Gor is the fictional setting for a series of sword and planet novels written by philosophy professor John Lange, writing as John Norman. The setting was first described in the 1966 novel Tarnsman of Gor. The series is inspired by science fantasy pulp fiction works by Edgar Rice Burroughs, such as the Barsoom series. It also includes erotica and philosophical content. The Gor series repeatedly depicts men abducting and physically and sexually brutalizing women, who grow to enjoy their submissive state. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Norman's "sexual philosophy" is "widely detested", but the books have inspired a Gorean subculture.
First published in 1966, Tarnsman of Gor is shown here with 1976 artwork by Boris Vallejo.
Model dressed as a kajira in a camisk with a simulated kef brand
Sexual roleplayer in a kajira pose at Folsom Street Fair. The woman is posing in an approximation to nadu, the typical position of a "pleasure slave".
Gorean role-playing in Second Life. Panther Girls, Gorean Amazons from the Northern Forest, attending a meeting at the town hall of the city Thentis.
Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The first Barsoom tale was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in pulp magazine The All-Story from February to July 1912 and published compiled as a novel as A Princess of Mars in 1917. It features John Carter, a late-19th-century American Confederate veteran who is mysteriously transported from Earth to the dying world of Mars where he meets and romances the beautiful Martian princess Dejah Thoris. Ten sequels followed over the next three decades, further extending his vision of Barsoom and adding other characters.
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, McClurg, 1917
John Carter, as depicted on the cover of the Dell Big Little Book - John Carter of Mars (1940).
John Carter's descendants
A four armed Green Martian on his thoat, as represented in the original 1920 edition of Thuvia, Maid of Mars
