A Purely Selfish Reason For Not Wanting DH To Promote Gor...
tammy212 has a post on the ethical issues of promoting the Gorean worldview in which she points out that there are not just self-interested reasons as we women worry about encouraging a worldview that depicts us as "natural slaves", but that (shades of Kant) the Gorean mindset, as an exaggerated, valorized version of run-of-the-mill traditional patriarchy, is harmful and insulting to men as well - the old slavery-degrades-the-master concept. And she's right to do so.
But that's not what's giving me qualms just this moment. I have to confess to a far-less altruistic worry that has just occurred to me:
Imagine all the reams upon reams of truly gawdawful fanfiction that will result from Dark Horse promoting the Gor novels. Think of all the fanboys writing Gary-Stus based on Tarl. And again, it's not just the sex-and-sexism part of it. --Think of all the shallower-than-a-puddle characterization, the incoherent worldbuilding, the physically-impossible feats of strength (and coitus), the utterly-improbably coincidences piling up to the protagonists' benefit - and it will all be canon.
"What do you mean, my character Churl can't fall 20' onto a stone floor without incapacitating injuries? Tarl Cabot did!"
"STFU! I can too have my tarn come to me without needing a tarn-whistle! Tarl Cabot's did!"
"You can't say that I can't stay Ubar after the war is over - look at Marlenus! I'm gonna be Emperor of Ar too!"
Not to mention what canon-fanon fights will look like:
"How do you KNOW that there aren't *other* cities ruled by women, just waiting to be shown the true modalities of Gor? Have YOU been to Gor and explored every inch of it???"
and
"If it's on another planet, then they could so too fly to Dune and tame the Bene Gesserit!"
There aren't enough sporks in the whole wide world...
But that's not what's giving me qualms just this moment. I have to confess to a far-less altruistic worry that has just occurred to me:
Imagine all the reams upon reams of truly gawdawful fanfiction that will result from Dark Horse promoting the Gor novels. Think of all the fanboys writing Gary-Stus based on Tarl. And again, it's not just the sex-and-sexism part of it. --Think of all the shallower-than-a-puddle characterization, the incoherent worldbuilding, the physically-impossible feats of strength (and coitus), the utterly-improbably coincidences piling up to the protagonists' benefit - and it will all be canon.
"What do you mean, my character Churl can't fall 20' onto a stone floor without incapacitating injuries? Tarl Cabot did!"
"STFU! I can too have my tarn come to me without needing a tarn-whistle! Tarl Cabot's did!"
"You can't say that I can't stay Ubar after the war is over - look at Marlenus! I'm gonna be Emperor of Ar too!"
Not to mention what canon-fanon fights will look like:
"How do you KNOW that there aren't *other* cities ruled by women, just waiting to be shown the true modalities of Gor? Have YOU been to Gor and explored every inch of it???"
and
"If it's on another planet, then they could so too fly to Dune and tame the Bene Gesserit!"
There aren't enough sporks in the whole wide world...