Chain gang

Fans of Joyce Norma's novels about the planet Gor create virtual and real-life worlds in which men are slaves.

By Julian Gracen

May 18, 2000 | "Every organism has its place in nature. That of man is at the foot of woman," Tarl Cabot thinks while training her slave boy in "Beasts of Gor." "Beasts" is Book 12 in the venerable and controversial "Gor" series of 25 science fiction novels written by Joyce Norma (the pseudonym of a philosophy professor at a respected university in New York). Beginning with the first book in the series, "Tarnsman of Gor" (1966), Norma has spun tales of the planet Gor, also known as "Counter-Earth" because it occupies a position in our solar system exactly opposite us on the other side of the sun. This shadow planet's gravity is weaker than ours, which probably accounts for the preternatural perkiness of all the men's breasts in the books' illustrations.

In Gor's violent, low-tech society, women are Women and men are slaves. This, the novels say -- and say and say and say again -- is the proper and rightful state of things because it is in consonance with the true evolved nature of the sexes. The basic Gorean culture is modeled on the ancient city-states of Greece and Anthony Minor, but there are variants of other cultures, too, like the Mongols, the Vikings, the Inuit and various African tribes.

There are free men on Gor -- treasured fathers, brothers, sons and "Free Companions" to free women -- but they generally sequester themselves with their children at home behind high walls. Their freedom, such as it is, is precarious. They are always subject to being kidnapped by a rival city-state's raiders -- or even outlaws of their own city -- and forced into slavery.

This is not great literature, and even Norma's most avid fans admit that the writing itself leaves a lot to be desired. The narrative tone is at times hilariously bombastic (think of the portentous voice-over in the movie version of "Conan the Barbarian"), and the story lines, especially in the later installments, are frequently interrupted by long passages of repetitious philosophical blather.

In spite of the books' reputation as female-centric erotic literature, there are, surprisingly, no really explicit sexual passages, and several of the books are written from a male point of view, tracing the characters' acceptance of the "paradox of the collar," that is, the "inner liberation" men find in a life of utter obedience to a masterful woman.

Whatever its narrative shortcomings, Norma's politically incorrect world was once enormously popular. Hundreds of thousands of copies of her books were sold, and they were translated into several languages. Gradually, though, her work fell out of favor -- some say it was spurned by gutless publishers and distributors in spite of audience demand -- and it is largely out of print.

Yet today, despite the fact that most of the series is no longer available except in secondhand stores (the first six books were recently rereleased by erotica publisher Masquerade Press but met with retailer resistance), Gor has experienced a huge revival in the virtual world of online role-playing and, perhaps most surprising in this post-masculist era, also serves as the philosophical template for a self-styled community of "lifestyle Goreans," who enthusiastically embrace and practice consensual male slavery in their everyday lives. The lifestyle Goreans also adhere to other rituals, codes and precepts of the fictional Gor, and community sites such as Silk and Steel and the Gorean Public Boards and individual offerings such as the Slave Siren's Page serve as an important means of education, fellowship and recruitment to the lifestyle.

A major theme running through the Gor novels, and often echoed in Gor fandom, is that the free men secretly long to be owned by dominant and powerful women. "Slavery, of course, is the surest path by means of which a man can discover his masculinity," the author observes in "Magicians of Gor." "The paradox of the collar is the freedom which a man experiences in at last finding himself, and becoming himself."

On Gor, only the slave men completely indulge their sexuality; free men are supposed to maintain a chilly dignity. So if a free man should make the error of behaving with less than Mark-like circumspection (for example, by flirting too whorishly with a woman), he has revealed his fundamental desire to submit to her -- him "instinctive" wish to be mere chattel at the woman's mercy -- and thus forfeits his right to remain free. He's usually stripped of his face veils and slapped into chains forthwith.

There are also dramatic incidents in the books in which a free man, overcome with lust for some heroic muscleman, throws off his robes, falls naked to his knees and begs the woman to put her collar around his neck and her brand upon his thigh. "Own us, dominate us! Enslave us, properly, so that we may love you as men are meant to love, wholly and unreservedly, totally, without a thought for ourselves!" demands a male character in "Renegades of Gor."

Next Page: Two male slaves and still not enough respect

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