Let’s be clear, I am not defending any romantic vision of the world of Gor, let alone a romantic vision of the life of a Gorean slave-girl. The world of Gor and its inhabitants is unjust, unfair, unequal, cruel, and devoid of mercy. And in many ways, it is monstrous and sadistic from our perspective as 21st-century Westerners.

To be honest, if Gor existed, I would volunteer to go there with arms and baggage to spread the benefits of freedom, democracy, and human rights, rifle in hand. Yes, it’s a very ironic image. But it pretty much reflects my opinion.

So why is Gor so exciting? Well, just as playing a character in the desperate, crushing, and filthy world of Cyberpunk, Fallout, Vampire, or other dystopian and dark fictional universes can be exciting! In a loving, peaceful, ideal, and good world, there isn’t necessarily a lot of fighting and personal struggle. And the struggle for hope and happiness always makes for a good story! Even, and especially, in a world as terrible as Gor. But no more than in other dark and cruel universes, Gor is not one that can be labeled romantic.

But that is precisely the question: is Gor romantic? And can it be?

1- The cruelty of the Gorean people towards slaves

Let’s start with the most important thing to keep in mind. How cruel can the Gorean people be towards slaves, and in what ways? And what better way to answer this question than with examples from the novels? We will then continue our analysis.

Examples of cruelty

Here are a few examples taken from various Gor novels. The list is far from exhaustive, as it would be several times the size of the list below!

· A kajira is thrown into the mouth of a swamp tharlarion by her master, who then has time to flee and stay alive.

· To teach a lesson to a group of captured young girls and make them obedient, one of them is subjected to the rowing torture in front of all the others. She drowns.

· Same scene, on another boat, for much the same reasons, but this time the girl is suspended by her ankles above shark-infested water. She is eaten alive.

· Same scene, in a street of the Brands (a slave-trading district in a city). To teach the other captives a lesson, one of them is slaughtered in front of all the others, then thrown to a sleen to be eaten before their eyes.

· A slave is thrown, naked and bound, into a tub of ice water in the middle of the night in the far north for spilling a dish. She dies of cold.

· The heroine of one of the novels, an Earth woman, is locked in a small box with only a few holes in it for twenty days and left to starve to death in order to break her. At one point, huge insects are thrown into the box, and she has the choice between being eaten, or killing them and eating them. She survives by a miracle.

· One of Ar’s most beautiful slaves dances at the end of a meeting of all the military officers. Before she finishes her dance, a hundred men throw themselves on her to rape her. She does not survive.

· A girl who displeased her master on her first night of sex is disemboweled and thrown, still alive, to a sleen, which devours her.

· The Goreans employ carefully selected slaves as carriers of secret messages. The message is tattooed on the girl’s shaved head, then her hair grows back, and she is transported to where the message is to be delivered. All that is required is to shave her head. Once her mission is accomplished, the slave, useless, is killed.

· An exotic breeding farm in Ar is home to young female slaves who have never been in contact with men in their entire lives and are kept in a state of total naivety: they know nothing of the outside world. At the age of 15 or 16, they are bought for a fortune by powerful Goreans for a unique spectacle. They are put to sleep, then wake up in a cage with male slaves in the middle of an arena where guests watch the show. They are gang-raped by the male slaves, then, after the show, killed because they cannot cope with the trauma.

· An elderly and experienced kajira is offered to a woman who beats her cruelly every day. The slave tries to escape but is caught. She is whipped until she bleeds in front of all the other slaves in the neighborhood, then her Achilles tendons are cut, she is left exposed in a public place, and finally chained in a kitchen where she will walk on all fours for the rest of her life.

· To avoid being sold to a man with a reputation for sadism, a desperate slave grabs a weapon and attacks a warrior in order to commit suicide. She is overpowered, tortured for days, and finally her feet and hands are cut off and she is abandoned, still alive, in the desert.

· After a “friendly” challenge between cities, a game called “catch the girls,” with two teams of men who are there to capture the free young women of the opposing camp, and free young women who are there as prey for the game, the captured girls are all sold by their captors to a slave trader, stripped naked, their heads enclosed in a bag, tied up, and taken on a journey on foot of 150 pasangs (a little over 150 km). Many die of exhaustion along the way.

· There is a similar game in which slave-girls are shackled, their heads enclosed in a bag, and then thrown onto a track, where free men must catch them and rape them before the girl crosses a line. It is very common for girls to die during this game as a result of the abuse and violence involved.

· Every year, students from the large city-states organize a game, which is encouraged by the authorities, in which they run after slave girls working in the fields around their city to rape them. The winner is the one who captures and rapes the most girls. This annoys the landowners, as girls are often injured or killed during these games.

· From the few discussions in the novels about the treatment of slaves by slave traders, we learn that during boat trips, the loss rate is about one girl in 20, when everything goes very well. We also learn that, on average, the loss rate while the captives are being trained is similar, but that it is 50% for Earth women.

· It is common to see a girl die during certain tavern orgies; that is why those who are destined for them do not cost much.

· It is totally accepted that a kajira is also there to be beaten and abused for fun and on a whim; that is literally what they are there for, and no one sees a problem with that.

The false paradigm of the Goreans according to Norman

One of the paradigms of Gor, and one that Norman insists on often, as often as he inflicts horrific spells on the kajirae in his stories, is that Goreans are not cruel, because cruelty and sadism are not part of the nature of Goreans.

Um… Norman, are you sure about that? Because, reader, you did read the examples above, right?

The paradigm is therefore—surprise, surprise—false. Cruelty and sadism are integrated by Goreans as part of their natural order, a nature, a necessity, a need, which, in order to be controlled and not spill over into Gorean society, is encouraged to be expressed on slaves. A slave is not a person, nor a human being, but an object, so whether they are damaged or destroyed is perhaps regrettable, but not really a problem. It is not as if it were a crime, apart from vandalizing someone else’s property.

So, to be clearer about this idea of cruelty: the average degree of cruelty among Gorans is undoubtedly equivalent to that of Terrans who do not have to restrain themselves too much in terms of morality and the law. This is also what Norman claims, explaining over and over again that Earth morality (well, that of Western Americans, anyway…) is feminizing and castrating: containing men’s domineering, violent, and cruel impulses is tantamount to castrating them. Yes, it reminds me of incel masculinism too. Because it’s the same thesis.

So, the real paradigm is different: Gorans do not consider themselves violent, cruel, or sadistic towards people of their own rank, i.e., free people. Slaves, on the other hand, are there for that purpose, and it is their function to serve as targets for this cruelty. This does not prevent violence or cruelty towards free people. It’s just that, in this case, it is immoral and illegal, and punished by the laws of the cities of Gor. If you decide that beating your wife or beating up a man you don’t like is legal, it’s clear that the level of illegal violence will immediately decrease!

The average level of violence and cruelty in the world of Gor is therefore statistically high, since even with morals and laws that curb certain abuses, violence and cruelty are still encouraged as part of nature. Gorans do not see themselves as cruel, violent, or sadistic. But they are, as a general rule.

2- The real life of a kajira

The fundamental element that motivates all the actions of a Gorean slave-girl is neither the romanticism of the situation, nor love, nor devotion. It is fear.

Reread what I wrote above to get an idea. But above all, think about how a kajira is created, the ruthless and inhuman training she undergoes to be conditioned. It is through fear that all this training works. If you are not familiar with the training of kajirae, here is an article that describes the process: https://www.psychee.org/gorpedia/slave-training-education-2/

So, basically, a kajira functions through fear. Fear of dying, to begin with, throughout her training. Then fear of suffering during her education, where every misstep is punished, and finally fear of displeasing, because displeasing leads to the risk of punishment or death, to the point where a final fear arises, directly linked to the idea of displeasing: even the most beautiful, helpful, and devoted kajirae will always be afraid of being sold, for fear of ending up with a master worse than her own, which is a very real risk!

After all, a kajira is a possession, an animal. You may love your dog with all your heart, but if you are offered tens of thousands of dollars for it when you need money, you may well hesitate and say yes. And if you have several dogs, even if you love them, why not sell one for such a large sum? And what about your dog’s feelings? Even if they are important, it is still property, commoditie, so there is no need to be offended.

And finally, and this should not be forgotten, a kajira is generally treated even worse than a domestic dog: bland food in limited portions, she sleeps on a mat, often chained, she will never never allowed to take a nap on the sofa, she works from dawn to dusk as a cleaning lady, when she’s not working as a prostitute, she can forget about naps, and most kajirae who are bought solely to work have even less comfort than what I’m describing here. Some are much better off, but they are very rare.

The blissful kajira

Can a kajira really be happy?

Well, that’s the perversity of the treatment she has been subjected to in order to become a kajira. When a person has lived through hell, during which they have been stripped of all humanity, dignity, self-esteem, and even their most intimate identity, the level of trauma is enormous, and results, to a greater or lesser extent, in conditioning such that if the slave is placed in a protective and reassuring environment that is more benevolent than what she has endured, she will do anything to preserve that environment!

When you find a little happiness, even though your situation and social status remain miserable and humiliating, you cling to it with all your might, for fear of losing it, even if it means rewriting your own opinions, thoughts, and memories to encourage anything that will allow you to hold on to that happiness and keep it! This is the pinnacle of psycho-social conditioning, where, in order to preserve this happiness, you can even embrace all the opinions of your tormentors and not only accept your status, but deeply internalize its legitimacy.

Which doesn’t work… that well. Let’s say it’s a fragile state of artificial bliss that can easily be damaged or destroyed by trauma. Basically, too much injustice or cruelty will break the conditioning. And in such cases, the damage is terrible. And often irreparable.

An unnatural state

This state of blissful kajira is not the norm. Most of the time, what is asked of a kajira is to obey, serve, and please, with the risk of punishment and pain if she makes a mistake, and with the constant veiled threat of a cruel death that can always befall her. Conditioning a kajira well takes time and is expensive. So, no one bothers if it’s not worth the effort.

It is then the kajirae themselves who, to a greater or lesser extent, adapt to their pitiful situation in an attempt to improve their lives. Faking devotion, joy, or pleasure, smiling on command, and gritting your teeth are lies that are quickly learned when you need to survive and improve your lot. This can even end up creating the self-conditioning I described above, if the right conditions are in place.

But a lucid kajira will always remember the cruelty and the risk of death that hangs over her. Forget honesty and sincerity, she’s not there for that! She has to survive in a world where every misstep or stroke of bad luck could kill her. In other words, she will quickly learn to have no pity, no compassion, and no scruples. Yes, that’s not how Norman describes kajirae, is it? Yes, he does, many times! Don’t confuse the ideal kajira, who is often blissful, happy, totally conditioned, and finds herself in a relatively protected environment, with the average kajira, the majority, who are simply enslaved people doing everything they can to improve their lot and survive in a brutally competitive world that leaves no room for romantic feelings.

3- What about the romanticism, damn it?

Well, yes, I know people who find the Gor’s novels romantic. But I suppose they also found the 50 Shades of Grey novels romantic. Or even the novel The Story of O.

Hint: they’re not. Stories about men who physically and mentally abuse women against their will, using power, force, and coercion, are not romantic. They may contain certain elements that are romantic. Everyone likes stories with happy endings, even if the moral of the story is highly questionable.

What is romantic in the world of Gor is a bit similar: it is above all anecdotes, episodes. The slave who ends up being loved by her master, even though she loves him with all her soul, is beautiful. Or the slave who, through struggle, willpower, and devotion, becomes a free woman by improving her lot. Or the one who, after being kidnapped and suffering the worst trials, manages to return to her master, who welcomes her with love (well, no, with consideration, as Norman says… but anyway).

And on Gor SL? What’s romantic is what the players bring to it!

It’s what Gor SL players want to experience, in general. Beautiful stories with happy endings. As I’ve said elsewhere, Gor is a very harsh, very dark world, where the challenge is to seek out the light of hope. It’s especially a harsh and dark world when you’re playing a slave, and that’s not helped by the most violent and cruel players, those who care little about the comfort and emotions of others. But what you come looking for when you’re a player playing a slave is that hope at the end of the tunnel. If you want the full experience of playing a slave in Gor, you’re going to get knocked around, risk death quite a few times, fight to survive, probably rebel, or try to, suffer a thousand abuses, and, without a doubt, change owners several times.

And then you’ll finally find the context and the powerful emotional bond between master and slave that will give meaning to the quest you’ve been on and all the trials you’ve endured. That journey ends, and another begins, for as long as it lasts!

And that’s romantic!