Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Literary Gor

I did not know the gorean saga before joining Second Life. I started being aware of it exploring the different regions, noticing references to Gor, looking at the number of places selling silks, seeing people wearing collars and eventually meeting people that were living their SL experience within the Gorean culture.

In time I realized how large and important this part of SL is and how it goes far beyond the kinky aspects of it (see for instance the achievement of the Goreans for Life team in the recent RFL)

I became curious and I wanted to get to origin of this culture, so, in my latest order from amazon I added the first book of the Gorean Saga: Tarsman of Gor.

More about Tarnsman of Gor

Well ... I must say I was rather disappointed. The plot is flat and monodimensional, even silly sometimes (spoiler : the frustrated scholar from the New England that, after a few weeks of training becomes the Übermensch of Gor) and ultimately it looks like a cheap imitation of E.R. Burroughs' John Carter of Mars stories.

I understand that Gor and its culture are explored in much more depth in the following books of the series, where the more social aspects of Gor (expecially the master/slaves interactions) take over and the heroic fantasy part becomes less important. This first book was a disappointment though and I do not know if I will have the patience to explore more of the literary Gor.

We will see

W

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