Short Visits

Here is another bit I wrote for the website of #The_Golden_Goblet, where I have been spending time as an Op.  Again, this is still personal, and has not been made official.  It reflects my personal ideal of Gorean involvement on IRC, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the owners of the channel.

It's amazing how some people go out of their way to make sure that their visits to #The_Golden_Goblet are brief. Their behavior, their choices, their words just scream, "I don't belong here! Get me out of here!" From the amount of effort they put into earning a kick and often a ban from the channel, it would seem to be a favorite pastime. Focused as we are on making the experience as fulfilling as possible for our patrons, we've decided to put together a list to help these people get what's coming to them as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, we don't have rules for the Free that you can break. Our Ops have the latitude to kick or ban whomever they wish to, whenever they want, for whatever reason. In fact, they occasionally kick each other, just to stay in practice. However, here are some of the most effective ways to shorten your stay at #The_Golden_Goblet:

• Be fake. Make up a character that you adopt when you come onto IRC, and that you leave behind when you log off; be "online only". Have your online character make choices and do things that you would never do in real life. Kill people. Force collars on slaves. Describe yourself and your offline world in ways that aren't accurate. Say things that aren't true about yourself, your life, your history, or about other people.
• Treat Gor like a game. Trivialize the practices, the paradigms, the traditions of the people of Gor. Make snide comments about tarns and John Norman and paga serves, about what a man or a master or a slave is. Turn your connection to Gor on and off as it is convenient. Don't recognize the difference between having fun and mocking.
• Expect us to not judge you. Expect us to like you. Expect us to care, even though you're a stranger. Expect that we'll take you in, embrace you as a brother, and spill our guts to you before you've won the privilege. Expect us to change so that you aren't offended, or for your convenience. Get upset when we ignore you.
• Don't listen, don't learn. Enter into our space without taking the time to learn our traditions and expectations, or without caring about them. Talk without taking time to comprehend. Debate without taking time to consider. Tell us we're right or wrong without taking the time to understand us. Be interested solely in spending time with the slaves in the alcoves.
• Be a wimp or a coward. Don't stand behind your own opinions. Back off and even run when someone disagrees with you or attacks you or your position. Don't stand up for your beliefs. Insult people to avoid losing or even engaging. Be afraid to ask questions, to be imperfect, to have emotions. Patronize us. Be scared that we won't like you. Don't hold the slaves accountable. Be scared they won't like you. Worry about offending them. Let them manipulate you and tell you what to do, apologize to them. Be reluctant to say "No."
• Do things that make people's lives miserable. Be a pedophile, be abusive, be involved with drug abuse, be in IRC channels that promote these things. Be a gossip. Stalk people. Violate people's privacy or their online or offline boundaries.
• Be unable to communicate at an acceptable level. Don't speak English. Don't know how to use the basic functions of IRC. Likewise, don't follow the basic etiquette and protocol of IRC. Come to us to help you figure out technical problems that are disrupting the channel.

You're right. It does sounds like a lot of work. But each of these is a powerful tool that can drastically shorten your stay in #The_Golden_Goblet. Frankly, when you do these things we enjoy keeping your stay short just as much as you do. We hate it when our boots get dusty, and kicking patrons is a fun and exciting way to keep them clean. To keep the record straight, we'll usually let you know the reason when we kick you. Repeating that particular behavior when you return will almost guarantee you an even quicker exit, and possibly even earn you that treasured trophy, a ban.

Those of you who prefer a longer stay, however, will find that coming in, sitting back, listening and watching and learning will be key to prolonging your stay. If you find that the Gor we live appeals to you, spend some time reading the books. Read from the website. Ask a few questions. Start looking at your nature as a man, and how true you live to that nature. Spend some more time reading the books. Start living the things you're learning. Do this earnestly, and over time you may just possibly discover a friend or two among the patrons and Ops here.

Penned by Jennen

Real and Online

I've written the following piece for the website of a channel I've been spending time in recently as an Op on irc.bondage.com, called #The_Golden_Goblet.  It reflects my personal ideal of Gorean involvement on IRC.  As of yet it is still my personal work, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the Owners of #The_Golden_Goblet.

When you first encounter #The_Golden_Goblet, you'll find that as a virtual Gorean paga tavern, this place is not much different from other Gorean IRC channels. The slaves here are more than eager to please and ready to be taken. If you are so inclined we have pretty much any food or drink you can imagine (although you may have to coach the newer girls with your more obscure requests). And if you're into discussion we can likely chew your ears off. But there's nothing new in that. Not many Gorean channels that would claim anything different.

What is different here is our purpose. For the patrons and Ops of #The_Golden_Goblet, the paga and the roast bosk and the dancing girls are just a part of a much larger picture. For us, the channel serves as a place to connect with real Goreans, a meeting place for hard men and soft women who have taken Gor from the page and from the screen and started living it in their lives, offline and away from the computer. And while it is definitely a place to have fun, it's also a place to talk and share and support, a place to learn and teach and mentor and study, a place to discover how to apply Gor to real life.

The men and women in this virtual paga den are very real when it comes to Gor. It's no longer just a fun thing to do on IRC; for the patrons and Ops here it has also become a guide for life. These people strive to be true to themselves, all the time. To build their lives on the foundation of concepts like "Being a Man" and "Ownership" and "Mastery". To take the concepts of Gor into their workplace, into their homes, into their hearts. These people strive to *be* Gorean Men and Women.

So, the people you find in this channel are real people. Real Goreans. The characters you see in channel are who we are offline. Take away the computers and the virtual accoutrements, the tospits and the sleen and the tarns, and you'll be left with hard men who fight to master their lives, and the women slaves who surrender to them. The choices we make in channel, are be the same choices we would make offline. And if you knew us online, you would be familiar with us offline. Because we are real.

If you choose to come among us, we'll expect you to be real, too.

Penned by Jennen 

Blurred Boundaries

Gor started on IRC back in 1995/96, with the #Silk&Steel channel on DALNet.  Modeled after a paga den, the channel was a place for those who loved Gor and lived Gorean offline to interact as if they were actually on Gor.  It was a type of fantasy role play, except these scenes were typecasted.  The men and women didn't pretend to be something else, they pretended to be themselves, on Gor.  As I understand it, they were glorious days, with swashbuckling swordfights, erotic serves, and endless romps in the furs under the watchful eye of Bear and Zeb.  The men were strong and the women were eager to please.

Within a very short period of time, however, the channel took on a new role.  People who didn't know Gor discovered the the channel and its atmosphere, and fell in love with the feelings they felt there.  The channel quickly became a place to learn how to be Gorean.  This shift drastically impacted the nature of the role play within the channel. Because people were learning from the role play, because they were forming their perceptions of what was acceptable and what was not from the activities in the channel, because they were treating it as if it were real, those who ran the channel could no longer pretend to be on Gor.  The interaction, while it was still in the cyber realm, stopped being fantasy and became real.  If it wasn't acceptable offline, it wasn't acceptable online.

With that change, the swashbuckling swordfights stopped.  For a few reasons.  On one hand, the men wouldn't kill for a trivial reason offline, so they stopped doing it online.  On the other, a cyber kill on IRC could never be the same as a real killing.  There's no real way to really make an unwilling person dead on IRC.  All they have to do is ignore you, and all of your efforts turn into blatant failures to get someone else to do what you want.  You turn into an incompetent, impotent fool.  You lose.  What Gorean, a man who breathes power and strength, would even contemplate doing something like that?

"You're dead!"

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are.  I killed you!"

"Then why am I still here?"

"You're an asshole."

"Granted.  You're a fool."

"ARRRGGGHHH!!!"

For the same reasons, these men wouldn't engage in forced collarings.  First, they wouldn't do it offline, and second, there's no way to enforce an unwilling slave into a collar online.  They didn't engage in "online only" collars, because they chose to be real, to be the same online and off.  A collar was no trivial thing to them.  A man's collar on a woman meant that she was his property, online and off, and he and other men respected that as a very real thing.  They collared women online like they did it offline.  A man developed a relationship with a woman, training her, disciplining her, taking care of her, taking pleasure from her, and that relationship deepened it until the woman knew she was owned, knew that this man was one she could be fulfilled by serving.  The woman then begged the collar because she belonged in his collar for as long as he wanted her, and she knew it.  And the man owned the woman completely; there was no change in ownership when she turned her computer off.

Despite it's abandonment by those of the #Silk&Steel, the practice of fantasy role-playing a life on Gor has continued, and has spread to other IRC servers, to other forms of text-based interaction, and to places like Second Life, where it has flourished, and where the game (for that's what fantasy role-playing is) has changed to suit the whim and will of those building the playground.  It has provided millions of hours of entertainment to hundreds of thousands of people.  That's not a bad thing.  People are just as welcome to role-play at Gorean life as they are to role play at being a knight under King Arthur, or a cowboy or an indian in the Old West.  It's pure fun.

The bad thing comes when the line between fantasy role-play and reality becomes blurred.  And unfortunately that happens quite a bit.  As I understand it, the reality of the Gorean master/slave relationship is that the man takes complete ownership of the woman, with all of the responsibility and pleasure that comes with owning a woman.  The woman surrenders all of the masculine cares of life and picks up the sole feminine burden of pleasing the man.  The man is responsible for keeping the slave physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy, and everything that comes with that, like keeping her well fed and sheltered and providing her ample opportunity to use and develop her belly.

While not all Goreans are honorable, an honorable Gorean accepts that responsibility is an integral part of any ownership and the pleasure it brings.  When a man demands the pleasure, the complete obedience and surrender, without providing the responsibility (whether in whole or in part), either he is less than an honorable man, or the lines between fantasy role-play and reality have become blurred.  If the man thinks he can "turn off" the relationship in any way and leave it behind with the computer and the internet, he has allowed the practices of fantasy role-play into his relationship.

For the Gorean man, The Buck Stops Here.  He shoulders the complete responsibility for every aspect of the slave's life.  He may delegate a portion of that responsibility to the slave, as far as it is healthy to do so, but ultimately the fulfillment of that responsibility is his burden.  If a man chooses to disown any portion of that responsibility, then he is disowning the slave to that degree.  The ownership and the responsibility are one and the same thing.

Here are some symptoms of slaves owned by men who have "turned off" their ownership in some way:

• A slave has a huge decision to make in life.  She feels like she is making the decision alone, that the burden of that decision is hers alone to bear.  Examples would be decisions about life and death.  Education.  Family relationships.  Employment.  All decisions and choices decidedly lie in the realm of the Master.  Petty ones may be delegated to the slave.  But when a slave is burdened with larger decisions and choices, especially those of this magnitude, she takes on the role of the man and her belly suffers.
• A slave is really struggling with some issue that is essential to her well-being, and she is left to fend for herself.  This would include things like physical, emotional, and mental health.  Financial balance.  Her belly and her nature as a slave and a sexual woman.  Social interaction.  One of the reasons a strong man is so desirable, so fulfilling to a woman is that she can lean on his strength.  He can be strong for her.  If a man does not use his strength, what is left for the woman?  Certainly not the thrill that comes with being collared.
• A slave can disobey or "opt out" of rules or boundaries at her whim.  Structure is a key component of the security that comes from being a slave, an integral part of the reward that comes from being pleasing.  When the structure is optional, then it is enforced by the slave, not the master.  In effect, the slave becomes the master.  This certainly does not lead to the fulfillment that comes from being a slave.
• A slave does not regularly have enough opportunity to please, or to learn to be more pleasing.  Being pleasing and desired is THE core element of the fulfillment of being a slave.  Without it, the belly of the slave dies.  She loses her femininity and becomes masculine.  A man who kills the belly of a slave and makes her less of a woman, what is he?

In my experience with IRC Gor, I have come across more problems like these in channel slaves than in any other type of slave I know of.  More than personally owned slaves, more than uncollared slaves.  Men seem to be more aware of their responsibility with personally owned slaves.  And uncollared slaves have the opportunity to seek out and serve men who are strong, who do recognize their responsibility and glory in it.  Uncollared slaves can seek to earn the collars of these men by starting the relationship of surrender and ownership.  They can prove their value, their ability to please.

Often channel slaves have the worst of both worlds.  They don't get the fulfillment that comes from surrendering their burdens of life to their owners, and they are restricted to some degree or another from fully serving and pleasing men who can and will take those burdens.

Dead Goreans

Most Goreans are aware of the types of people that form the majority of characters on Gor in the books.  There are the free and the slaves.  But there's another type that doesn't get nearly as much coverage.  However, it plays an important role in the fictional Gorean society, and I'd like to talk about it because it impacts the way we put the Gorean philosophy into practice in real life.  This last major type of character are those that are dead.


People who can't cut it on Gor in the books die.  They get killed, usually on purpose.  Slaves who can't cut it get killed.  Men who can't cut it get killed.  Free Women who can't cut it become slaves, and if they can't cut it then, they get killed.

"There were only three statuses conceivable to the Gorean mind outside of the caste system:  slave, outlaw, and Priest-King.  A man who refused to practice his livelihood... was, by definition, an outlaw and subject to impalement."

Tarnsman of Gor 1967 p46 

There are a lot of people in real life who couldn't or wouldn't cut it in the society from the books (Hell, I still wonder if I'd cut it).  In real life, they don't have to cut it.  We'd love them to, we challenge them to, we call on them to.  If they want to try, want to work on it, want to discover their Gorean nature, we train them.  But they don't have to.  We don't punish them for not trying, because they haven't done anything wrong.  They are just not Gor.

So, while we may choose to believe that a man or a woman may be more fulfilled by adopting the principles and beliefs that we love, we cannot force them to do so, and we cannot disdain them for refusing to do so.  It is their right to refuse.  They don't have to fit.

That said, we don't have to treat them as Goreans, either.  If a woman is not Gorean, we usually don't treat her as a slave.  If a man is not Gorean, we usually don't treat him as free.  We may occasionally make exceptions to this if we choose to inspire someone to look closer at their nature, or if we want to deepen our own integrity.

The impact of this understanding goes deeper than first may appear.  We already know that slaves don't have to obey other slaves, unless a slave has specifically been given authority over them, such as first girl.  Slaves do have to obey the free.  Now that we understand that there are many people out there that are not free or slave, we can accept the possibility that a slave would not obey a man, because he is not free.  She might be deferent, and conditionally obedient, because that is her nature (in fact I would hope she is, it's healthy for her to be herself as much as possible), but he does not have the mandate that a free man would have.  To the degree (and no more) that he does not behave as a free man, she can refuse him as she would refuse a slave, without breach of conscience.  He would be classified as a dead Gorean.

In fact, we see examples of slaves in the books disdaining even true Gorean men that they feel are weaker than others.  One example is near the beginning of Raiders of Gor, when Bosk gives the girls from the rence islands to the men he has freed from the ship.  One of the girls recoils when she is given to a man with a slighter build, believing him to be weaker than other men.  That is, until he holds her and she feels his strength.  Then she is more than happy to be his slave.

The kicker is this:  A slave does not have to feel torn between her mandate to obey and her need to protect herself from those that would take advantage of her surrender to her harm. She is not expected to obey a dead Gorean, any more than she would be expected to obey a slave.

We walk a fine line here.  It is unhealthy for a slave to refuse any man, because it takes her out of the depths of her surrender and puts her in some degree in the place of the free.  But surrendering as a slave to a weak man, or to one that is not free, isn't healthy either.  I will think about this more and look for a simple way to judge.

P.S.  Yes, this post smacks of elitism.  Deal with it.

Broken Pleasures

I teach my slaves that exact obedience is their number one priority.  It is more important than any other thing in their lives.  It is not only an expression of their slavery, it is the essence of their slavery.  They are to obey not only me, but all free.  They are slave, not just to me, but all free.  The reasoning for this universal obedience requires more explanation that I want to go into right now, but it has a lot to do with the integrity of the slave and her belly, and how that integrity allows her slavery to be deeper than would otherwise be possible.

This priority put me in an interesting position the other day as I was connecting with a slave.  This slave had rules that forbade her from doing certain things without permission, as most slaves do.  Because she is a hot bitch, I wanted her in a way that was contrary to the rules placed on her.  I told her as much.  Because I am a master, and she is a slave (and she is an excellent slave) I could have commanded her to break the rules, and she would have done it. She understands her position as a slave, and she is to be obedient to the free.  Doing so would have brought me quite a bit of pleasure.  And this slave REALLY wanted to bring me pleasure.

"That would be a broken pleasure," I said.

Then I thought, "What the hell does that mean?"  We both understood it, and I had other priorities than pontificating philosophy at the time, so we continued on with our connecting, keeping her within the rules she had been given.

I've wondered about that since then.  I think I understand the concept a little better, now.  A broken pleasure is one that makes me less of a man.  For me, a slave's obedience is a critical thing.  Making a slave disobey a rule to please me would have been an act against my nature.  For other men, with other expectations, it would probably be different.  If a men expected women to be shallow and catty and to willfully seek chances to disobey, keeping his own slaves in check only by coersion, then he would likely not give it a second thought to cause a slave to disobey (other than dealing with the man that owned her).  It wouldn't be a broken pleasure.  If he was  a Warrior, a broken pleasure for him might be taking a rest back at camp while his brothers are out fighting.  I personally don't have any problem resting at home while the Warriors are battling, unless my own home is under threat.

I'm not saying I don't take part in broken pleasures.  Though I haven't ever knowingly caused a slave to break her rules, I do take part in broken pleasures.  I do it with bright eyes and a bushy tail.  I'm sure I would be a better Gorean if I didn't.  As I look back however, now that I understand the concept, I find that I have always counted the cost carefully, because in doing so I'm selling my own soul.  And I don't sell my soul cheaply.

What does it mean to "Be A Man?"

I was watching a movie the other day.  It featured two high school teams playing rugby.  I was struck by the difference between the attitudes of the two teams, and how they seemed to parallel the different perceptions of what it means to be a man.  Take a look at the clip for yourself.



As I watched the clip I thought about the difference between machisimo and masculine.  Here are some of the questions that went through my head.

In one scene, Rick from Flagstaff tries to manipulate the game.  His efforts to control were centered in an attempt to get the other team to fight.  He possibly wanted to throw the odds into the favor of his own team by having the huge guy from Highland sit out for part or all of the game.  Was he successful in controlling his opponents?

Did Highland's refusal to be drawn into a fight diminuish their masculinity?  The two players assaulted by Rick responded to his manipulation in creative ways that not only denied his attempts at control, but bolstered their own position.  The one who stuffed grass up his nose illustrated a man's passion to accomplish his objective even under significant personal sacrifice.  In doing so, he was able to control the referee (at least in part), convincing him to not make a call that would make it harder for them to achieve their objective.

Being Gorean is about control.  Control of one's self and one's environment; choosing one's own path and destiny.  In this rugby match, who is in control?  Who is out of control?  Which team had control of the game?  Which team had a better understanding of what type of control is effective, and what control is not?

In this clip, Rick is the captain of the Flagstaff team.  What are his methods of control over his team?  Over the bench?  Over his father, the coach?  Do his methods of control obtain the objective of the team: a win?  Do they obtain any of the objectives he has?

Each team was molded and formed under its coach.  How do the attitudes, perceptions, and choices of these two coaches compare?  Which coach was in control over his team?  Over his life?  Over his family?

In the end, the Highland team one the match because they were stronger, they were the superior team.  Rick, at least, from the Flagstaff team, was all talk and little walk.  The Highland team was not afraid to talk the talk, but they also walked the walk.  Rick had machisimo.  The Highland team was strong, was masculine.  They were becoming men.

That said, Rick wasn't all bad.  At least he was in the fray.  Many men sit on the sidelines.

The movie is Forever Strong.  It has quite a few insights into what strength really is.

Conversations: On The Gorean Man's Focus

Here's another conversation about Gorean Men.  Again, the background activity was removed to emphasize the point of the discussion.


<+Jennen> So what is the focus of a Gorean man offline?
<+Jennen> I think about the men in the books.  In the fact that they are true to themselves, they experience a greater sense of pleasure and fulfillment than those who don't live true to themselves.
<+Jennen> But their lives aren't filled with pleasure.
* +Jennen thinks
<+Jennen> The peasant's life is a hard one.  He works hard, he works his slaves hard.
<+Jennen> But his focus is still Gorean.
<+Jennen> To me, the focus of a Gorean man is to find the role that is true to himself, and move forward in that role, within the sphere of his influence.
<+Jennen> The men enjoyed the slaves, but they were not their focus.  Their focus was to do well in their role.
<+Jennen> A Warrior did not define himself by owning slaves.  He fought, he defended, he attacked.  This is what defined who he was.  This was his focus.
<+Jennen>  A builder did not define himself by owning slaves. He defined himself by feats of design and engineering.  This was his focus.
<+Jennen> Men are happier when they master their lives, as well as their women.
* +Jennen thinks
<+Jennen> Now, I turn the magnifying glass on myself.
<+Jennen> How much time do I focus on my role as a man, and how much time do I focus on my slave?  How much time do I spend becoming better at what I do, mastering my life?  How much time do I spend with other men who have the same goals and understanding, working together with them as a group so that we can support each other?
* +Jennen thinks
<+Jennen> There's a book I read, called, "Superior Man".  It talks about having friends that believe as you do, that you can talk with, who will challenge you to take life on and be true to yourself.
<+Jennen> I think that is possible here, online.  But it would mean that we would have to share our personal lives, our challenges, our struggles, and our victories.
<+Jennen> It would mean talking about our offline roles, learning from each other, weighing and accepting or rejecting advice.
<+Jennen> A "fraternity" is another word for a "brotherhood".  Those who belong to some fraternities work to support members of their fraternity all their lives.
<+Jennen> It's a source of loyalty for them.
* +Jennen thinks
<+Jennen> Yes, a get together would be fun, and I think that those who participated would definitely enjoy it.  What I'm referring to, though, is more of an ongoing thing.  Talking, sharing, examining, asking, challenging other men.
<+Jennen> Regularly.
<+Jennen> A fellowship.
<+Jennen> That's a good name.
<+Jennen> A fellowship is something I would be very interested in being a part of.