Comments on: In Bondage On Gor: Slave Box

By: Dialogike

Dialogike — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:34:01 +0000

We started reading the Gor novels years ago and now have the whole collection. It is not literature and seems to be more of the “stroke book” genre

By: Sablesword

Sablesword — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:54:27 +0000

I have this love-hate reaction to Gor. On one hand, they have a number of elements that hit my hot-buttons, and on the other hand they include a number of things that provoke a strong ick & squick response from me. They’re like moonshine whiskey: They’re of uneven quality, have a nasty taste, and are at least faintly toxic. But they do pack a real 100 proof emotional punch.

The reactions of others also support the “moonshine” analogy: People tend to either really like it, or really hate it, out of proportion to the flaws and virtues of the writing & world-building. Some wallow in it, some take a hatchet to it Carrie-Nation style, and many have a liking for it that they don’t want to admit.

What surprises me, though, is the high proportion of female Gor fans: I would have thought it to be an overwhelmingly male fantasy, with maybe a 2% female audience. Instead, I’ve heard that the audience is roughly half female, or even a little bit more.

By: red silk kajira

red silk kajira — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:17:27 +0000

i LOVE the books. Yes, the writing is lame. Yes, the back story is the silliest sci-fi ever written. But all of that was created to build a beautiful world where sexual slavery is a normal part of everyday life. slavegirls live in constant bondage under strict discipline. i highly recommend John Norman’s books. Oh! i’m a 47 year old woman, not a teenage boy.

By: slutev

slutev — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:05:06 +0000

gyrl also was hooked when reading Gor. There was a time she found a free site where every Gor story was found, but she lost the location. Maybe you know of it?

By: Woody

Woody — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 01:22:08 +0000

Yeah I was amazed at the first Gor book I read, I’d never read any type of bondage story at all, but always wanted to. At first John Norman seemed to be trying to keep things short but sweet, then must have started charging by the word. He ran it into the ground.
My favorite, Hunter of Gor. I can remember really getting into the story, word for word. Sure can’t do it now.
Nice site you have here.

By: CollectorX

CollectorX — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:10:21 +0000

A while back, I tracked down some of the Gor books I had as a teen via Amazon.com (they come and go out of print apparently). I didn’t find them very readable, except for “the good parts”. :) But now that I think about it, when I was a teen I probably just skipped to the good parts too. ;)

I’m still a big fan of bondage in the mainstream, and I’m a big fan of adult bondage material. The Gor series is one of those attempts to straddle the fence, and I’m not sure those things ever really work for me. Not enough bondage to be good bondage material, and not convincing enough to make for good mainstream.

But I still tip my metaphorical hat to the series for what it meant to me as a young teen, wired for bondage and still thinking I was the only one on the planet who felt that way.

By: Rope Guy

Rope Guy — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 18:25:37 +0000

LOL — Thanks, Freya, for your restraint.

Nomads of Gor was my first-ever literary exposure to explicit male-dominant sexual memes, and I can admit it made an indelible mark on my psyche. (I still want a leather slave sack, although you can keep the dried bosk dung, thank-you-very-much.) But even at age thirteen or so, I was pretty clear that (a) these books weren’t very good fiction and (b) they were chock full of really astoundingly lame justifications for the kinky stuff that was going on. The books provided for me a sort of raw fantasy fuel (ideas for fun stuff a dominant man could do) but I almost instantly realized the need to find a more workable fantasy framework (and of course, many years later, real framework) within which to “get away with it” morally and ethically and, at bottom, aesthetically.

So I wouldn’t say I “moved on” — because I never really lingered there, despite reading the books with great interest.

None of which changes the fact that my town would be improved by a really good paga tavern. {grin}