Leonidas
Posts: 2078
Joined: 2/16/2004
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Tal Trevelyan!
quote:
ORIGINAL: Trevelyan
A man who respects honor is careful about who and what he represents himself to be, and then makes sure his actions are consistent with that representation, no matter what the situation.
A typical Gorean man, for example, represents himself as a man who:
- is sovereign in his own territory
- is bound by the oath of allegiance he took to the Home Stone of his city
- loves his city
- keeps the Code of his Caste
- takes his place in the order of nature
He lives his life consistently with those representations.
In short, he has the natural tendencies that have evolved in us as human males over eons, and does not repudiate them, yes. You are describing a prototypical Gorean male; i.e. one that you or I would care to share a Home Stone with. Not every human male has those aspects to his character, though. He ended up on the shallow end of the gene pool. There was a time in our evolutionary history when the lack of those traits would have made him less likely to survive and reproduce himself. As a result, you and I are more likely to have them. As Gorean men, we're not ashamed to demonstrate that we do.
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For him, his own sense of honor is what is most important. However, since many other Gorean men share and understand the details of the same representations, if he acts contrary to them, he can expect his fellows to consider him to be dishonorable. If he violates some aspect of the Code of his Caste, his Caste brothers will think less of him for it.
In an earlier, more brutal time, we might have chased him away from the cooking fires for it, or back-handed him away from where men were, and made him to sit with the women and wait for his share of the kill until the men were finished. Same same. We still regard men of questionable masculinity the same way. We're still savages. We just dress better and mince our words better now.
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Now, the part of your post which I don't really understand, and may disagree with is the part about Tarl never having had honor.
Here is an example I think is analogous: Every Viet Nam POW was sworn to keep the Code of Conduct. Every one that I know of at some point or another broke, and violated the Code to some degree. Were they dishonorable? No. Their honor was in holding out as long as they could, and then when they broke, to restart and attempt to again keep the Code to the limit of their endurance.
If I remember correctly, article 5 talks about resisting "to the best of your ability" or something similar, and not making disloyal statements. It's been a while. By that standard, I'd say a good many of our men kept their honor at a fairly high personal cost.
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Honor can be lost, but it does not have to be lost forever. If a man picks himself up, and is again consistent with who and what he represents himself to be, he can at least "recollect" it and if he can forgive himself, perhaps even regain it.
Tarl took an oath to uphold a code, and took up his station among Warriors. He did not know himself well enough to take that oath. He, like many men, was not willing or able to look within himself and see the truth. It wasn't until he was put to the question that it became evident. That is the way it is with honor. Until it is tested, its existance can only be presumed. Tarl showed himself to be without it.
With the truth came disolusionment. Happens to many men. To his credit, Tarl picked himself up and reinvented himself as a man of the Merchants. Once he understood the truth of himself, even though it stung like a bitch, he stopped representing himself as something he wasn't.
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He has an important mission even though he is reluctant to pursue it - serving the Priest-Kings in the defense of Gor and Earth against the Kur. The Code of the Warrior is insufficient for that mission. He, like Marlenus in his pursuit of his dream of Ar, must see beyond the code of his caste and the call of duty of his Home Stone.
There were plenty of Warriors on Gor, any of whom would have proudly been thrown into the marsh before they would beg to be a slave. Tarl wasn't such a man, and yes, such a man probably wouldn't be fit for the mission the Priest-Kings had in mind. Tarl's only mistake was that he claimed that he was such a man too lightly.
Men do fall, and in the process learn hard truths about themselves, my friend. Life's lessons learned. To the extent that a man knows himself, and can be trusted to represent himself accurately, his brothers can put stock in his honor.
Don't know if this made my thoughts clearer for you or just muddied the waters more.
I wish you well,
Leonidas
_____________________________
Take care of yourself
Leonidas
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RE: Everything you ever wanted to about Goreans, but we... - 
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