Q: Why do this? Why take the time to role play in something like this? And why blog about it?
A: Several questions deserve several answers. Why role play? Well, I think that assuming another character, another ‘life’ outside of the one that you live day to day, with the boundaries and expectations of every day life is an outlet for one to consider other possibilities…other answers to other questions…some questions they would have never been asked before because they would have never have permitted themselves to be put into a similar situation in real life.
Why role play in the Gorean environment? The first and simplest answer is that I’ve always enjoyed stories of the science fiction genre..of other cultures…answers that make you wonder what the question was. I am still reading Norman’s novels and finding more and more links to additional information and the various views and positions that people take after reading what may or may not offend them initially. When I first learned of the ‘Gorean’ world and the role playing centered around it, it was from a friend whom I had come to care very much about and my initial reaction was concern for her as I felt she was putting herself into a position to be taken advantage of. In hindsight, I know I did not then appreciate that some people are able to completely separate what they do online from how they live their every day lives…but even considering that, I think I was not wrong to be concerned about her because I didn’t really appreciate other aspects of the Gorean saga.
What are those aspects? Well, for me it was what I took as blatant sexism and selfishness at the mention of slavery and that most of the discussion is about women as slaves in a violent world. To put that into the context of how I first saw this means I have to tell more about myself. I have lived enough to look back and appreciate the mistakes I’ve made and contemplated about life many a night. You can describe me as an environmentalist, animal rights advocate, moral vegetarian who sees global corporations and their abuse of tax codes and manipulation of governments as a threat nearly as large as religious fanaticism and/or nationalist, blind patriotism. I have more female friends than I do male because I am not the typical ‘macho’ male in real life and perhaps women feel less threatened by me. I have extremely strong opinions but do not force them on anybody. I can justify this because I do believe very much that there is divine oversight and that everybody does, at some point, have to justify or reconcile their actions. Many things that some people see as typical male, testosteronal behavior, I see as nothing more than selfishness….but maybe to a fault.
My first impression of role-play of the Gorean novels was that this was just a way to glorify that masculine selfishness…but as I have spent more time exploring the implications and thoughts about the basic male and female interactions..especially the time Be11a and I have spent together, I have come to realize, more and more every day, that this is not about selfish meanderings in a violent, male dominated world as one would think, but it is about the selfless giving of either person in an environment that lets them develop into the person that they can best be without pressure to be somebody they are not. In short, I think this role-play not only provides for a creative outlet but might even be of use in self-examination and improvement.
