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Gorean You may think this is an interesting statement to make, being as it is the start of an article written for a BDSM website, but it is nevertheless a true one.
My intention in writing this article was to form a basis for understanding the Gorean lifestyle from a BDSM point of view. Something that someone coming from that background could gain an overview, a contextual framework for understanding what it is.
Between 1967 and 1986, an author by the name of John Norman wrote a series of 25 books, set on the fictional planet of Gor. Whilst the 'feel' of the world is alien in many of its aspects (vegetation, animal life, etc.) from a human perspective, it is very similar to classical Greek / Roman culture.
Although the books are classified as Science Fiction, the author clearly uses the books as a vehicle for describing what he sees as the ills of current Western Society, together with many philosophical statements, both openly discussed and also transmitted through the story. It's probably worth noting at this point that the author is also a Professor of Philosophy at an American University, so at least his philosophical thoughts have a certain credence from that point of view.
From these books have been extracted the sum of the philosophical parts by people who have considered that they have sufficient value to become the basis for a complete lifestyle.
The Gorean lifestyle then is based upon an extracted philosophy from a series of books written by a philosopher. The philosophy is complete, as far as any can be, encompassing all aspects of day to day life, as one would expect. It has been said that many of the philosophies have been expounded before and are not new. Indeed, many have been, by people like Marcus Aurelius and other Stoics for instance, but as far as I am aware, none have formed all of these into quite the same grouping as Norman has.
In splitting out the philosophy from the books, it is also necessary to look at the cultural background against which they are set, but this background does not necessarily become part of the lifestyle. Indeed, the lifestyle is based solely on the philosophy; any cultural aspects are included as individuals wish, often to give a more 'Gorean' flavour.
It is easy to see from this that the connection between D/s and Gor is not at all apparent. No lifestyle based solely on one aspect could be so encompassing as the Gorean one evidently is.
Why then the immediate association in most BDSM'ers minds? I suspect that it stems mainly from online interaction, rather then offline, since there are so few lifestyle Goreans in the UK that many people will never meet them anyway. Online, the focus of most 'Goreans' seems to be the master / slave dynamic, to the exclusion of all else. In the lifestyle context of course, owning a slave does not make one Gorean, neither does the lack of one make one not. Earlier, I mentioned cultural aspects. It is evident from the books, as from most of Earth's history, that slavery has been a cultural institution, usually economically based, and it is this cultural aspect that some lifestyle Goreans choose to bring into their lives. Of course, some Goreans, just as any other members of society, may choose to indulge in BDSM for their own amusement.
In the final analysis, being Gorean is what we are, not something we do.
I wish you well
Charon
The Gor books - John Norman
The Cognitive Paradox - Professor John
Lange
The collected writings of Marcus of Ar
Being Gorean - Maitre
Charon
The Silk and Steel message board: http://pub32.ezboard.com/fsilkandsteelcommunityboardfrm1
The Gorean Public Board: http://www.pantheus.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
Other thoughts of mine: http://www.pantheus.com/TGV/archive52001/TGV/interview.shtml
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