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In Gor's violent, low-tech society, men are Men and women 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 Asia Minor, but there are variants of other cultures, too, like the Mongols, the Vikings, the Inuit and various African tribes.

There are free women on Gor -- treasured mothers, sisters, daughters and "Free Companions" to free men -- 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 Norman'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 male-centric erotic literature, there are, surprisingly, no really explicit sexual passages, and several of the books are written from a female point of view, tracing the characters' acceptance of the "paradox of the collar," that is, the "inner liberation" women find in a life of utter obedience to a masterful man.

Whatever its narrative shortcomings, Norman's politically incorrect world was once enormously popular. Hundreds of thousands of copies of his books were sold, and they were translated into several languages. Gradually, though, his 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-feminist era, also serves as the philosophical template for a self-styled community of "lifestyle Goreans," who enthusiastically embrace and practice consensual female 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 women secretly long to be owned by dominant and powerful men. "Slavery, of course, is the surest path by means of which a woman can discover her femininity," the author observes in "Magicians of Gor." "The paradox of the collar is the freedom which a woman experiences in at last finding herself, and becoming herself."

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

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

Next page | Two female slaves and still not enough respect