|  At
first glance, writer John Norman is an unlikely libertarian. His fantasy/adventure
novels about the planet Gor -- which have sold an estimated 12 million
copies worldwide -- seem to endorse the decidedly un-libertarian institution
of slavery. And a particularly non-PC version of slavery at that, involving
brawny barbarian men enslaving submissive women. As Salon.com scornfully
noted about Norman's novels, Gor is a planet "where men are men
and women are slaves."
But don't confuse fiction with fact. Although the Gor novels focus on
alpha males dominating docile women, Norman (the pen name of John Frederick
Lange, Jr., a professor of Philosophy at Queens College, New York) understands
the difference between fantasy and reality.
In his 1974 non-fiction book, Imaginative Sex, Norman suggests
that one of his goals as a writer is to allow people's imaginations
to become "sexually liberated." Imaginative Sex encourages
couples (in monogamous marriages) to use role-playing and fantasy to
spice up their love lives. Such games must be safe and consensual, Norman
cautions. "Hurting and humiliating human beings, genuinely and
with malice, is morally wrong," he writes. And while some critics
allege that the Gor novels endorse rape, Norman writes: "Rape,
as a sociological reality, is commonly an ugly, brutal, unpleasant,
sickening, horrifying, vicious act." In other words, Norman draws
a sharp line between the fictional portrayal of nonconsensual sex on
Gor -- and its unsavory reality on Earth.
Such comments do little to assuage Norman's critics, who denounce the
Gor novels as poorly written, misogynistic trash. Stan Nicholls, in
the St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers (1995), said Norman
is "the most reviled author in the history of fantasy fiction."
Julia Gracen, in Salon.com (May 18, 2000), said the Gor series is "hilariously
bombastic," and the "story lines, especially in the later
installments, are frequently interrupted by long passages of repetitious
philosophical blather" about how women should seek "utter
obedience to a masterful man." This is, she declares dryly, "not
great literature."
Other critics disagree, and suggest Norman's novels are carefully constructed
satire or barbed social commentary. For example, Enotes.com speculates
that the Gor series' master/slave theme is so over-the-top that it may
be "a savage satire on the whole notion of biological determinism."
Other critics theorize that the books are a reaction to the excesses
of early-1970s feminism, or a Camille Paglia-style attack on political
correctness.
What is this Gor that has sparked so much debate? It's a series of swashbuckling,
richly realized fantasy novels -- written in the tradition of Edgar
Rice Burroughs -- about Tarl Cabot, an Earthman who is transported to
Gor, a planet on the other side of the sun. On Gor, where civilization
is stuck at a barbaric Greco-Roman level, warring city states battle
each other and struggle against exotic aliens. And did we mention the
slave girls?
Norman wrote 26 Gor novels, from Tarnsman of Gor (1966) to
Witness of Gor (2002). Two of the Gor books were made into
low-budget movies: Gor (1987) and Outlaw of Gor (1987).
Under his own name, Norman, who has a Ph.D in Philosophy from Princeton,
also wrote The Cognitivity Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Claims
of Philosophy (1970) and edited C.I. Lewis' Values and Imperatives:
Studies in Ethics (Stanford, 1969).
While the Gor books were enormously popular in the 1970s -- and were
even translated into 10 languages -- they were out of print by the late
1980s. Fans said the books were victims of political correctness, and
accused publishers of bowing to the demands of feminists and censors.
Norman himself said he was "blacklisted" by the publishing
industry.
But Gor would not die. In a revival facilitated by the Internet, fans
built Web sites lauding the series, and secondhand copies of the novels
sold for $100. By the late 1990s, several of the early Gor books were
back in print and a Gor Magazine was launched. Some aficionados
even began to live the "Gorean lifestyle," practicing role-playing,
consensual slavery. In 2001, New World Publishers was formed to reprint
all of Norman's Gor novels.
But the years in the wilderness -- rejected by publishers and snubbed
by science fiction organizations -- left their scars. In 2001, when
Norman was not allowed to speak at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention
in Philadelphia, he wrote a letter (printed in Locus Online,
October 14, 2001) accusing convention organizers of being "uncritical,
smug, effusively emoting, self-righteous" leftists with a "parochial
PC mentality."
A decade of such "censorship" may have prompted Norman to
become a libertarian. In that same letter, Norman said he was eager
to speak at the convention about almost any topic. "I am a libertarian
... and I would have been happy to discuss the demonstrated shortcomings
and dangers of statist positions," he wrote. "I would have
been happy to talk about social dynamics, statism, collectivism, authoritarianism,
the altruist-collectivistic morality ... the values of a free market,
the utility of invisible-hand processes, and such." Convention
organizers were unmoved, and declined to invite Norman.
Such is the life of the creator of Gor; lauded as a sexual visionary
by some, scorned as a woman-hating caveman by others -- but always willing
to go to the ramparts, rhetorical sword in hand, to battle the barbarian
hordes of "puritans and censors, excluders, hypocrites, slanderers,
and liars."
--
Bill Winter
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