Houseplants of Gor

[zotz]

Due to a certain local being outed as some sort of fan (or at least an owner), I had a quick peek at the Wikipedia to see what it has to say about John Norman and whether he's dead yet. Apparently he's a philosophy professor. That's something I didn't expect. Even worse, he seems to have been writing books again, after a long break since the late eighties. Truly the world is a terrible place.

There were a couple of interesting pages linked off his entries, one being a whiny letter complaining about not being a guest at the Philadelphia Worldcon (personally I think "he'd be a complete embarrassment" is reason enough, but apparently discrimination on grounds of quality is blatant censorship - and he's a professor of philosophy, after all, so who are we to argue?) and the other being a short parody which may inform those of you who haven't had the delight of reading his works (and save you the effort of throwing one of his books across the room should you find one lying around). So here it is - Houseplants of Gor.

Comments

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, that is unfortunately accurate. Who was outed?

[zotz]

Couldn't possibly say. Unless, perhaps, there's promises of drinks involved.

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

Could be......

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I love that parody. Yes.

There is a rumour that the Gor books were a deliberate attempt to prove to his students that if you write sensational fiction, you'll get published no matter how bad it is. I'm not sure whether I want it to be true or not.

E.
x

[zotz]

Thw Wikipedia says that he's said to have written the first one for a bet, but apparently he is actually a reactionary philosopher so a lot of the content might be serious.

I've also heard that rumour about David Eddings, but even though I'm not a fan I believe it less in his case.

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

Relevant bits of the Wikipedia entry for his non-fiction work:

"...As is perhaps expected, Norman's concept of the mental and spiritual involves generally male dominant/female submissive BDSM fantasy scenarios, of which the bulk of Imaginative Sex is devoted to. Unlike the Spartan Gor, where it may be natural for men to enslave women, Norman repeatedly emphasizes the need for BDSM to be safe, sane and consensual...

...In 1997 Masquerade Press published an edition of Imaginative Sex notable for its lauding introduction by Pat Califia."

That is embarrassing; I was a Califia fan at around that time, despite having had the good sense to throw the Gor novels I'd bought in the bin.

[http://users.livejournal.com/puzzle_/]

Ahhh the 'Goreans' will be salivating with excitment!

[shaunotd.livejournal.com]

Gosh.

That's the most truly Godawful crap I've ever read.

I wondered what it was that had me bypassing the Gor books during all these years of buying disposable 2nd-hand crap to read on train & coaches. Clearly Norman's writing has a power that reaches out beyond its covers, and screams "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" directly into my brain...

Wow.

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

The covers are bad enough.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

And to think some of the paperbacks go for upwards of twenty quid on Ebay.

[zotz]

There are some very strange people out there. Very strange and dubious people.

[shaunotd.livejournal.com]

!

[inferis.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall one of Rob or Rohan had an almost complete set of Gor books. I tried to read the odd one while I was at the Fen Ditton house...the parody is scarily accurate.