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Anybody remember GOR books

MinnesotaBrant

Philosopher
MinnesotaBrant
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
5,827
I started reading these in 5th or 6th grade before I understood the sadistic/maschochistic component of these books. I got about 20 30 books into the series before I discovered they sucked. Has anybody in JREF sunk so low as to read one if these books. I will say the first 15 were great.
 
I read those quite a long time ago. Part of my interest in authors like HP Lovecraft and Robert E Howard.

The first 3 were interesting with some good ideas. Then the author descends into his personal theories about women.... and I gave up around book 5. It's one thing to have your personal beliefs inform your stories... and quite another to just be preaching about them for entire chapters. Going on and on about how women just want to be dominated speaks of some serious personal issues that basically ruined the narrative.

There are a lot of instances where madness helps with the creative process. In some instances however, it becomes a serious obstacle. John Norman is a good example of the latter.
 
RobDegraves said:
I read those quite a long time ago. Part of my interest in authors like HP Lovecraft and Robert E Howard.

The first 3 were interesting with some good ideas. Then the author descends into his personal theories about women.... and I gave up around book 5. It's one thing to have your personal beliefs inform your stories... and quite another to just be preaching about them for entire chapters. Going on and on about how women just want to be dominated speaks of some serious personal issues that basically ruined the narrative.

There are a lot of instances where madness helps with the creative process. In some instances however, it becomes a serious obstacle. John Norman is a good example of the latter.
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He's still writing them.
 
They still have a following in areas of the BDSM lifestyle. Given they are still being published at about 1 a year means someone is still reading
 
RobDegraves said:
I read those quite a long time ago. Part of my interest in authors like HP Lovecraft and Robert E Howard.

The first 3 were interesting with some good ideas. Then the author descends into his personal theories about women.... and I gave up around book 5. It's one thing to have your personal beliefs inform your stories... and quite another to just be preaching about them for entire chapters. Going on and on about how women just want to be dominated speaks of some serious personal issues that basically ruined the narrative.

There are a lot of instances where madness helps with the creative process. In some instances however, it becomes a serious obstacle. John Norman is a good example of the latter.
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Yup. Same here. 3 and out...
 
I have maybe the first 5 or 6.
They did get too formulaic and childish/nasty after that.
Kinda helped ruin any fantasy series I was into way back then.. almost all of the follow-ups/clones of Tolkien were equally poor.
 
Anybody ever read the very much unread "Pretty-Boys" of Gor?

I saw the cover, but never a copy of the actual book.


:D
 
I Ratant said:
I have maybe the first 5 or 6.
They did get too formulaic and childish/nasty after that.
Kinda helped ruin any fantasy series I was into way back then.. almost all of the follow-ups/clones of Tolkien were equally poor.
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They reminded me of the Barsoom novels crossed with Doc Savage. If you have never read Doc Savage, they came out each month with the same plot (with minor variations).

1. Mysterious woman appears.
2. Woman reports somebody she loves/knows/has slept with once has disappeared/been captured/has blocked her on Facebook.
3. Doc's team immediately swings into action. Well the one called "Monk" does, the rest walk to the lab/weapons locker/rehab center.
4. Doc's uses/doesn't use/fails to bring the weapons the boys have genned up.
5. Case closed.

In the Barsoom novels:

Boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy rescues girl. (Note the streamling there to remove the clumsy plot devices of the Doc Savage books.)
 
I will admit to being a Gor fan, at least the earlier ones. Norman had a quirky writing style, but you got used to it...
In addition to the lovingly-described BDSM stuff, Norman did put together an interesting world in Gor, with transplanted peoples from many cultures and he did weave them into the stories pretty well.
The "Tarn racing" gladiatorial thing was pretty decent.
However, at some point it's as if his publisher said..."John, we seem to have picked up an enormous fan-base of kinky people. Maybe you should ladle on the master/slave stuff more lavishly." And so we got endless pages of "Me master, you slave." dialogue and not much else.
 
Agreed, if you dump the entire sex slave culture there is a very John Carter of Mars feel about the books that had potential. Unfortunately, Norman went off the rails early and seems to have been caught up in his own kink. Too bad really.
 
I met, John Frederick Lange, who writes, as "John Norman", at the Worldcon, in San Antonio, Texas, in 1998, where he, was on panels, he seemed, to all appearance, to be, a perfectly average, man, he spoke, not like how, he wrote, exposition, neither did, he speak, like his characters.

You know how it is.

You say we know that?

Yes you know that.

How so is it done?

It is done in this way.

[Stops with immense relief out of fear that his brains are congealing from the effort of writing like "John Norman".]

:blackcat:
 
MG1962 said:
They still have a following in areas of the BDSM lifestyle.
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Goreans don't consider themselves part of the BDSM scene and the BDSM scene is quite happy about that. Goreans are quite adamant that they follow the philosophy espoused by Norman, in the same way that Jedi's claim the force is a valid concept. In the real world most goreans I know are just geeks who have found a way to get laid, therein lies the motivation.
:D
AmandaM said:
Anybody ever read his book "Imaginative Sex" ?
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here's an excerpt
Large bodies, stimulated by testosterone, aggressive, strong, lustful, are suitable for the bodies of masters. Smaller bodies, slight, curved and beautiful, made delicious and vulnerable by estrogens, make excellent slave bodies. When one adds to this the biological desire on the part of the female, when in heat, to yield herself to male domination, to submit to him completely, these seems little doubt as to who, is these fantasies, is the appropriate slave. It is she, the beauty, who in her heart desires to yield, to submit and totally, to her master. Under his touch, she cannot withhold her surrender; she must yield; it is her destiny.
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stupid stupid
he didn't capitalise "Master"
:D
 
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Before anyone Netflix's Gor, I feel it only merciful to let you know what you're getting into.

Gor is a fantasy film from the late '80s based on a series of novels, and it is, at heart, about two simple things: Nerd revenge fantasies, and man-taint. The former is exemplified by Gor's protagonist, who is little more than a grown-up version of that one kid on the playground who insisted he fought off a gang on the way to school, stole a car at lunch, and had a date with a Brazilian supermodel penciled in for that afternoon. And the latter is exemplified via long, affectionate camera pans across vast tundras of taint.
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