An essay on what’s in Gor or not, based on Norman’s novels, and the inspirations he used to write them.

About three weeks ago, a surprising mishap occurred to me. I was rather suddenly accused of not being Gorean. So, to explain the context, it was because of my outfit. We’re in the middle of winter, it’s cold on the sim, the owners have even added weather effects with rain, thunder noise, lightning, darkening skies and so on. And so, my character, Kara, goes from her very bare, light and luxurious outfits, to warmer, more covered… and still luxurious.

I suppose that the beret, the wish of Lyra, my Mistress and therefore Kara IC’s owner, who decides everything she wears, must have taken people aback. Well, this person, anyway. That said, in a stormy, cold climate like the one I was wearing this beret in, it served a good purpose: keeping Kara’s head dry and warm.

So was it the beret, or the little unusual knitted wool camisk, or the thick woollen stockings? I don’t know, the person who accused me of not being Gorean never made it clear, arguing that Kara dressed like an Earthling (I’ve rarely seen people dressed like that on Earth, in the street, or on video, have you?), before trying to make up for it by saying that it was a Gor Evolved outfit, but not BtB, before, finally, accusing me of scaring away players, because I’m not Gorean. The matter was quickly settled, and my accuser considered at fault by the sim’s admins (she was angry at being contradicted).

I dress Kara in a variety of ways, but since she belongs to Lyra and Kara became a high-slave who served the Ubar of Ar and was one of his favorites, I’ve clearly opted for three rules: sexy, luxurious an d original. Below are a few outfit photos of Kara’s outfits, including the incriminating one (and also because I’m very proud of my sweet kajira !). I’ve had a few rare IC reactions and remarks on the unusual aspect of Kara’s outfit and appearance, but without ever being aggressive or questioning the character in an OOC way. As a rule, I’m praised for her beauty and the originality of her outfits. And no one has ever asked me to change my outfit either. Basically, I’ve never been told: you’re not Gorean.

So there you have it. Let’s ask ourselves this question together? What is Gorean, and what isn’t?

1-Gor, a planet-opera

I’m not gorean, and neither are you. I insist on this point, I was born in Europe, in the ^20th century of Earth, and I live in the ^21st century, just like you. Nobody is Gorean, not even those who claim the contrary, it’s a purely factual impossibility. Because Gor is fiction.

So, literary genre classifications, especially in the broad context of fantasy and science fiction, are complicated, even for authors and publishers. But, to simplify: Gor is a fantasy setting on an alien planet, but similar to Earth, with strange creatures, alien fauna, fantastic technology and retro-futuristic science fiction. So it’s science-fantasy. Funnily enough, my saga of novels is classified in the same genre. The best-known work of science-fantasy is clearly A Princess on Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (watch the movie John Carter of Mars!).

In the chapter title, I’m talking about planet-opera. It’s a genre that crosses over and encompasses science-fantasy, and has in common that the story focuses on the fate and setting of a strange planet, whose nature and exploration are integral to the narrative. The best-known planet-opera novel is Frank Herbert’s Dune.

To understand what could and couldn’t be Gorean, we need to know what the world of Gor is based on, what Norman has imagined, what his references are, and therefore, what exists or can exist in the world of Gor.

2- What’s Gor’s setting?

An alien planet.

Yes, we start by pointing out that this simple fact changes everything in detail. Silk doesn’t come from silkworms, but from spiders, cereals aren’t wheat or rye, like many other foods, wood isn’t pine or oak, fabrics and leathers come from plants and animals unique to Gor, some materials are totally exotic, others absent or rare, etc. … The only things really similar to our world are, on the one hand, the elements of Mendeleev’s periodic table (or almost), and on the other, what was implanted on Gor, of Terran origin, with the Terrans who became Goreans, a few thousand years ago. Everything else, however similar, is different from Earth, and ultimately exotic!

Greco-Roman and Gallo-Roman fantasy inspiration

This inspiration is closer to the peplums of the 50s and 60s than to any serious historical reality. I have a fairly solid historical culture, ranging from the Imperial Roman period to the Second World War, with academic expertise in the rise of Venice of the Doges and the beginnings of the Italian Renaissance in the ^15th century. I can’t compete with a specialized historian in Imperial Rome, but I have no trouble talking to him on specialised subjects. And all this curriculum vitae I’m spreading out is to confirm that Norman only knew about the Greco-Roman era, which inspired him, what you can read in textbooks, in magazines and what you can see in films and on TV. His reference for the setting is Rome and the ancient and medieval Europe of popular culture and movies (Torvaldslanders, Red Savages and Panis are perfect examples).

Science fiction!

Norman’s greatest borrowing, his most marked inspiration, is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars cycle of science-fantasy novels, pure science fiction from the early ^20th century, deliciously creative and retro-futuristic for us now. Close behind is Flash Gordon, a classic planet-opera comic strip series created by Alex Raymond, which began in 1937. Then there are the theses and essays of evolutionary psychology, which Norman has also misappropriated in his stories: evolutionary psychology does not at all lead to the conclusion that men are superior to women (the creators of this discipline say so!). If it remains a pseudoscience, it’s because of the intellectuals and politicians who have used these theories to try and prove this superiority. So, is this science fiction too? Well… yeah.

When you delve into the various novels over time, you see other inspirations appear, such as Tanith Lee, Philip José Farmer or Marion Zimmer Bradley. Gor’s saga began in 1966, and we were already in the golden age of science-fiction literature and the revival of fantasy. And Conan, by Robert E. Howard? Well, not so much. It was more a visual inspiration for the artists who designed the novels’ covers. The best-known of them, Boris Vallejo, claims never to have read a page of Gor’s novels, and as an illustrator, I believe him: I’ve read almost none of the books I’ve illustrated.

The final point of Norman’s inspirations is the emerging technologies of his time. In the first three novels, we have ideas straight out of Star Trek (which began in 1966, the same year as the publication of the first volume: Tarnsman of Gor), and in the 8 most recent novels, or even earlier, we have references to concepts and technologies from cyberpunk literature. One constant scifi reference is to Earth science and technology imported to Gor, for better or for worse, and the sometimes ingenious way in which some Goreans exploit this technology, despite its constraints and limitations.

In short… Gor is not medieval fantasy inspired by Roman times. It’s science-fiction of science-fantasy. It’s a planet-opera set in a version of an ancient Gallo-Roman world on an alien planet, with people who, despite their generally medieval or ancient appearance and lifestyle, have access to advanced technologies, some of which are downright science fiction, including interplanetary travel!

3- What exists on Gor?

There’s a lot more to Gor than you can imagine. In fact, it’s vast, and to go round it all would be impossible. But we can already widen the field of possibilities with a simple exercise on how advanced the people of Gor, who are therefore on an alien world, are, compared to any caricatured image of the Middle Ages or antiquity.

Technological synergy

One thing people don’t think about is technological synergy. Let me give you an example: wire.

The Romans were completely unaware of this invention, even though they needed it and their technological genius is well known. In fact, wire was invented very early, in antiquity, but the only metals that could be drawn into wire were gold and silver, in very limited quantities. Other metals required too much mechanical and chemical stress to have any chance of being drawn. To draw wire, you have to stretch an iron bar over and over again, by pulling. You need iron of the right chemico-physical quality, you need long preformed bars, you need extraordinary tensile strength and machine resistance (the wire-drawing machine), so you need steel and powerful, sturdy machines, and, finally, you need an advanced system of cooling to cool the metal while it’s being drawn, otherwise it breaks. On Earth, we didn’t know how to do this until we mastered blast furnaces and machine tools powered by water and then steam, i.e. not until the ^18th century. Goreans know how to make wire, steel wire and barbed wire. It’s so common that they use it to make enclosures, cages, capture bracelets and ties to close bags and packages.

So, if Goreans know how to make wire, it’s because :

• – They have mastered blast furnaces and thermal furnaces.
• – They know how to make high-pressure pipes watertight and with water projectors for cooling.
• – They have machine tools powerful enough to draw iron, and strong enough to withstand this degree of tensile and structural pressure.
• – They know how to make perfectly matched iron, and supply it in suitable bars to turn into wire. So they have advanced chemistry and metallurgy.
• – As they have blast furnaces, they know how to produce quality steel in quantity.
• – Given the strength and power of their machine tools, they can easily create other materials and goods that are easier to produce, on at least a semi-industrial scale.
• – To make such steels and machines, they also have access to flexible, watertight materials capable of replacing natural, thermoformed or artificial rubber.
• – So, they know latex equivalents.
• – So, they have effective capabilities in everything to do with sealing, including in cases of high hydraulic pressure.
• – So, if they know how to make wire, they also know how to produce nuts, bolts, copper buttons, iron buttons, buttons for garments, and so on.
• – Their mastery of machine tools enables them to create knitting, punching and sewing machines.
• – So, they can create a vast variety of equipment, materials, fabrics and garments with far greater ease than a Roman or a medieval Frenchman!

That’s what technological synergy is all about: the sum of technical resources needed to achieve a functional innovation, and what had to be invented before that innovation could be anything other than a drawing on paper. Because as long as we don’t have these technical means already invented, we can’t turn them into a functional technology.

Goreans prefer craftsmanship to industry. Unlike the Romans, they consider work and manual creation to be rewarding. They don’t employ their slaves to create consumer goods: slaves are not allowed to make handicrafts, they can only work as handymen, helpers and assistants, for heavy-duty work, personal service or household chores. Whereas in Rome, slaves practiced advanced crafts and trades. They worked as potters, carpenters, schoolmasters, doctors, apothecaries and so on. So, on Gor, you don’t have rows of slaves paid by a wealthy pottery merchant who has his slaves make his crockery. Slaves are useful, but as handymen, unqualified workers who handle the machine tools needed to produce consumer goods.

The Goreans were far more mechanical than the Romans. And they mastered mechanics like ^18th-century or even ^19th-century Europeans (not to mention certain secret installations worthy of science fiction). Water generally replaces steam, which is rarely used (it tends to explode easily, and Goreans hate anything that can explode), some machines run directly on light bubble electricity, and finally, if you have neither, human power provides the energy to run the simplest machine tools.

A world wider and more varied than you think

Why this digression? To make it clear that the world of Gor really isn’t what you’d see in Gorean sims. We understand a lot in the novels explicitly, and then even more implicitly. We look at what the Goreans have in the way of materials, goods and tools and: hey, can they make plastic? How?! They’ve mastered glass and mirrors on a grand scale? But on Earth, we had to wait until the ^17th century, and even then. They have real hypodermic syringes? But we didn’t invent them until 1841! And these are just a few examples! I’m not even talking about the heating blanket, which is apparently battery-powered, or the slave goad, which is also battery-powered and can deliver lethal electric shocks.

So… what’s the most common and common thing goreans know how to do in their science-fantasy world? Don’t take what you know about the ancient or medieval world as a reference. Goreans have the means to produce materials, fabrics and consumer goods worthy of the ^18th and ^19th centuries, with, here and there, technical and technological marvels of the ^20th century, or even pure science fiction. Weaving a carpet by hand, with an upholsterer’s frame, takes weeks, but with a mechanized frame, it only takes a few days. The same goes for cutting a precious stone, or making an earthenware plate. You don’t even need steam engines or internal combustion motors. Good mechanics based on hydraulics and human power save an incredible amount of time, and therefore more production, for the same quality. And, what’s more, you can do things that are almost impossible to do by hand.

Last but not least, Goreans have also borrowed heavily from Earth creations, looking for ways to adapt what Earthlings invented to their own needs and culture. With an average of a few thousand earthlings on Gor, and regular travel between the two planets, there are bound to be technological contributions that inspire Gorean creativity and innovation. Goreans abandon some things, exploit others, but in any case, this contribution is quite real and still helps to explain the great variety of what exists on Gor.

But what’s the limit?

In fact, it’s cultural and social, long before it’s technical. Norman, in an interview, said: “What isn’t beautiful isn’t Gorean”. I’ll let him take responsibility for his words, since many of the things described in his novels aren’t beautiful at all, from my point of view. But the quote raises an important point about the Gorean mentality: they love what is beautiful, and they love to use it, as well as create it. Now, industrial production is very efficient at producing quickly and well, but if you want it to be beautiful and of high quality, you need the hand of an artisan.

For example, a Gorean won’t want a machine that copies the patterns on a ceramic plate, or a weaving workshop that produces patterns automatically. He’ll be happy to produce the fabric faster, to be able to sew it more easily, but he’ll demand that lace be made by hand. A machine that cuts boards and sands them? Yes, but a machine to engrave wood? No. Finally, goreans are much more attracted to a certain simplicity of comfort, and to things of natural origin. They prefer cushions to seats, and candlelight to electric light bubbles. They prefer wood and stone to concrete and metal, including in their architecture.

Last but not least, Goreans are conservative. They like things done “the old-fashioned way” and are wary of innovation. This goes hand in hand with certain religious taboos about technology and modernity. The Initiate caste is very fussy about this, and very powerful. So, while Goreans are not averse to efficient, practical technologies, those that are too modern are frowned upon and even feared. Think of the socio-cultural stumbling block between peasants living in the countryside at the beginning of the ^20th century, who have never seen a car or a light bulb, and who draw water from the well, and city-dwellers living in a modern city of the time, like London or Paris. It’s the same thing: such a gap in technology is frightening. And it’s the vast majority of Goreans who play the role of peasants here.

What you can find on Gor

This list is by no means exhaustive! To get an idea of Gor’s technologies, I highly recommend reading this article: https: //www.psychee.org/gorpedia/gor-sciences-and-the-builders-caste/

• – Rich and varied fabrics, of all types and colors, with brocades, woven or painted motifs, gold and silver thread, held together by buttons, sophisticated clasps and more. Zippers, too? The invention dates back to the end of the ^19th century, so I’m sure the Goreans have plenty to imitate.
• – Very complex garments, such as corsets, harnesses, garter belts, high shoes and boots, hats, tights and stockings, including sheer silk. Tight-fitting clothes? They appeared as early as the ^18th century, so yes, without a doubt!
• – Highly sophisticated micromechanical systems, whether included in collars, shackles, locks, music boxes, small automata or watches. A realistic automaton that plays kaïssa? Yes, like the Mechanical Turk invented in the ^18th century!
• – Pairs of glasses, spotting scopes, magnifying glasses, microscopes and, of course, practical solar lighters! But also sextants and solar compasses!
• – Glass crockery, large panes of glass, mirrors of all shapes and sizes, aquariums and vivariums.
• – Bronze, iron and steel utensils of the finest manufacture, solid and sophisticated, whether cutlery, craft tools, surgical instruments, etc.
• – Central heating, water heaters, water distribution to the domestic tap. Much of this technology is Roman, and the Goreans have much better hydraulic technology!
• – Refrigeration using heat-exchanging insulation (passive refrigeration, which has been around for 1500 years), or gas compression/decompression systems powered by electricity, like real refrigerators.
• – Improved lighting, using oil, alcohol or even electric light bubbles.

And really, I insist, this list is just representative; I’m far from having covered everything that the people of Gor are capable of creating and doing, and that can be found in their everyday lives. Of course, Gor is not an industrialized world with a frenzy of consumerism. Most Gor people are forced to live a simple life, without access to the most modern innovations. And their mentality makes them prefer simplicity to the luxury of technological comfort. But they can have access to it, and if they have the financial means, the desire, and the utility, they can!

A few quotes from the novels, on outfits and accessories :

“One monstrous platform shoe had broken from her small foot and flopped beside her ankle, still attached by its straps. The shoe was at least ten inches high. I laughed. This explained the incredible height of the Ubar’s daughter. “It’s broken,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

She tried to rise, but one foot was, of course, some ten inches higher than the other. She fell again, and I unstrapped the remaining shoe. “No wonder you can hardly walk,” I said. “Why do you wear these silly things?”

“The daughter of a Ubar must look down on her subjects,” was the simple if extraordinary reply.”
Tarnsman of Gor

“A strong woman stood there, perhaps some five feet ten inches in height and one hundred and forty pounds in weight. She was breathing heavily and, in two hands, held the whip tightly gripped. She was dark-haired and dark-eyed. She was muscular and strong, but her figure was striking. She wore a leather halter and tights of black leather. Her midriff was strikingly white, and her arms and legs. There was a golden armlet on her left arm. Her hair was held back by a leather band. She wore a heavy, studded belt, tightly buckled, and heavy sandals, almost like boots, with thongs. From her belt there hung a ring of keys and a coiled chain, with a snap. On her belt, toward the back, on her right side, in a snap strap, hung a pair of steel manacles.”
Fighting Slave of Gor

“She wore a full, beige skirt, the hem of which fell to within some six inches of the ground, and slim, high, black-leather boots; a beige blouse, and a beige jacket, belted, which fell to her thighs; too, she wore a loose hood, attached to the jacket by hooks, of matching beige material, and an opaque veil, also of beige material. Such garments, far less formal than the common attire of the Gorean free woman, are sometimes worn by rich women in the supervision and inspection of certain sorts of holdings, such as orchards, fields, ranches and vineyards. They constitute, for such women, so to speak, a habit for work.” – Fighting Slave of Gor
“I barely noticed that several of harnesses slung about his shoulders were slave harness, a form of ingenious harnessing in which a slave might be variously, pleasingly, constrained and exhibited. In such fastenings, easily and conveniently applied, attractive and adjustable, a slave is well apprised of her bondage, as would be any who might care to look upon her. “
Conspirators of Gor

“Have you see aught of a sport slave?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

She was very lovely and attractive in her hunting costume, brief tunic and long hose, brown, a scarlet cape and cap, the cap with a feather. She carried a short, yellow bow, of Ka-la-na wood, which could clear the saddle of the tharlarion, its missile being easily released to either side. Her black boots, slick and shining, were spurred. A quiver of arrows, yellow, was at the left of her saddle.”
Beasts of Gor

4- Gor, or not Gor?

What is gorean is that which resembles gorean fashions and aesthetic standards, and that which is natural rather than artificial. But that includes a vast array of very different things, which leaves plenty of scope for imagining Gorean outfits, furniture, decor and accessories. Because these standards are already vast enough in the novels, but taking into account the principles of technological synergy and the sources of inspiration of the goreans, as well as Norman himself, it’s even more vast!

Ignorance

And that’s where the problem of Gor’s Second Life players’ ignorance comes in. Few of them have read more than two or three novels; most have read none at all. They’ve seen the sims’ setting, the fashion of dress worn by the average other players, they’ve read what a few notecards say about what’s allowed, or forbidden, and they’ve concluded that they’re in a medieval fantasy setting, with half-naked kajirae in camisk, men in antique Roman peplum or medieval leather warrior outfits, and veiled women in frilly long dresses.

And who can blame them? This is the established standard on Gor Second Life, and these players know nothing else. But on the one hand, it’s wrong, and on the other, it’s much more restrictive than what’s possible, both in terms of décor and fashion. A simple example? Goreans love leather chains and harnesses for slaves – you know, that BDSM accessory with leather straps, buckles and rings? In the novels, we come across slaves dressed in this way, for their master’s amusement and pleasure, but also for discipline, training and other purposes. But this may be quite Gorean, but it’s practically unheard of in Gorean roleplay sims, and you’re bound to get remarks about your disrespect for Gorean fashion if you dress a slave like this.

There are things that are immutable in the world of Gor and others that are not. But this distinction is often erroneous. An inn with a table surrounded by chairs, a tea room with armchairs, are not Gorean, if we consider first and foremost the novels and their contents: Goreans prefer to sit on the floor, on cushions, and find chairs and seats uncomfortable. But this disregard for Gorean standards, because it’s accepted, goes unnoticed and shocks no one. All the women on Gor are dressed in long gowns, but the concealment dress doesn’t look like those tight-waisted gowns with full petticoats. A Gor woman’s dress of concealment is made up of layers of fabric that hide her every form, and it looks like a burqa. Braies and pants are almost unknown, men wear long tunics with boxer short that stop at the knee below (when they wear them) and boots are almost ignored too. But that doesn’t stop people from wearing them, even though the whole thing isn’t really very goréen.

Ah yes… and none of this shocks me. Gor in Second Life is not Gor in novels.

Gatekeepers

The variety in terms of settings, machines, buildings, accessories and modes of dress is therefore vast. But along with players’ ignorance comes a second flaw, which I find unforgivable here: narrow-mindedness. The French have adopted an English term for this: the gatekeepers. It’s the self-proclaimed right to decide what is and isn’t allowed, and to decide who is and isn’t up to standard. Consequently, it’s a way of deciding what can and cannot exist and, by extension, who can and cannot participate.

So, it’s good to set limits, isn’t it? On Gor Second Life, I cringe every time I see a man in chain mail or a woman wearing high heels. But to do that, you really have to be certain that these limits are correct, and not have the certainty, but sufficient evidence to support that limit. I can assert, with quotations to prove it, that a Gorean never wears chain mail (but this isn’t true for everyone – a Torvaldslander might), because it’s one of the great taboos of the Priest-Kings religion. But if you never see women in high heels in the novels, I can’t say with certainty it doesn’t exist. It just doesn’t seem to be widespread.

It’s one of the consequences of the Dunning-Kruger effect, or cognitive overconfidence bias. This is a cognitive mechanism by which the least qualified people in a group tend to overestimate their competence in a field. On Gor Second Life, it’s people who believe they know, because they’ve learned erroneously and incompletely, but sufficiently within the common standards of their Gorean roleplay group, and who deduce that what they know is the truth, unchanging, and anything outside that truth is wrong. They’ve learned the wrong things, considered them to be truths, and refuse to break out of this pattern, convinced that they know enough and have the right to judge with this imperfect and sometimes totally false knowledge. Their narrow-mindedness condemns them to refuse to question their knowledge, and to reject anything that doesn’t fit their certainties.

5- Conclusion

I wasn’t gorean because, at least that’s what I concluded, I wasn’t in a linen camisk or other fine fabric, but in a pretty knitted wool camisk, with wool stockings, and I wore a beret. It wasn’t in the standards and knowledge of the person concerned, and therefore, for her, not goréen.

And that’s silly. Open-mindedness is a necessity when playing with others, because no one is really able to know precisely and with any certainty everything that does or doesn’t exist in Gor’s world, what is Gorean, or what isn’t. The only reliable indication in this area is the content of the novels, their direct references, and the standards of the gaming community in general. The latter can be wrong, but collective intelligence is generally more reliable than the opinions of one person or a small group. I’m not sure I can say that high heels don’t exist on Gor, but I do know that they are generally banned from the Gor Second Life community.

These community standards have admitted modifications to novel content, such as chairs and seats, and have also abandoned other content, because it’s little-known, such as the slave harnesses I mentioned earlier. But, in my experience, this same community, despite some misgivings, is generally open to accepting and importing novelties, provided they are given the sources to know that they exist or could coherently exist on Gor.

The time of gatekeepers in Gor Second Life is somewhat past, and that’s rather good news. As much as I write the Gorean Archives and have an extensive knowledge of this universe, I know that I am by no means always able to state with certainty what is Gorean and what is not. Some are obvious, because they’re easy to prove from book quotes. There are other certainties that are more or less self-evident for the sake of consistency. There are certainties that, in fact, as soon as you dig into the novels, turn out to be preconceived ideas, onlinisms and misunderstandings; but you have to be able to verify them and it’s not always easy. And finally, there are certainties that I wouldn’t dare go into without checking. So, I’ll keep an open mind on these subjects!