One of the biggest parts of the epic book haul was completed this morning, probably one of the most controversial too.
I can remember reading these while I was in the fifth year at school, and it was easy to say times were different then, but the books are and remain sexist in the highest degree,
Author John Norman has been writing them for years, and it is clear that his Gor books were heavily influenced by Edgar Rice-Burroughs (Particularly the Barsoom novels).
Dragging my mind back 30 years I seem to remember that the first few books were quite simple and entertaining, pretty much a fantasy adventure. The sexism and degradation of women was there, but it was not overt. It was something that became more prominent as the books continued.
There were good ideas, and a fascinating concept involved, but in the end, especially as the world moved forward, the books became more and more archaic.
That being said some of the last books I read seemed to move away from the that aspect of Gor, and turned into a study of warfare - one novel giving me one of my favourite sequences in any novel.
The domination of women by men was still there, but it was not played upon as much. I stopped reading about then, life moved on...
When doing the book haul I looked back and thought it might be worth returning to Gor and looking at them with modern, dare I say adult eyes. In doing so I discovered that although Norman had stopped writing the books with Magicians of Gor about 20 years ago, he had begun again more recently, and the fact that they he had published another 8 books with a ninth on the way seems to indicate there is a market for them.
I hoped that perhaps that he had continued the trend of taking the books in a new direction, but the back of the books boasts about the slave aspect of women as a major selling point.
It will be interesting to look at the books again, if nothing else.
