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Saturday, January 30, 2010

If the Southern Baptists Moved to Gor

If the Southern Baptists came to Gor they would fit right in with regard to their treatment of women (the man is in charge by God's orders) but their religious doctrines would get them in a certain amount of trouble. Because when a Southern Baptist turned the other cheek, a Gorean would simply hit the other cheek. And when the Southern Baptists spoke of the meek inheriting the Earth and the value of being humble, the Goreans would perceive them as weak, and kill them and enslave their women. So it would be a short and unhappy outing for the Southern Baptists. But fun to think about, nonetheless.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Gorean Roleplay and the Gor Movies

I recently ran across a post from a fellow who was discouraged because he felt the roleplay in SL Gor wasn't sufficiently Gorean, that it feel far short of what it should be. That got me thinking about other attempts to capture the Gorean spirit, and I wrote a response that may be of interest to all:

Well. one point you may wish to consider is that it is damn hard to do a proper job of creating realistic Gorean roleplay, even with the best will in the world. And even so, I feel that SL Gor is so much better than any other medium that I've pretty much lost all interest in them. Books, movies, plays, nothing else even comes close. The intense pleasure I get from acting out the Gor novels, putting my own stamp on a character, making him move and breathe, making Gorean scenes come to life in conjunction with other people, really brings the experience home to me in a way that nothing else does.

Think of it this way. The people who made the Gor movies: "Gor" and "Outlaw of Gor" were presumably much more motivated than your average SL Gor roleplayer: they were being given money, there is always the promise of much more money and great fame if the project succeeds. They stand to gain fame and fortune if they do well. Presumably they are participating in the movie in hopes of becoming famous movie stars, famous and successful directors, actors and writers, etc. ... just how motivated can you get?

And yet those movies were abysmal horrors, no more true to the Gor novels than the most wretches excesses of Gor Evolved. (And some of the outliers of Gor Evolved are truly bad ... the other day I saw blue avatars on a supposedly Gorean sim. Blue avatars!). The Gor movies were lame-brained, pathetic excuses for movies that completely missed out on the spirit of Gor and also weren't even interesting stories in any respect. They sucked, they sucked hard, despite all that motivation.

The point is ... it's damned hard to capture the essence of the Gor novels and bring it to life even if you have huge RL motivators for doing so.

I feel that SL Gor has huge room for improvement, and yet even as it is, it's beautiful, a wonderful living world, brought to life by the people who have followed Norman's lead and tried in their various ways to fill the roles he unwittingly created for them. Even if many of them are doing it very badly, some are doing it very well, and damn ... most of us are having great fun at it, to be honest.

Recognize that getting Gor right is a very difficult thing and enjoy it on your own terms, is what I would recommend. There's a lot to enjoy.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Savage Sword of Conan Volumes 1-6 Are OK

OK, I've read "Savage Sword of Conan 1-6" (I believe more volumes are due out) and I was happy with all of them, more or less. You can sense Conan being cleaned up a bit when they went from Howard's source material to deCamp's, but they are still pretty good stories for the most part, filled with treachery, adventure and action. However, long about volumes 5 and 6 some real comic book writers produced their own stories, and god, they were bad. The sort of brain-damaged rot that gives the whole field a bad name. I remember one story with Conan going through an interstellar portal where flying people enslaved others and made them turn a mill wheel. It was badly drawn, badly done, and an embarrassment to all and sundry, or should have been at any rate. I hate to think what was left out if that and similar pieces of crap were included.

Still, these stories have SO FAR been relatively few and far between. I remain encouraged enough to buy Volume 7 if and when it appears (I have no idea how long the series will be). I guess I like Savage Sword of Conan because it answers the question: "What if John Norman had been a really good writer who didn't focus on the sexual bondage so much but portrayed a society where manly men enjoyed the favors of slavegirls without question?"

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Second Life … It’s Not Just Gor …Part 2


An Orion slave girl kneels before her master on the bridge of the Enterprise.. Click on the pic to see a larger version.

Not to belabor a point, but … hell, I’m belaboring the point, but it’s fun and easy to do so here. Star Trek fantasies are also very well realized on Second Life, and you can definitely fly yourself a Federation star craft (that's the bridge of the Enterprise from the Original Series as realized on Second Life) and get served by an Orion slave girl, if you are so inclined. The possibilities are endless, as they say.

A science fiction story in one sentence

Dark Discovery

Relations between the Cloud People of Omicron IX and the Kinda Intelligent Lobster People of Ceti VII were severely strained when it was discovered that the Omicrons had a supertanker of clarified butter parked in near-Ceti orbit.

(For the record, this is an original story and I do plan to enter it in the next Bulwer-Llyton contest.)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Second Life … It’s Not Just Gor …


Slave Leia, bound and gagged and dancing for a visiting barbarian mercenary in Jabba’s compound. Click on the pic to see a larger version.


In my general delight in playing at the game of Gor on Second Life, I have neglected to mention the obvious, which is that plenty of other fantasies than Gorean ones are being enjoyed in Second Life. There are well-developed fandoms on Second Life for Star Wars roleplay, Star Trek roleplay and many others. (There’s even a fandom for Star Wars/Gorean crossover roleplay. Heh. Slave Leia strikes again.)

What this means is, if you want to enjoy a fantasy of a bound, gagged Slave Leia dancing naked for a barbaric warrior, or being sexually used by a barbaric warrior, you can probably get that worked out pretty easily. As the illustrations here demonstrate. It was a TRIVIAL thing for me to get a female model in a Princess Leia avvie to dance and fur for my barbaric warrior. It would be a trivial thing for most who know Gor or Star Wars well, because the coin of the realm in the land of roleplay is knowing your role.


Slave Leia, bound and gagged and being fucked by a visiting barbarian mercenary in Jabba’s compound. Click on the pic to see a larger version.


What does this mean for you? No more dreaming “what if” about your favorite movie characters. YOU CAN MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE ON SECOND LIFE!!!! In a pretend-y sort of way, granted, but hell, it’s so much more fun than watching a movie and just wishing it were done right, it almost defies description.

But of course, me being me, I’m gonna try.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

But, baby … it’s your DESTINY!


Now we know why Darth Vader always dressed so that his whole body is covered up. He was ashamed of his tats!

(This photo just plain cracks me up . It tries to be scary and dramatic, but the way he’s holding his hands is straight out of high school theatricals.) The damsel looks convincingly helpless and vulnerable, but under the circumstances, how could she not?

Courtesy of >Fucking Dungeon.com.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Rainforest of Shaba


Click on the pic to see a full size version. The small size does not do it justice.


Here's another beautiful Gorean sim, this one being unusual as it's in Gor Evolved. Rainforest of Shaba is mostly jungle-haunted ruins, inhabited by a panther tribe, a taluna tribe, a pygmy tribe and a mercenary outfit. There's also an abandoned city (Shaba) with a small population of traditional Goreans. You can get around much of the sim by canoe, as narrow waterways wind through it. It's quite beautiful, with jungle-haunted ruins everywhere.

The image shown here is the bay in front of the fortress inhabited by the mercenaries. It's an interesting variation on the "fortress with kill zone" approach I spoke about earlier. Instead of having a flat, barren plain in front of the fortress to use as a kill zone for any invaders, it has a wide, beautiful bay, complete with waterfalls, with a narrow bridge being the only way in, i.e., serving as the kill zone.

Now don't be fooled by these images. They appear to be flat two dimensional cartoons on my blog, but in fact they are three dimensional artifacts. You don't look at them, you enter them.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Second Life Gor ... famous for beauty



Gorean sims are widely disliked by many Second Life residents, being too much fun and all, but the interesting thing is ... they DO have the reputation of having some of the most beautiful builds in Second Life. This image is from the city of Brundisium, a sim with a lot of gay Gorean residents (it's not a gay-themed Gorean sim like White Water, but it's got a lot of gay guys living there. And boy, those gay guys can design, yes they can. The small pick seen here doesn't do the build justice. Click on the pic like the caption says and see what it's really like. This is just one part of Brundisium, there are over 300 Gorean themed sims in Second Life, they actually have built a virtual world here.

Sadly, since I like to fight, I live in Gor Evolved, where the builds are mostly docks leading to a kill zone in front of a butt-ugly fortress. But I do get to fight and have adventures a lot, which is what I am in Gor for.