I have read one and 4/5 books of this series. Started with the second book. Thought it was rather funny in a retro way... very fifties, with the local matriarchy looking to me like yet another metaphor for Dirty Commies, and with the whole thing being being someone's Mightey Whitey fantasy of adventure and sexual dominance.
Then I started on the first book, Tarnsmen Of Gor. I liked the concept of Transmen - hawkrider knights - but never got around to read the ending. It got a bit too predictable and heavy-handed. Maybe I'll finish it one day.
What annoyed me the most was the whole thing about how the sheep of Gor grazes the plains of Gor to produce the wool of Gor. And I'm not talking about sheep in particular, I'm talking about the general principle that the author feel the need to constantly point out that the story is in fact not not not taking place on Earth. The books are built on a sexist Blue And Orange Morality that most people find repulsive - and this probably include the author himself. To me, it looks as if the whole "of Gor, of Gor, of Gor" mantra is John Norman's way of telling himself and others that the local morality is okay because it's not on earth. Inspired me to start the trope Culture Justifies Anything on YKTTW. (Culture Justifies Anything, if it has been launched when you read this.)
Cultural Relativism... of Gor
I have read one and 4/5 books of this series. Started with the second book. Thought it was rather funny in a retro way... very fifties, with the local matriarchy looking to me like yet another metaphor for Dirty Commies, and with the whole thing being being someone's Mightey Whitey fantasy of adventure and sexual dominance.
Then I started on the first book, Tarnsmen Of Gor. I liked the concept of Transmen - hawkrider knights - but never got around to read the ending. It got a bit too predictable and heavy-handed. Maybe I'll finish it one day.
What annoyed me the most was the whole thing about how the sheep of Gor grazes the plains of Gor to produce the wool of Gor. And I'm not talking about sheep in particular, I'm talking about the general principle that the author feel the need to constantly point out that the story is in fact not not not taking place on Earth. The books are built on a sexist Blue And Orange Morality that most people find repulsive - and this probably include the author himself. To me, it looks as if the whole "of Gor, of Gor, of Gor" mantra is John Norman's way of telling himself and others that the local morality is okay because it's not on earth. Inspired me to start the trope Culture Justifies Anything
on YKTTW. (Culture Justifies Anything, if it has been launched when you read this.)