Planet of the Complete Bloody Psychopaths, conclusion

[bellatrys]

Foreword to the ebook edition of Tarnsman of Gor, Copyright © 1966 by John Lange
Published by e-reads, New York, ISBN 1-58586-224-X

Warning! Warning! Please put away all cats, coffee and other beverages, fasten your seatbelts and return your tray tables to the upright position - we have Author Sign!

Comments

[violaswamp]

He is thus in favor of a free world, a really free world,

Yes, a "free" world, wherein people like John-Tarl are FREE to do whatever they like to people not like John-Tarl!

not a penitentiary in which the inmates are informed that they, at last, in their cells, are truly free.

*snorts* AHAHAHAHAHA! Truly precious! Does this dimwit not realize that such a penitentiary is exactly what he's advocating--one wherein the female inmates are informed by male guards that they are truly free?

The creepiest part about all this, for me, is learning that there are real people who have a "Gorean" lifestyle and who are disciples of Norman. You really should check out the site I linked to a while back, by a real-life "Gorean" who apparently has (or pretends to have) real-life "slave-girls." Or, on second thoughts, don't. My stomach could hardly stand it, and neither could my ribs, because for all my disgust I was laughing too hard.

We knew there would be some controversy, but sometimes the best work is that which inspires a strong reaction.*

[eyelid]

someone should tell mr. norman that the caste system and the free market are kind of, you know, at odds.

Also that "free" to most people would indicate that you could leave your house without permission and wear stuff that shows your face.

Only if you think women are people.

[bellatrys]

All the evidence so far is that our Doctor of Philosophy from Princeton thinks that women are somewhat less equal than tarns, even.

[archangelbeth]

John Norman should not talk about himself in the third person, and his pretty words get all jangled with inclusion of "morons."

Gads, were the Dark Horse buyers just looking for things that got enough "controversy" that they didn't even bother to read the things? "All age groups"? Because bondage and public sex (doesn't that distract the rider of the vicious rider-eating bird?) are okay for kids? Ummmmm...

I'm trying to figure out how much my mom had blotted from her mind when she said they were "just so-so" at first.

Oh, and can we air-lift a moose to the author's front yard?

Thank you for reading and posting, so that I know full well I don't have to.

It's Darwin-in-Action!

[bellatrys]

(doesn't that distract the rider of the vicious rider-eating bird?

If you can't both hump your girlfriend and control your crazed carnivore at the same time...

And just imagine the newspaper headlines on Gor.

Re: It's Darwin-in-Action!

[incandescens]

"We regret the recent tarn pile-up on the Pillared Bridge, and can only ask -- what has become of our men, that they are unable to control both tarn and heaving slave? Are we to assume that the men of Co-co-a can no longer master both woman and beast? Must the classical modalities of Gor be subservient to the weakness of this manly flesh?"

[dryaunda]

[L]et liberals retire to their laboratories to design a better dog or cat[.]

Y'know what, Mr. Lange? I think we will. After that, the design of a better dog and cat, we'll get to work improving humans. No, it won't be any One True Master Race sort of thing; we'll create a variety of improved humans.

(Self-promotion on the topic of lab rats reigning over cats and dogs; I've been doing derisive reviews of my own of Oryx and Crake and am starving for comments.)

Silly fanperson! Don't you know

[bellatrys]

that we mere lowly members of the Caste of Readers are not *allowed* to laugh at our professional betters of the Caste of Published Writers, that we don't have the *right* to point out their too-frequent tropes, literary faux-pas, and apparent obsessions, but are merely supposed to accept the Gifts they bestow on us with chants of praise?

--I was really disappointed with Atwood when she made so *very* clear that *she* was not one of us cromulent denizens of the Genre Ghetto, oh, no - I still think Handmaid's Tale is a very prescient and revelatory book, and refer to it as often as I need, but her insistence on not being one of us unwashed fen really made me lose respect for her.

Re: Silly fanperson! Don't you know

[dryaunda]

I was really disappointed with Atwood when she made so *very* clear that *she* was not one of us cromulent denizens of the Genre Ghetto, oh, no[.]

I forgot to ask; which one of her quotes said this?

it was a couple years ago, and it was sort of protracted

[bellatrys]

Here's a rundown at Emerald City which covers some of the highlights - the most infamous was when she referred to SF as being about "talking squid in outer space" and this became something of a running joke (google Ansible Atwood squid and you'll see what I mean) at the time.

Albeit, I have to take exception with EC on this:
No experienced modern SF writer would assume that a video game that is popular with the characters when they were 14 will still be around ten years later.

--given that this sort of thing happens in, eg, Sturgeon Award Winner Bacigalupi's story in F&SF, and the whole genre is riddled with "It's 200/2000 years in the Future but we're all still speaking recognizable 20th c. English" (not "Basic" or "Standard" mind you) and most props/costumes/buildings as well as societal tropes are the same as now (not I'm rendering these future things in familiar equivalent terms for you guys) and getting jokey ObRefs to 20th C TV shows! - it's something I just have to take my Disbelief gently by the hand and lead it to a

[anonymous]

I...I have no words. Just when you think it can't possibly get worse, it does. It isn't just the books that are some kind of machismo on LSD horror, the author is batshit insane.

Mac AKA depizan and now smurasaki (as my usual handle proved to be taken, I opted for another famous historical woman writer...nowif only my confirmation email would arrive)

Well, this WAS the late '60s

[bellatrys]

and he *was* at a college, so maybe LSD was involved too. (Does LSD make you hallucinate giant flesh-eating birds and houris in diagonal stripes?) But yes, he's batshit and has been *demonstrably* since he was 35.

Re: Well, this WAS the late '60s

[smurasaki]

After everything you've posted, I rather wish John Norman was a hallucination.

Nonetheless, since livejournal has decided I am real, is it all right if I friend you? I like reading good (by several definitions) literary critiques.

It doesn't say much for Princeton either

[bellatrys]

although it does back up posts I've seen about the blogosphere on how fiercely sexist and racist that institution remained well after it was at least unfashionable to be quite so public about it.

is it all right if I friend you?

Oh sure, I'm not one for formality myself, or the intricacies of flsting courtesy - and anything I post online unlocked may be linked or quoted by anyone, anywhere. Feel free to keep commenting or lurk as you like, no problem.

[nenya_kanadka]

Perhaps it should only be added that the Gorean master, though often strict, is seldom cruel. The girl knows, if she pleases him, her lot will be an easy one. [...] This does not mean that she will not expect to be beaten if she disobeys, or fails to please her master.

Oh, so beating someone for not pleasing you, which could be anything from burning the dinner to not reading your mind about to not being quite hot enough today--isn't cruel? How nice to know that.

She will almost never encounter sadism or wanton cruelty, for the psychological environment that tends to breed these diseases is largely absent from Gor.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAH. Right, then. I'm sure we believe you. What environment do you think does breed sadism and cruelty, if not open acceptance of slavery being natural for 40% of the human race? Do tell!

On the other hand, it is not too unusual a set of compartments on Gor where the master, in effect, willingly wears the collar, and his lovely slave, by the practice of the delightful wiles of her sex, with scandalous