12-13-2023, 01:43 PM
The ghostwriter question: did john norman write all of his books himself?
Catgirl kulak thinks he did. She wrote about how his sheer obsession as a writer improved his writing skills over the years.
But this is completely out of keeping with mainstream gorean thought. Fans normally consider the earlier books better than the later ones. I find them more engaging because he makes a stronger attempt to explain the forces that drive the individual to participate in Gorean institutions, which tarl nonetheless remains aloof from.
The ghostwriter argument is flawed because norman had *severe* publication problems for the entire series. He could only work for small publishers who wouldn't have had the money for ghostwriters, and over time his publishers got smaller, not bigger.
A possibility is that he might have relied on the assistance of fans, in effect dictating a sort of authorized or canon fanfiction on subjects that interested him, at the very least not unlike the contemporary Star Wars EU books.
Looking to the language and quality of the work, there seems to be a trend towards crudity and bluntness, but I won't say barbarity, because no one on Gor is a monster or a mass murderer. This could be the result of inferior writing style, or it could simply be a narrative choice as Norman takes his world for granted, and Tarl adapts to gorean norms instead of bristling or refusing to engage.
The end result is a world that you don't much imagine is governed by the holy terror of flame death and intrigues of high initiates, as much as some backwards country in the real world, whether the deep past or just a century or two ago. Tarl's guest-friends seem less like terrible conquerors and more like basically decent people, who take simple enjoyment in games, hunts, and recreations despite the mandatory brutality of gorean social norms.
Fun things are fun, including being mean to women, and the displays of low brutality if anything seem to create room for simple enjoyment, rather than paranoia, denunciation, collective revenge. It's not a world of mutilations, Marlenus of Ar is not a monster like Bulgakov's Pontius Pilate in the Master and Margarita, and he definitely isn't a murderous chaos marine, not even the caste of assassins is that bad.
Literary Questions, substianted for discussion:
Do you think any of the books were ghostwritten? Are differences between earlier and later books driven by style, or narrative? Or are there dramatic changes in writing skill and quality, either by Norman, his assistants writing fanfiction, or professional ghostwriters taking dictation from him?
Catgirl kulak thinks he did. She wrote about how his sheer obsession as a writer improved his writing skills over the years.
But this is completely out of keeping with mainstream gorean thought. Fans normally consider the earlier books better than the later ones. I find them more engaging because he makes a stronger attempt to explain the forces that drive the individual to participate in Gorean institutions, which tarl nonetheless remains aloof from.
The ghostwriter argument is flawed because norman had *severe* publication problems for the entire series. He could only work for small publishers who wouldn't have had the money for ghostwriters, and over time his publishers got smaller, not bigger.
A possibility is that he might have relied on the assistance of fans, in effect dictating a sort of authorized or canon fanfiction on subjects that interested him, at the very least not unlike the contemporary Star Wars EU books.
Looking to the language and quality of the work, there seems to be a trend towards crudity and bluntness, but I won't say barbarity, because no one on Gor is a monster or a mass murderer. This could be the result of inferior writing style, or it could simply be a narrative choice as Norman takes his world for granted, and Tarl adapts to gorean norms instead of bristling or refusing to engage.
The end result is a world that you don't much imagine is governed by the holy terror of flame death and intrigues of high initiates, as much as some backwards country in the real world, whether the deep past or just a century or two ago. Tarl's guest-friends seem less like terrible conquerors and more like basically decent people, who take simple enjoyment in games, hunts, and recreations despite the mandatory brutality of gorean social norms.
Fun things are fun, including being mean to women, and the displays of low brutality if anything seem to create room for simple enjoyment, rather than paranoia, denunciation, collective revenge. It's not a world of mutilations, Marlenus of Ar is not a monster like Bulgakov's Pontius Pilate in the Master and Margarita, and he definitely isn't a murderous chaos marine, not even the caste of assassins is that bad.
Literary Questions, substianted for discussion:
Do you think any of the books were ghostwritten? Are differences between earlier and later books driven by style, or narrative? Or are there dramatic changes in writing skill and quality, either by Norman, his assistants writing fanfiction, or professional ghostwriters taking dictation from him?