Aswad
Posts: 6082
Joined: 4/4/2007 Status: offline
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Hey, Kim. Been a while, yeah? In truth, I think Leonidas' reference to the Rome series is a good common ground for those who have seen it. One can see both a wide range of behaviors and inclinations that could be called sadistic by a contemporary colloquial standard, as well as seeing a wide range of relations between owners and slaves (I wonder how many of the various would-be kajirae of the world would relish the prospect of trading places with the various slaves held by Anthony, or Attia, etc.?). It seems clear to me that there are a large number of healthy forms of sadism, some unhealthy ones, some that indicate character flaws, and a huge number that can't readily be sorted into one category or the other without knowledge of the person in question. Kicking a dog, for example, would seem to be a variant of snapping at people- it affects those you can get away with inflicting it on, and usually represents some failure to sustain a good venting mechanism for life issues, or the lack of ability to lay a mess at whose feet it belongs (usually oneself), etc. Whether using the analogy- whipping a slave- or the original, it uses a proxy to satisfy a need one is powerless to satisfy. On the other hand, when there is the presence of a more sexually oriented aggression, it is more akin to a healthy way to vent via sexual gratification, though whether another human should be the preferred partner for sexual gratification in order for the venting to be healthy is a different point for another debate, I guess. For me, it has always felt like a personal failure to employ a proxy, while the use of a slave for venting- aggressively, violently, both or neither- doesn't seem problematic. As noted, if most of the posters are familiar with it, Rome makes a great series to use examples from to discuss the various forms, some of which are consonant with Gor as I see it, along with a few that are not, IMO. Health, al-Aswad.
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I have taken up arms against justice. — Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell It is only hubris if I fail. — Cæsar, Rome
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