policy goal were to be adopted, advocating starting a nuclear war against the People’s Republic of China. Thus it is with Gor as well. People who thoughtlessly jump on the burgeoning online Gorean roleplaying game chatroom bandwagon with no commitment to honestly discover what John Norman writes end up creating Pseudo-Gor, and through it, they bring ridicule to the literary symbols connected with Gorean philosophy. I said above that the tone of this piece is light. The topic is serious, because you do not want to add to the proliferation of Pseudo-Gor. The 35 examples of Pseudo-Gor below are humorous because the people who create Pseudo-Gor are truly clueless, and there is really no reason for it except that they simply do not care enough. If you decide to lurk around Gorean-esque roleplay chatrooms, here are some things that should alert you when you have entered a Gorsketeer Clubhouse. The pity is that this is not a complete list of what can be found in cyberspace to make one wince. Take a look in The Gorean Voice archives at the Rotten Tospit Awards sometime if you think I am making this up or that a humorous exaggeration is not warranted. A person behind a keyboard does not portray Gor through roleplay by any stretch of the imagination if he or she exhibits the following. The List Shake your head sadly at anyone: 1. Decoration. Who decorates rooms in Earth motifs, such as horses, wolves, one moon skies, castles, or suits of armor, or with fantasy motifs such as dragons, or with images appropriated from movies based on other science fiction or fantasy works, or 2. Name. Who takes on the identity of a Gor series character without ever acting true to how Norman developed that character in the series, or who uses a name that confuses medieval Earth roleplay or other fantasy roleplay with Gorean context, or 3. Title. Who, in situations in which the person is not intending to be anonymously generic but rather is intending to interact through storyline roleplay as a recognized persona, feels the need to put the title Master onto his name, not as a convention for being addressed but as part of the actual name itself, as if he would never be recognized as a master without such title, or who feels the need to put the title Lord onto his name, as if Lord were even a Gorean title, or 4. Office. Who takes on the title of Ubar regardless of whether the cultural region even has Ubars and keeps the title permanently whether in wartime or peacetime, or who, if roleplaying in such a Ubarate, recognizes and supports such a person misusing that title rather than deposing and virtually impaling such an upstart, or 5. Avatar. Who uses a persona avatar from other genres such as Lord of the Rings, or 6. Screwy Accolades. Who postures by creating meaningless accolade titles for himself as if they were awards, such as Defender of the Cities of Dust, or 7. Jack of All Castes. Who combines the roles of multiple Castes into one persona, and who therefore also allows those with him or her to make Jack-Castes of themselves as well (say that one out loud for the humor value), or 8. Locale. Who maintains the virtual location of a room in a geographically impossible place, such as the forests outside Port Kar, with no regard to or respect for the physical world created by Norman, or 9. Wannabe Writing Conventions. Who employs the CAPS/smalls writing conventions of BDSM and tells Y/you A/all and A/any who lurk how T/they show proper respect by addressing H/him and H/her and referring to T/themselves as I/i and M/me, when such language is nowhere endorsed by Norman, or 10. Wannabe Language Conventions. Who uses vocabulary developed online as if those words were Gorean words developed by Norman, thereby slandering the name of Rask forever by the use of rask to mean buttocks, confusing kajirae by making them have to figure out how to get into some karta position, and boring everyone with a phonetics lesson in making sure that every kajira wears an appropriate ko’lar around the neck, or who tries to give Gorean words some brigadoonish Olde Tyme Anglysh spin by spelling words as if one were at a Renaissance Faire, such as blackwyne, or 11. Anglicized Plurals. Who cares nothing for any language that Norman has taken the time to employ and has no problem at all writing about kaiilas and kailiauks and kajiras and kajiruses and sleens and tabuks, or 12. Book Illiteracy. Who demonstrates an authoritative pseudoknowledge of Gor obtained mostly from error-ridden websites that have plagiarized their content from all the wrong places, or 13. Status Confusion. Who confuses the statuses of free, slave, and outlaw and, as a result, insists on treating panther girls as free women of Caste or is adamant that as an outlaw one may also invoke a recognized Warrior status and claim recognized rights, or 14. Caste Confusion. Who has no understanding of Caste and, as a result, believes that every regional culture is structured along Caste lines, or 15. Home Stone Confusion. Who has no understanding of Home Stone and, as a result, believes that every place in every region is or has a Home Stone, or 16. Warrior Tinted Glasses. Who believes that every male is a Warrior and, as a result, believes that the members of weaponless Castes should be raiding in capture zones and fighting in kill zones, or 17. Every Place is the Same. Who rides a kaiila where none are ridden, flies a tarn where none are flown, and always manages to find walk-in refrigerated food storage and Iron Chef quality food preparation facilities fully stocked for banquet feast numbers in outdoor locations, or 18. Limited Themes. Who limits Gorean themes to eating, drinking, dancing, sex without love, enslaving, fighting, and a handful of favorite proof text quotes, or 19. Silk Awards. Who awards white, yellow, and red silks to kajirae progressively over time after the women have completed specific sets of learning tasks as if silk colors were karate belts signifying training levels of online posting facility, or 20. Enhanced Kajirae. Who distinguishes kajirae from other female slaves by attributing to them an enhanced slave belly, which is then defined either physiologically or emotionally, and by positing that they have an almost supernatural slave heat that can overpower the will of a man, perhaps, as one site did, going so far as to restrict kajirae from using their slave heat to unfair advantage over men, or 21. Stepford Posting. Who encourages kajirae to post in uniform, standardized, copycat, minimally creative, cookie-cutter style and content in which self-centered idealizing adjectives and double-digit vertical inches of screen length determine suitability of posts, or 22. Infantilization. Who uses cutesy forms of address or actual naming that make grown women appear to be childish, such as li’l or li’l one, or 23. Petals and Pearls and Giggles. Who posts as a kajira with words more from Barbara Cartland than from John Norman, making body parts into half-baked metaphors such as glistening petals and throbbing pearls as if Gor were simply some bodice-ripping romance genre, and then giggles and huggles and carries on vapidly as if she were into some illegal age play, with no hint as to why a man would ever want to get to know her grown womanly thoughts or ever own her as a person, or 24. First Name Familiarity. Who, as a kajira, meaning not as a bondmaid of Torvaldsland, addresses free people by their first names, or 25. All or Nothing Kajirae. Who, as a kajira, always either speaks to free people without being given permission, or who interrupts the conversation of free people in order to clamor for attention by repetitiously greeting or obsessively offering to serve something, or who ignores free people altogether in favor of conversing with other kajirae or in favor of performing unending chores, or 26. Homo-Hopeful. Who desperately searches for any justification to portray same-sex sexual relationships, especially anyone who pontificates using the Sames as supposed homosexual prototypes, or 27. Kajiri in the Band. Who plays a kajirus like a sissy boi in search of a dominatrix, or 28. Prescription for Two Bark Teas. Who portrays a female herbalist Healer and wannabe witch rather than a scientific Physician proud of the Caste, or 29. Uppity Female Uppercase. Who, as a female of the warrior Caste, demands recognition not simply as a member of the Caste but as a sword-swinging, spear-throwing fighter the equal of men, or who, as a panther girl or taluna persona, actually believes her public flaunting of herself as the martial equal of males, or 30. Uppity Lowercase. Who, of whichever gender, acts out subbie princess brat behavior, or 31. Paga from the House of Borgia. Who has kajirae taste a drink first in the insulting assumption that the host is motivated and honorless enough to use poison to virtually kill every guest, or 32. Folgers Black Wine. Who always has a nice fresh pot of black wine simmering regardless of locale and who offers it automatically to everyone as if black wine were mass produced and dirt cheap, or 33. How Sweet It Isn’t. Who insists that kajirae “sweeten” black wine by dripping vaginal juices into it, always, of course, without burning anything important in the process, or 34. Apparent Obsession about Possible Hemophilia. Who seems to live in mortal dread that a small scratch or chip on a drinking vessel might deal him or her a mortal wound, or 35. One Way Captures. Who enjoys the custom of raiding the capture zones of other sites and retreating with captured women into his own “No Kill, No Capture, Password Protected” site, and who then questions the honor of anyone who declares the captures invalid. Conclusion Gorsketeers would really be happier elsewhere, pasting together their own virtual reality from a variety of genres and images and expectations, only they have not figured that out yet. They will never see beyond surface imagery, have no internal need to learn beyond a bare minimum, and care nothing for fidelity to the Gor books. Their Little Gor-den Books Editions of Gor are not written by Norman, and their Gor-spel According to Me is not written by our John. Anyone who cares about the literary world and philosophy that John Norman presents finds himself or herself happier in different company.
I wish you well, Hersius |
