Grammars of Gor

[TheEarl]

I've heard people rip the piss out of these Gor books before and have thought they sounded terrible from the descriptions I heard. But I thought they were online books or something. Until yesterday when I found a couple in a big bag of books that a friend of mine had from a charity shop.

I opened a random page to read one paragraph. One paragraph of about 100 words, one sentence and 14 semi-colons. Not in the right places, or in fact in any logical places. Just scattered around, like the writer knew he had to have punctuation of some kind and decided that it may as well be semi-colons.

As I remember it:

He saw her lying there; her hair was so luxurious; the furs covered her; so he pulled them back; so she pulled her knees to her chest; but he put his hand on her leg;...

It read like it'd been written by a 14 y/o boy who'd been drip fed testosterone and misogyny and edited by a toddler. And this book was something like the 135th Gor novel!

Seeing something like that gives me great cheer.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

ok, yes, this is where i got my nick a squillion years ago. vella. the first three books were ok. there are 25 books in the series and i read them all. however, after book three, i fell into a coma and i can't really remember much else.

 

[Alex De Kok]

Number four, 'Assassin of Gor' is okay, too. First one I ever read. Could be subtitled, 'Vella's further adventures'! I've had good feedback on my own 'Gor' story, 'Curiosity is not becoming, kajira'. Fun to write, but ended up in 'Celebrities', probably because I used a published author's fictional world. I wrote it for Mat's 'Rainy Day Challenge'.

Alex

 

[sincerely_helene]

Agreed the books are very poorly written, but great concept. I have been a Gorean role player for years. (But that's just between us.)

 

[logophile]

Agreed the books are very poorly written, but great concept. I have been a Gorean role player for years. (But that's just between us.)

I won't tell a soul.

 

[Weird Harold]

It read like it'd been written by a 14 y/o boy who'd been drip fed testosterone and misogyny and edited by a toddler. And this book was something like the 135th Gor novel!

If it was the 135th Gor book, it probably WAS written by a 14yo boy -- John Norman only wrote 25 but there is a LOT of fan fiction around.

I never found any of the grammar in the in the 23 Gor books I own to be onerous or even especially bad -- I can't speak for the two I'm missing.

Interestingly, John Norman also wrote a "philosophy" book that espoused the mysoginistic world view so blatant in the Gor series as a serious attempt to bring Gor into the real world. He really believed in the values he preaches so much in that series.

Still, if you could remove the page after page of preaching in the series, the complete 25 book set would make a moderately good, somewhat erotic, fantasy adventure trilogy.

 

[Alex De Kok]

So get you all hence and read my Gor story! Curiosity is not becoming, Kajira only has 40 votes, and it's been up since October!

Alex

 

[TheEarl]

If it was the 135th Gor book, it probably WAS written by a 14yo boy -- John Norman only wrote 25 but there is a LOT of fan fiction around.

I never found any of the grammar in the in the 23 Gor books I own to be onerous or even especially bad -- I can't speak for the two I'm missing.

Interestingly, John Norman also wrote a "philosophy" book that espoused the mysoginistic world view so blatant in the Gor series as a serious attempt to bring Gor into the real world. He really believed in the values he preaches so much in that series.

Still, if you could remove the page after page of preaching in the series, the complete 25 book set would make a moderately good, somewhat erotic, fantasy adventure trilogy.

135 was a random number picked out of the air. I believe it was Beasts of Gor.

The Earl

 

[KarenAM]

Gor is, um, unique. John Norman (among others) influenced my erotic work, though not my writing style. I remember thinking that so much more could be done with the setting he had, but that never was. He never went beyond the sex fantasy and the rationalizations for it and so never explored the real human ramifications of his ideas.

On the other hand, I have found to my delight several wonderful parodies of the Gor books.

Houseplants of Gor

Potential Gor Novels

and,

Gay, Bejeweled, Nazi Bikers of Gor

 

[Weird Harold]

135 was a random number picked out of the air. I believe it was Beasts of Gor.

The Earl

Beasts of Gor is #12, just FYI.

It's NOT one of the better entries in the series with a bit too much BEM activity and less of the swords and slave-girls style that makes the series a cult favorite.

 

[elsol]

Slave girls!
Slave girls!
Slave girls!

Uh... but they should be paid a good wage, have benefits (other than sexual), and must sign a contract that says they WANT to run around a desert wearing wristcuffs and not much else...

Slave girls!
Slave girls!
Slave girls!

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Guest]

Gor is, um, unique. John Norman (among others) influenced my erotic work, though not my writing style. I remember thinking that so much more could be done with the setting he had, but that never was. He never went beyond the sex fantasy and the rationalizations for it and so never explored the real human ramifications of his ideas.

On the other hand, I have found to my delight several wonderful parodies of the Gor books.

Houseplants of Gor

Potential Gor Novels

and,

Gay, Bejeweled, Nazi Bikers of Gor

I adore those sites. loved it when i first came across them...they still have the ability to make me snicker. thanks for the reminder.. *grin*

 

[KarenAM]

I adore those sites. loved it when i first came across them...they still have the ability to make me snicker. thanks for the reminder.. *grin*

You're quite welcome. I suspect that Gor will never be the same after those...