How are Gorean’s archives written?

In fact, the question I’ve often been asked is a longer one, and it goes like this: how is the content of articles in the Gor Archives verified and then written? This is a legitimate question; I often give the impression of knowing a lot about the world of Gor, and I provide information and resources with a certain aplomb, usually because I’m sure of their accuracy.

But how do I go about summarizing? What sources do I rely on, how did I verify the information contained in these articles, what sources did I work on, etc.? And, by the way, am I ever wrong?

On this last point, you’ll laugh: yes, I do sometimes make mistakes. So far, not too often, and they’re more inaccuracies than major errors or contradictions; or, again, cases of interpretation. A good example, the articles on Money and living standards had to be totally interpreted from the crumbs of contradictory clues left by Norman in his books. And I swear, if you tell me it’s inaccurate or doesn’t work for you, I say first that, yes, I know, because it’s an interpretation here; and second that: do better on the novels’ sole source, and cheer up!

There are other cases where the contradictions in the contents of Gor’s novels have required us to choose one interpretation, and therefore one answer, over the other. Here, then, I’m appealing for coherence, on Gor’s internal coherence, and therefore its paradigms, but also on historical coherence by comparing Norman’s universe with its historical sources. Some will then see an error, if they don’t know the contradiction itself.

(PS: one day I’ll do an article on the paradigms of Gor’s world).

The historical sources are quite simple, and I have the advantage of a very good historical culture: I work on the models of Ancient Rome, especially between the 1st and 3rd centuries, but also on the social organization of Athens in the classical Hellenistic period, not forgetting the Scandinavian world from the 8th to the 12th century, and the Arab-Muslim world of the Abassid Empire, around the same period. Yes, Gor is quite a melting pot of history and culture.

But it turns out that I want to check everything out, whenever possible. Above all, the Archives’ first and foremost source isn’t other people’s work on the world of Gor, it’s Norman’s novels themselves. For this, nothing could be simpler: I have all 36 books (yes, I’ve just realized that I don’t have the last volume, released in 2022) in English, in PDF format, on my computer. I’ve compiled them into a single PDF super-file to facilitate keyword search functions.

Why in English? Well, French translations of novels are, as a rule, atrocious. In Europe, they’re considered to be pulp fiction, and the translators didn’t bother. That said, the original version is atrocious too, and I wouldn’t have liked to have been one of those translators. In fact, I’ve never taken any real literary pleasure in reading these novels, even though I have my favorites, such as Dancer of Gor, Magicians of Gor and Prize of Gor.  The other reason is that they’re more readily available in English for the work I do. Since I can read English without too much trouble, I prefer to work from the source. So that’s what I research, which sometimes takes a while.

Note, by the way, that the quotations translated into French from the novels are in fact my translation, directly from Norman’s original text. Yes, that will explain the occasional mistakes.

So, while I can’t claim that the entire content of the Gorean Archives is accurate, I can generally say that I’m only slightly wrong on points of detail and interpretation, as mentioned above.

A case in point? It’s been pointed out to me, following one of my debunkers (not yet translated into English), that slaves never say Tal, to greet… it’s said that this is because Tal is a mark of respect etc. and that slaves don’t have to be respected, and are never seen saying Tal in the novels.

Unfortunately, this is not true! Slaves greet by saying Tal, as well as by saying anything else: it’s a form of “hello” like any other. It’s true that I hadn’t given any quotes to back up my claims. So here’s an example of the kind of research I usually do to back up my assertions:

Tal is a common greeting (it’s not the only one). It is often accompanied by a gesture of greeting: the right hand, open, resting on top of the chest, palm inwards. The gesture means: I respect you, you’re not an enemy and I’ve come with no intention of war.

Slaves may use the word “Tal” as a greeting, but will never make this gesture: a slave cannot be an enemy and must respect every free person, so this gesture wouldn’t have an ounce of meaning. In fact, for a slave to do so would be like apeing a free person – in other words, insulting him!

Finally, I’d like to point out that Tal is in fact the Gorean word most often used in the novels, including as a greeting for slaves. In a quick search, here are a few examples, from the very first novels:

“Tal,” cried Ute, greeting me like a free person.”

“Captive of Gor” page 237

“Greetings, Ute,” I said, smiling.

“Tal, El-in-or,” smiled Ute.”

“Captive of Gor” page 245

“The girls stood straight, proud under the warrior’s gaze. “Tal, Master,” said many of them, as I slowly passed.

“Tribes of Gor” page 344

“Tal, Master,” they said.

“Tal, slaves,” I replied.

“Tribes of Gor” page 345

There! Now you know how I work, how I back up the content of my articles with sources, and why I can generally validate certain assertions. Finding the right quotes to back up certain articles can be time-consuming, so I don’t always add quotes. But in general, if I’m asked for them and there are any, I don’t have too much trouble finding them.