<lensman1955@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1111685152.794170.72310@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Dreamer wrote:
> > "Brawl Hall - No Balls At All" <kill@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> > news:Xns9622BBD7345BB12345666@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > rgorman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(David Johnston) wrote in
> news:42416bf3.10637619
> > > @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > > On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 10:45:09 -0800, "Bill Cleere"
> > > > <bcleere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >>> > You made that up. No one would actually read a novel
> > > >>> > called "Tarnsman of Gor", let alone write it.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> I bet you couldn't plod through a Gor novel if paid. They are
> among
> > > the
> > > >>> worst ever written.
> > > >>
> > > >>"Fantasy" novels are the worst **** in the history of writing,
> period.
> > > >
> > > > "Gor" novels are science fiction. Bad science fiction S&M
> > > > ****ography, mind you, but science fiction.
> > >
> > > I fail to see the science. I agree with the rest.
> >
> > It's *bad* science, but it's science. There is no magic in the Gor
> books:
> > everything has a scientific explanation. A lot of it wouldn't *work,*
> but
> > it's understood to be mechanical and replicable in nature and
> therefore
> > isn't magical.
>
> I agree that there was no magic (except maybe in the sf quote; "any
> sufficiently advanced technology is indistinquishable from magic") But
> I seem to remember swords, cloaks and sandals with the hero hiding out
> in the Assassin's Guild for one book. (One of the few times I found him
> admirable was when he took a two-cent contract to protect a begger from
> a band of killers.) If you have to pigeon-hole it, I'd say bad science
> fantasy.
There is a lot of swordplay in the books because of the Weapons and
Technology Laws of the Priest-Kings: to be very brief, guns and other
"modern" weapons aren't allowed on Gor. The rules aren't super-specific,
which means people tend to be very cautious about breaking them, as the
penalty for doing so is being instantly va****ized. Other aspects of the
W/T
laws tend to keep Gor's cultures both heterogenous and relatively
unindustrialized, hence the sandals, cloaks, etc.
I would be the first to argue that the author is stacking the deck, but he
is doing so consistently, which is all you can ask of an author. Doing it
well is a pleasant bonus.
> I'm not a "hard science" nut, I can read Analog and/or Asimov's Science
> Fiction Magazine with equal relish.
>
> Quick question. I compared Gor with Burrough's Barsoom series. Is there
> any magic in the Barsoom books? Or in the Pellucar (sp) series in the
> "inner Earth." (They made a pretty bad movie out of that as well, but
> at least it stayed consistent to the books.
If I recall correctly, there are PSI powers on Barsoom, which to me, with
apologies to Campbell, count as magic. I don't believe there is any
explicit
magic in Pellucidar, but there are lots of mysterious goings-on.
The technology of the Priest-Kings*, the alien rulers of Gor, is
technology-as-magic, but this is at least dealt with honestly, with the
Priest-Kings saying, in so many words, "We're a lot older and a lot
smarter
than you: we know how to do things you don't yet have the ability to
understand. Shut up and push the button."
D
*There is nothing magical or divine about them, unless you try to figure
out
how a fifteen-foot tall bug breathes: "Priest-Kings" is what the Gorean
humans call them. Humans on Gor do not know anything about them and
believe
for the most part that they are mystical beings.
--
-><-
Non curo. Si metrum non habet, non est poema.
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