MIRROR: Download from MEGA
The Gor novels, written under the pen name John Norman, are a series of 30 novels, published beginning in 1966. They are part of the sword-and-planet (or planetary romance) genre of sci-fi, and have some similarities to the John Carter, Warlord of Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. What really distinguishes that is that they have a very substantial element of power exchange in them. On the planet of Gor, men are dominant and women are submissive and for the most part slaves. The women are trained in a wide variety of complicated slave positions designed to demonstrate submission and make them sexually available to men. Although they are adventure novels, there is a substantial element of pornography to them as well. Because of the maledom femsub structure of Gorean society, the novels have been heavily criticized as misogynistic (deservedly so, from what I've seen).
As adventure literature, the Gor novels are not very good; they're basically D-grade literature. The only reason they're significant is that these novels were being published when hetero BDSM was in its infancy; straight BDSMers found the novels appealing because they offered images of dom/sub relations that were extremely hard to find otherwise. As a result, the novels have been extremely influential within the BDSM community; Gorean BDSM is fully-developed sub-community.
Norman's primary contribution to BDSM, from what I've been able to tell, is the concept of slave positions, with strict definitions, specific names, and so on. Norman's positions were adopted by BDSMers who often had no other interest in Gorean BDSM. They've been adapted to malesub practice, and have entered into gay BDSM circles to the extent that they are often identified as having originated with the Old Guard leather scene of the 70s, even though most elders who remember that period say that they never saw anyone use formal slave positions of any sort. So if you ever see subs being given orders like 'kajira' or 'present kneeling', you're basically seeing Norman's influence on our activities.
So there you have it: shitty, sexist novels made a major contribution to the lives of many BDSMers. Perhaps in 40 years, we'll be talking about the 50 Shades of Grey BDSM style. God I hope not.
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