I guess we should take our cues from both books’ failures and dive right in to what everyone (probably?) wants us to talk about: the sex lives of Goreans. The comparison is an apt one-at least, allegedly? I hear the later books in that series are pretty raunchy, and Gor is supposed to get more about fan-service in subsequent volumes. I too was disappointed by the reality vs the legend of Flowers in the Attic when I read it.
You’ve probably also found out by now that despite their reputation for being those S&M books, the first Gor book features little sexiness and some dull-ass scenes. Sadly, just like with Flowers in the Attic, this was a damn marketing fallacy. The covers by Vallejo promised hanky panky and that was my main objective in reading them, to find the naughty bits. My parents had a couple of the Gor books and I’m pretty sure I acquired the third book by myself. However, since I had a SFF bent I wanted something with more swords or aliens and less boring prehistoric dramas. Girls whispered about Flowers in the Attic and Clan of the Cave Bear. Silvia: A long time ago, in the 1990s, when we had dial-up and no fast speeds, teenagers had to work hard to obtain salacious material. Years later I learned they were famous for being about sexy slave girls or something, and became intrigued. But the back cover copy of the first one didn’t seem particularly salacious (or LGBT-friendly?), so I sort of forgot about it, because it wasn’t a rabbit hole I felt like going down that day. Well, given Wright’s own (possibly former? Who can say) interest in S&M, or at least spanking teenage girls, I had to google Gor - if it was so extreme as to offend him, what could it be? I remember thinking it actually seemed strange I’d never heard of the series if it was so saucy. “I am hoping, of course, that future shows will also portray sadomasochism and bondage in a positive light-we are all looking forward to FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO GOR, I hope.” In a rant about the SyFy channel’s pledge to be more inclusive by having more GLBT characters on their shows, Wright mentioned Gor derisively:
Wright, that now-notorious Puppy-supporter and extreme moral panic-monger of the SFF community.
Molly: Tal, Silvia Moreno-Garcia of Ka-Na-Da. I guess before we get into this review of both the first Gor book and the first Gor movie, I’d like to ask how you discovered these things even existed. Silvia: Tal, Molly Tanzer of Ko-lo-ra-doh. In which Silvia Moreno-Garcia of Ka-Na-Da and Molly Tanzer of Ko-Lo-Ra-Do discuss Silvia's re-read and Molly's first read of John Norman's famous (notorious?) Tarnsman of Gor.
0 kommentar(er)
