An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyle"

Create a
Free Account

As the Collar Turns:

Collarchat.com - BDSM Forum

Home Login Search

An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyle"

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Gorean Lifestyles >> An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyle"

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyle" - 12/11/2010 10:17:54 AM

DomArtist4u

Posts: 47
Joined: 6/19/2007
Status: offline

Tal,
First may I say my experience with Gor is limitied and my familiarity to the Norman books is also. That being said, I understand the concepts of the D/s caedences and perspectives. I can see how some would follow the books to a degree, using the roles and the Domination styles, but a "lifestyle"? There are a few things about the fantasy / fiction of the books that just can not or is unlikely to be done in todays modern society.
1) the nature of the planet of Gor thats suggested is very primative. no cars, cell phones, no electricity. someone living a gorean 'lifestyle' would be completely reliant on the land, this concept would only work in a commune designed as a homestone with many people contrubuting.

2) the constant caesence and demand on a kajira, would be physically exausting and would be unhealthy ans well as possibly fatal.
branding, beating, suspention and constant tower position hours upon hours on your knees and postuured coupled with the communial sex aspect would be extremely physically demanding.

please don't bash me for this, but I sincerly would like to speak to those who claim to living a gorean lifestyle and to what degree

< Message edited by DomArtist4u -- 12/11/2010 10:23:42 AM >

Profile

Post #: 1

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 11:51:04 AM

barelynangel

Posts: 6233
Status: offline

Just out of morbid curiosity, based on your own admitted ignorance of being Gorean and the books, where are you getting your information?

It may also help to understand that most Goreans i know, don't live a Gorean lifestyle, they live life as Goreans.

angel

< Message edited by barelynangel -- 12/11/2010 11:52:11 AM >

_____________________________

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
R.W. Emerson

(in reply to DomArtist4u)

Profile

Post #: 2

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 3:08:21 PM

Bear0fAr

Posts: 170
Joined: 7/25/2010
Status: offline

DomArtist4U,

I'm not going to bash you. You are obviously intelligent, you can communicate effectively in this medium and perhaps most of all, you came here with your questions in a respectful manner. Not everyone does.

That said, most of what you might think you know about living Gorean in this society is wrong.

First thing, and it is only something that may bother me - so take it with a grain of salt - but you might reconsider using "tal" as a greeting. Why? Simply because it is an identifier that is commonly used to indicate that the person speaking/writing is Gorean. Sort of like a "not-so-secret" handshake.

Second: You've made the most common, and the easiest mistake to be made when considering those of us who live Gorean in this society; we are not role-players. That is to say that we do not need to pretend. We do not need to pretend that we ride big hawks around in the sky, talk to giant spiders, or worship a 10-foot tall praying mantis in order to live as Gorean men and women. Without reading the books - and from them extracting the philosophy contained within - it is easy and very common to be unable to relate what we are to anything but some kind of fantasy game. In a nutshell, living Gorean in this society is not about the trappings in the books, but rather it's about the philosophy and morality contained within there and how we apply such things to our lives.

Third: This, of course, ties in with the second; we are not attempting to re-create the books word-for-word in this society. That would be impossible. So when a Gorean man or woman says that they own the life of another, they mean simply that. How the owned are treated, used and made to serve is up to that owner. It is important to note that slaves and slavery have nothing at all to do with living Gorean in this society; one can live Gorean without ever owning, or even interacting with a slave. Indeed, were that not true - were slavery in any form a prime ingredient to living Gorean in this society - then it would be the slaves themselves who carried the power to determine who and who is not Gorean.

And if you know anything about Goreans, that is just not the case.

I hope I shed a bit of light on the issues raised, and I'd like to welcome you to the board.

Best to you,

Bear-

_____________________________

Bear's Gorean Musings

(in reply to DomArtist4u)

Profile

Post #: 3

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 7:52:13 PM

Malkinius

Posts: 1584
Joined: 1/9/2004
Status: offline

Greetings.....

Let me give you an example of how Goreans actually live and do things. In Chicago we have a monthly meeting of Goreans. We meet in a Chinese buffet restaurant. Today we had three free men, four slaves and two young children of one of the men and his slave who are seven and two years old. Yes, sometimes there are children at Gorean functions. Some of us have known each other for years and some for only a few months.

What did we do? Well...besides the obvious eating, <grins> we talked. What did we talk about? The start before everyone got there was what two of us were doing now that Cataclysm has been released. Then we got into computers because most of us either are in a computer field or use computers for work. This shifted over to smart phones and the history of that industry going back to the Palms and the Apple Newton. We finished off talking about the Wikileaks situation and our responses to it. Throw in a few sidebars and sidetracks and the setting of the January meeting and a New Year's Eve party and you have a group of people talking about what interests them. This is what Goreans usually do when we get together. We act just like any other group of friends. No kink. No BDSM. No Dom/sub and little Master/slave and what there was of that was low key. The occasional Master being used by slaves, pouring hot tea or getting things as needed for the men and asking permission to do things. This is how we live and interact in public.

Yes, some of us do other things in private but we don't have a "lifestyle" per se. What we have is a bit of the culture taken from the books and a shared way of living our lives. We disagreed on a lot of things from which computer/smart phone OS is better to politics, however, all three men present consider ourselves to be Gorean. No, we didn't stand out and no we didn't do anything which would cause any legal problems. We just don't do that. We read science fiction and fantasy. We don't try to live it no matter how geeky some of us are. (On man is going to see the Klingon Christmas Carol play next weekend. Yes, it was translated into Klingon. Of course he was a Trekkie before he found the Gor books.) Goreans are people first. People who live our lives by certain ethical precepts and values. What else we do....well....that really does vary. We are certainly anything but primitive, hung up on being the dominant macho idiot or über warrior type. The slaves serve. Some just a slave, some also as mother and wife. They may also have jobs, school, family and other things they do as regular parts of their lives. But they are slaves first who are also those things. As for the demands on a slave being that bad. No, they are no where near that dangerous, let alone fatal. They are seldom beaten and communal sex almost never happens, let alone frequently. If you are thinking of prostitutes, slaves in the BDSM world are much more likely to do that than slaves of Goreans. I won't say none have done so but I hear of it being required or even wanted much more often on the other side than our side. They also don't spend much times actually on their knees. As Bear said, we live our lives, not the books.

Be well....

Malkinius

_____________________________

A questioner by inclination...An Auctioneer for the fun of it
http://www.HouseMalkinius.com The goal is beauty.

(in reply to DomArtist4u)

Profile

Post #: 4

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 7:52:24 PM

Terrah

Posts: 372
Joined: 7/5/2007
Status: offline

Hello DomArtist4U,

I myself am not an expert on what is or is not Gorean. I call myself Gorean because of the relation to the books and how it relates to my own personal life I live and believe. I did not change my life when I read the books, I found they more conformed to what I already believed and lived like at the time. Perhaps that is why I related to them so well.

I do not sit here and tell anyone I know of the philosophical meaning of the books, I am not sure there is one there to follow as I related to what I already was living to what was in the books, not changing my life to follow anything in particular. Perhaps that is the gist of being Gorean to begin with.

Of course when I first read the books, I saw a lot of sci-fi in it, certainly great adventures of a guy named Tarl, lots of women with issues of all sorts, and men too for that matter. But what I got out of it was far more than adventure or being thrilled to read it. (Frankly I barely got through Priest Kings of Gor, more or less the last 3 times either) What I did get and understand is the passion that drove the entire series in a particular way of being on that planet and what they believed in and fought for, freedom.

For slave girls that is freedom to be who they are who want to serve men who are strong and take charge, who eek out in them the helplessness of a female who needs to serve a particular man. Note not all slaves were happy and joyous wonders of womanhood who lived and died under slavery with all the joy in the world just to serve. There were those who chose to die rather than serve a man as a slave, there were those who unwillingly stayed hoping to be sold to another who they might have that one definition with that would fill their soul with happiness to serve, etc.

There were men who were not honorable, nor honest, and plotted for the dissolution of the planet, even beasts or insects who plotted for the survival of the species and used those to do their bidding, my goodness it has a variety of things to learn in one's life when it is taken in context.

I do not live according to the books, I live as I have always lived, in fact I had a Homestone way before I even read the series that I still have today. Don't ask me why I had it, it was a part of me when I first saw it, and I just never gave it up, to me it was a part of who I am, what I believe in, where I live, and my own personal freedom therein. My pledge to my part of the world to me if you like. Ever done anything like that before?

Being Gorean is understanding how the books lived, or live since they are still be reproduced as it were. Each one points to another adventure sure, but it also shows what the character developed as he grew to know himself within a world that was not his own, but more than that, he realized his own potential for life and in those books they speak to me about what I can achieve as well, what I already believe in and therefore I call myself Gorean due to the fact I can see myself in them as well as realize there are parts I cannot do, nor would I want to even try. Not getting me on a Tarn in this or any lifetime! LOL

Hope this helps a little.

I wish you well..

Terrah

_____________________________

"Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyhow." (John Wayne)

(in reply to Bear0fAr)

Profile

Post #: 5

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 8:30:44 PM

Cherylmazana

Posts: 1151
Joined: 10/4/2007
Status: offline

Hi DomArtist

Interesting that you started off with something similar to a recent post, have you read any of the other posts on this forum? If you have then I wonder about your motives, if you haven’t, well...

However at least you are asking yourself.

Gor itself is primitive, and you would be amazed at the amount of Goreans who wish they could live like that, it’s a great dream and fantasy, go back to a simpler form of life, no stressful jobs, no manager on your butt, no long commute etc, just you, your land and animals. The idea of a community all working together has come up many times.

The problem with that is that farm work is hard work, working on a farm for a few summers showed me that, its backbreaking, dirty and long hours for little money, and it ages you fast. Those I knew looked about 20 years older than they were because of the effects of sun and wind on their skin, and no stabilisation serums to combat it on this planet.

So while many dream of it few manage it, and I couldn’t see a community of Goreans living together well, everyone would want to be the Ubar and pleasure slave, and no one wants to be the peasent and the kettle and mat slave.

Most of us instead just live our lives the same as always, we get on with our lives in the same way Goreans got on with their lives, they live in a primitive society we live in a technologically advanced one. Goreans wouldn’t throw away a spade to dig with their hands, I wouldn’t throw away a Machine to dig with a spade.

As for the sexual side of kajiras, kajira didn’t spend all their time on their knees, read assassins, they had hundreds of positions to sit in,and nadu was more akin to teaching a dog to beg. They got into that position when commanded to the same way a dog will. And putting it bluntly any man who expects his slave to service many men in a night is either a fool or a pimp, and pimps by their nature really don’t care what happens to their stable as long as it can work and bring in the money.

But most slaves in Gor were not paga slaves, often they were either owned by the city to work, factories to work, rich men to show their status and maybe to show their status and maybe to show one man to be a general dogsbody, housekeeper and sex to

Cheryl

< Message edited by Cherylmazana -- 12/11/2010 8:35:16 PM >

_____________________________

Sometimes just because it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, doesn’t mean it is a duck, it could instead be a plastic replica that leads ducks to their ruin.

(in reply to DomArtist4u)

Profile

Post #: 6

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 9:37:02 PM

DomArtist4u

Posts: 47
Joined: 6/19/2007
Status: offline

Thanks all for your replies, this did answer much of the obvious questions I had. I assumed that it was more living in a philosophy rather than a fantasy world. I find the concept fascinating, just didnt know if there fantasy roleplay involved or how primative people lived their lives.

(in reply to Cherylmazana)

Profile

Post #: 7

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/11/2010 9:58:06 PM

DomArtist4u

Posts: 47
Joined: 6/19/2007
Status: offline

Also Bear, I thought I should say that I enjoyed and got much form your webpage writings. John Norman is not a God, but Boris Vallejho is (jk)

(in reply to DomArtist4u)

Profile

Post #: 8

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/12/2010 12:45:51 PM

eponavet

Posts: 406
Joined: 8/18/2006
Status: offline

Hi Terrah,

I really liked Priest Kings of Gor ....

It's one of my favorites so far.

Take care,

~ epona

_____________________________

~ You are a child of the Universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here, and whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should ~

(in reply to DomArtist4u)

Profile

Post #: 9

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/18/2010 10:05:21 PM

BOSSRIDE

Posts: 1
Joined: 8/16/2010
Status: offline

This is my first time on a discussion thread. This is also my first time learning of Goreans. I am fascinated and I am going to read these books!

(in reply to eponavet)

Profile

Post #: 10

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 12/20/2010 12:28:30 AM

blacksword404

Posts: 1601
Joined: 1/4/2008
Status: offline

That's where you start. Welcome to the board. Try not to step on anything. Or in anything.

_____________________________

Don't fight him. Embrace your inner asshole.

Tu fellas magnus penum meum...iterum

Genuine catnip/kryptonite.
Ego sum erus.

The capacity to learn is a gift, the ability to learn a skill, the willingness to learn a choice. Dune HH

(in reply to BOSSRIDE)

Profile

Post #: 11

RE: An outsiders perspective on a Gorean "lifestyl... - 1/6/2011 5:43:03 AM

InkedupMaster44

Posts: 3
Joined: 12/26/2010
Status: offline

Well all has been said, so will not fill the post up with the same concepts, but great replies

(in reply to blacksword404)

Profile

Post #: 12