This last week, I had the distinct pleasure of having some very pleasant discussion with a few Goreans from a website based Gorean channel/corkboard. (a corkboard is a discussion medium employing a web browser, as opposed to a chat client) It was very enlightening to see that there are others working towards the goal of actually separating the lifestyle of Gor, from the one of BDSM-D/s. One of the owners of this channel/corkboard informed me that she had posted to the corkboard one of my recent editorials, the one about "The Gorean Myth?". Normally it is this paper's policy that any reprinting of any of the material found within it is done with the author's permission, but considering that it was posted as an educational item, I was not displeased. I was further informed that it had recieved many responses from the frequent visitors to this corkboard, so being the curious (and horrible) fellow that I am, I decided to take a trip to this website, and have a look. Later in the day, the other owner of this site posted another editorial of mine, titled "Gorean BDSM?". Again, I was not displeased.

     What I found was somewhat interesting. I enjoyed the format of the site, as it allows for some very long postings, and not being subject to a continuous text scroll, allowed for much thought before hitting the enter key. The title of this particular corkboard is "GOREAN Scrolls". With that heading, I expected to find a group of people with a mindset similar to those among us that have a slight inkling of what the Gorean philosophy is about, and how it is and can be applied to our everyday lives. I was soon sorely disappointed. Now this is not to say that the owners ( these two people pay money for this site ) of this corkboard do not have the best interest of the Gorean community in mind, because I believe they do. They are both highly intelligent, and thoughtful people, and I am pleased to know them. However, given the mostly derogatory responses to the idea of a Gorean lifestyle, the apparent mindset of most of the patrons of this site seems to be that it is of the BDSM lifestyle, with some Gorean coloring thrown in to make it entertaining for them. I soon found myself mired in a fruitless debate over the validity of a lifestyle titled "Gorean" apart from that one called "BDSM". One of the humorous things was that some of those who tried to convince me that being Gorean was indeed to be related to BDSM, had names such as "Tarl Cabot", and "Marlenus". Amusing indeed.

     After a time, the debate with those two BDSMers mentioned about seemed to run it's course, and fizzle out. Then some new and exciting characters hopped onto the "SlamGor" bandwagon, called "Sickened", "Hmmmm", and "BloodWing". I was informed by the character "Sickened", that in his two years on this site, it has ALWAYS been a BDSM forum, and is in no way Gorean! I looked again to the title, and yes, it STILL said "GOREAN Scrolls". I mentioned this to him, and having no real argument against this fact, he soon fizzled into the background, but not before making it clear that Goreans are unwanted there, in his opinion. Then came "Master Hmmmm" who seemed to have a little problem with comprehension, and "BloodWing", who seemed to be having a hard time getting any posts out that were longer than a sentence, and contained nothing more than little childish slaps at yours truly, and a few other people who posted to the site.

     In retrospect, I will say that "Tarl Cabot", and "Marlenus", both seemed to be intelligent fellows (not horrible like myself) who are well set, and comfortable in their BDSM beliefs. I can respect that. However, it is a bit disturbing to me that a newcomer, perhaps seeking to learn of the Gorean lifestyle, and it's underlying philosophy, might be duped into thinking that it is BDSM related. This is hardly fair, and in no way is it honest. All we can do, as Goreans, is continue to work towards the total separation of the two. We are Goreans, we are NOT BDSMers. Is that so difficult to understand? I applaud the owners of this website for their efforts, and look forward to continued contact with them, but I think until the intended nature of this site and it's content is made perfectly clear, such as we do with our own IRC channels, I will not post to it again. I will continue to visit the site to read the postings, as there is some good reading put up by some intelligent people.

I wish you well, Goreans