"When we are to be raped, and must serve you as slaves," begged the first girl, she who had been in his arms, "
let me be the first to be raped, the first to serve you as a slave."
"You will not be forgotten, my beautiful little slut," he promised her.
"Thank you, Master, " she whispered.
Oh boy, where to begin?
The Chronicles of Gor is a
Sci Fi/Fantasy novel series (one of those that
blur the lines between the two genres), written by John Norman (real name Dr. John Frederick Lange, Jr., a professor of philosophy). The Chronicles of Gor starts out as a
Planetary Romance before moving on to
a sex-slave culture where most of the female main characters are legally property. The planet Gor is a Counter-Earth, a hypothetical planet in Earth's orbit on the other side of the sun, always blocked from view (an impossible situation, and thus fantastic, given the gravitational influences observed upon every comet passing into the inner solar system, even before the advent of interplanetary exploration in the 1960s; then again, if the alien species in question is capable of moving entire
planets into orbit around stars, erasing traces of gravitational influence would likely not be such a problem). On Gor, some
Sufficiently Advanced Aliens decided to take humans from
various eras in human history and dump them together and see what happens, after
removing any type of firearm and
burning anyone who tries to violate said ban.
Needless to say, the books are
interesting in a lot of ways (students of abnormal psychology, for instance, will have a field day reading these books) and boy there are a lot of them. For a complete list see
that other Wiki
.
A complete subculture has been spawned by these books, taking the philosophy of these books and applying them to their daily lives. This
Gorean S&M, which is derived from the philosophy of the books, is considered dangerous by many in the BDSM scene, as it is considered by them as BDSM
without safety words.
Some in BDSM consider the Gorean lifestyle to be a subset of BDSM practices, and find it lacking in that regard. So the mainstream of BDSM practitioners often disdain Goreans because Goreans allegedly reject the ideas of "safe, sane and consensual"/"risk-aware consensual kink", because of the frequent lack of a safe word between Gorean master and slave, or because the almost exclusive male dominant/female submissive dynamic seems to imply that "your kink is not OK" regarding other practices.
The
Gor series was adapted into a sword & sorcery film series in the late Eighties; for better or worse, the films
Bowdlerized the sex-slavery aspect. The second film,
Outlaw of Gor, was shown on
Mystery Science Theater 3000. It revolved around Tarl Cabot being brought back to Gor and accidentally bringing a very annoying friend, Watney Smith. Cabot is soon framed for the murder of the ruler of the city-state of Koroba, leaving
the evil Queen and
Jack Palance's priest character free to seize power.
Setting contains examples of the following tropes:
- Acceptable Target: It is considered acceptable by many to bash anything Gorean, even amongst the BDSM communities. Even amongst those members who have adapted Gorean protocols without acknowledging, or knowing, their origins. To be fair, the ideals in the series can make people... uneasy. Of course, adherents would no doubt disagree.
- Anachronism Stew: We got Romans coexisting with Native Americans. Justified in the backstory.
- Author Appeal: And how!
- Author Tract: It's debatable how much of the "gender roles and sex slavery" thing John Norman actually believes. It's most likely just him indulging his own fetishes rather than arguing Real Life should be run on these principles.
- Boarding Party: The ships of Ar's Station subvert their boarders by boarding back with hundreds of infantrymen hidden in their holds. (Ar is a landlocked city-state, so their not-quite-colony Ar's Station on the Vosk River is not considered a sea power. They use their superior infantry to wage a land war on the river and take their enemies' better ships.)
- Bow And Sword In Accord: Tarl Cabot is an expert fencer, but is teased about his use of the humble peasant's bow.
- Burn The Witch: More of "burn the gunslingers and demolitions experts", but it gets the same effect.
- Contemptible Cover: The cover of the latest edition may be Exactly What It Says On The Tin, but still, look at it. Preferably at home.
- Cult Classic: To the point that there are even people in the world who try to model their life on the ideals presented in the series. Of course, this fact alone can be disturbing to some.
- Crystal Spires And Togas: Sky Bridges; that is all.
- Department Of Redundancy Department: Editors apparently refuse to touch these books, because the author repeatedly repeats himself repeatedly. Rumor is that when the books moved to DAW (around book #8), part of the contract was a no-edit clause.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Semi-Justified, as these are the real Earth cultures transported to another planet.
- Fantasy Gun Control: The Priest-Kings make damn sure there is no type of explosive weapon on Gor. For some reason they're not concerned by equally dangerous weapons that use compressed air.
- A high oxygen atmosphere would explain this.
- Fetish Fuel Future
- Flame Bait
- Flanderization: Chiefly of its own subject matter. Norman clearly packs the fictional universe with a heavy amount of detail. Anthropological detail regarding all the various cultures, etc. etc. But over time, the focus gets progressively more and more concentrated upon the Fetish Fuel.
- Gladiator Revolt
- Happiness In Slavery: One of the central premises of the series.
- Heavyworlder: Inverted. Gor has less gravity than Earth, but it is the Goreans who are described as much more physically strong.
- Mainly because they work physically a lot of the time, having no mechanised industry; much like a modern Englishman could not pull an Agincourt-era longbow. However, Earth-raised Tarl Cabot does reap the benefit of his Earth muscles once he has had some warrior training, and Jason Marshall doesn't do too badly either.
- Ho Yay: Most likely completely unintentional, but those manly embraces are rather suspect.
- Internet Backdraft: In 90% of the internet, a mention of Gor is equivalent to trolling, unless followed up with scathing hatred and opening the floor to burn John Norman in effigy. It is a banned topic on the Star Destroyer.net forums.
- Jumped The Shark: Some will say that the shark was jumped by page 1, but a not-uncommon sentiment is that "the first N books aren't that bad..." for values of N that range from 2 to 6.
- Marty Stu: Tarl is one of the most obvious ones ever.
- Mary Sue Topia: The trope could be named "Lands of Gor" instead.
- Planetary Romance: What it's (technically) supposed to be. For a sufficiently inclusive definition of "romance."
- Please Keep Your Hat On: In Savages of Gor, Cabot meets a man who never takes his hat off. In Blood Brothers of Gor, we learn why: He had been scalped as a young adult.
- Prime Directive: Inverted by the Priest Kings, an alien race worshiped as gods who have artificially cultivated and vigilantly constrain Gorean culture and technology. The clearer this becomes, the more arguments about 'the natural order' and the Masters' role in Gor go out the window, but because none of them know the true nature of the Priest Kings they're never exposed to the Fridge Logic. The Free of Gor are themselves pawns in a secret war.
- The Priest Kings apparently act as the only barrier between humanity and a particularly brutal alien race called the Kurii, but asking yourself how the world they created in the books helps either their cause or the humans' only makes your head hurt.
- Rape Is Love: And so is sexual slavery.
- Rated M For Manly: Cabot (and all the other "proper" Gorean men) consciously try to epitomize the principle of pounding things and people into submission with one's manhood.
- Schizo Tech: Advanced medical technology that includes life extension coexists with medieval weaponry.
- Sex Slave
- Shout Out: The first book, Tarnsman of Gor, opens up with a scene inspired by the Barsoom series.
- Also Gor appears to be based on Plato's Republic.
- Siege Engines: Battles between city-states of Gor regularly employ siege weapons.
- Snark Bait: One of the main reactions by most to the ideals behind the series, followed closely by horror and/or hatred, and considering the premise of the series...
- Stay In The Kitchen: And naked and on your knees. Except for the Panther women.
- Straw Feminist: In Assassin of Gor, one of these is brought over and put through slave training. Of course her silly ideas about equality are played for laughs, as only a foolish woman could ever believe it.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Priest-Kings
- Thieves Guild
- Thirty Xanatos Pileup: The plot of Assassin of Gor. Cabot and his female lover infiltrate a slave house that is smuggling in Earth women and guns. The girl allows herself to be captured and trained as a slave in order to receive access to the house. The slave owner, Cernus, sees right through this, but allows her to go through the training (and allows Cabot to stay in his palace) only to reveal his plan right after she is sold to the most brutal slaver on Gor. Then it is revealed that the Priest Kings saw right through both plans, and hired the second slaver to buy the girl from Cernus.
- Uncoffee: The black wine of Thentis, which characters from Earth instantly equate to coffee.
- Unfortunate Implications: Not so much implied as bashed over one's head. One standout is a black woman in Assassin who takes to slavery extremely easily, even by Gorean standards (the others comment on this).
- That said, most Earth women seen on Gor are white Americans, and several of the native Gorean masters are black.
- Wandering Minstrel
Outlaw (of Gor) and the Gor movie series contain examples of:
- Adaptation Decay: Whatever your feelings about the series, it can't be denied that the films depict a version of Gor that is radically different from the world described in the books. How different? The first movie got a PG rating in the United States and the second got a PG-13 rating. 'Nuff Said.
- For Gor fans, all that needs to be said is that in the movies Tarl Cabot is fighting to END slavery.
- Eighties Hair: Talena has a bad case of it.
- Evil Chancellor: The High Priest Xeno, as played by Jack Palance.
- Fan Disservice: We get more up-skirt shots of Tarl Cabot's midget sidekick than we do of the female cast. And a lot of the queen's guards REALLY need to put on a shirt or - failing that - a bra.
- Fan Service: While there aren't any naked slavegirls, there are a lot of scantily clad serving wenches and muscular men in gladiator armor for everyone to drool over.
Mike and The Bots: It's an arealogical, autoerotical, toobular boobular joy!
- God Save Us From The Queen: Queen Lara, in Outlaw of Gor.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today: Watney. Lampshaded by Servo in the MST3K version.
- Hey Its That Guy:
- In Name Only: the characters, setting and plot when compared to the books.
- Kill Him Already: Watney Smith
Mike: No one would see if you killed him now!
Crow: He'd probably get a free drink at the Pullman.
Mike, Tom, Crow: (chanting) Kill him, kill him, kill him...
- Narm: "Get out of here! You disGUSTing WOOOOOOOORRRRRM!"
- Panty Shot: Oh-so-inverted. "Buffalo shots." "Think about it, won't you?" "Thank you."
- Planetary Romance: Tarl and Talena.
- Say My Name: CABOT! Repeated endlessly when he arrives in Outlaw of Gor (the film).
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: The queen actually seduces Watney just to have an alibi for her husband's murder.
- The Scrappy: WATNEY!
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: "Oh, thank you! I'll just stab myself here."
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Unfortunately, she doesn't actually kill Watney.
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