Well, I attended the dance competition in a Gorean sim at the end of last week. I had decided not to go with an observer tag, but to try to interact. I felt that was the way to a true feeling of the RP. I was very nervous when I arrived, I'm not very good at RP and did not want to spoil anyone else's enjoyment. It turned out that there was little interaction with folk around, but then again, they were concentrating on the competition, and I was suffering badly from lag.
So, what did I feel? Not withstanding that I was in a strange environment, though completely safe, I felt uncomfortable. There was a lot of emoting, and most of the speech was enclosed in quotes, basically like a book. To me, it seemed 'laboured', perhaps this is how RP is suppose to be. I enjoyed the dancing, they 'chant' or 'story tell' while they dance, which is interesting. There were 2 teams, I was unable to read the story from the first team, it was posted too quickly, but I was able to follow the story from the second team. The second teams story was about the capture of a women, the chase, collaring and chaining, and about how the women was 'glad' to be enslaved. The interesting thing about this dance was the music chosen, the theme from Last of the Mohicans, in which a women is captured, enslaved and fights back, the scene as she makes the ultimate sacrifice to deny her captor his prize is a very moving one for me, and is the very opposite to Gorean thinking. All I could think ,as the story unfolded, was that if a man tried to enslave me, he would have a wild cat on his hands, and ran a good chance of wearing his chain as a collar for the rest of his, rather shortened, life. Visiting a Gorean sim was something I had wanted to do, now I have done it, I don't think I will return except in a 'business' situation.
I feel I need to get on with exploring SL again, I've spent a lot of time involved in NCI, teaching, scripting, and socializing. Perhaps I should put some time aside to go get 'lost' each week.
Monday 31 March 2008
Thursday 27 March 2008
On SL and Gor
Well, its been a long time since I last blogged. Things are not always easy to blog about, I think some of the things I wrote maybe should have been kept 'under the lid'.
I have noticed things are changing in SL recently, in the past when I TP to a location (even one close) I had to wait for everything to rez, recently though, close locations seem to be already downloaded and rez almost instantly. I'm also noticing a cyclic behavior in how lag affects me, I could be fine, at 15fps one moment, the next I'm down at 2 or 3 fps and SL keeps 'freezing' for a few seconds, than it recovers ( this using the RC client). I have not found any rhyme or reason to the cycles. I am starting to suspect that LL have changed the server code to 'pre-rez' locations nearby but still out of view, I'm running the latest RC client, so it may be something in the client. LL are also moving to a distributed asset server model, and this could be a side effect of that. On the other hand, it could be my PC! The thing I have noticed is that when its good, its very good, and when its bad, its very bad.
I recently installed a Stargate, I loved that program and Stargate Atlantis, but I think the UK stopped showing them (Atlantis at the end of season 2 I think). This is the way teleporting should work, its fun. Anyone can set up a Stargate, and there are something like 3 networks in operation.
I have recently been looking at different 'societies' in SL, ones based on books or tv shows. The Gorean series seem to well established, more so than any other. The philosophy behind Gor is one I find I cannot subscribe to, to subjugate an entire Gender is, to my mind, wrong. There are many folk out there who are willing to be totally submissive, and some who are willing to be totally dominating, but to base a society on an entire Gender to be willing to be subjected to total submission is very far fetched.
In my view, the books are based on one man's misunderstanding of ancient gender roles (which are no longer applicable). In pass times, women were the home makers, they looked after the children, and did all the chores in the home (be it tent, cave, etc), the men went hunting. In such a society, a women's best survival strategy was to join with a strong man, one who could bring home the best cuts. Strong men tend to be domineering, so a women's best method to catch such a man would be to be submissive.
Why is this?
For the women, they had many tasks and the best way to deal with them was to cooperate and share out the tasks, this type of cooperation dose not need a strong leader, simply for folk to accept fairness. For the men, its different, they had one task that they all had to cooperate in (to hunt), and in that a strong leader is needed. From this, successful men tended to be strong and aggressive, successful women tended to be social and sympathetic (_not_ weak!).
In my view John Norman misinterpreted the gender roles as Master/Slave and based a society on it. I believe such a society would collapse, because the driving force for women is not as he describes in the books.
So, why are Gorean sims successful in SL? There are a number of reasons. First, those that parcipitate are self selecting, unlike the books. Second, there must be a respect for all, even slaves, for even slaves have free choice and cannot be compelled against their wishes, unlike the books. Third, many folk feel pressured in RL, to have all choice removed is a pleasure in itself, some folk feel helpless in RL, with no control, to have absolute control over others is, again, a pleasure esp when they know that control is freely given, not forced.
No doubt many feel (as i did at first) that the Gorean sims had no place in SL. I have come to a different conclusion. They represent an escape from RL, a way to experience a different life, a way to release tensions. I know some try to follow Gorean ways in RL, that is their choice (even a Gorean slave in RL has freedom of choice!).
I have been invited to a Gorean sim and I will be interested to see how my views change (if they do)
I have noticed things are changing in SL recently, in the past when I TP to a location (even one close) I had to wait for everything to rez, recently though, close locations seem to be already downloaded and rez almost instantly. I'm also noticing a cyclic behavior in how lag affects me, I could be fine, at 15fps one moment, the next I'm down at 2 or 3 fps and SL keeps 'freezing' for a few seconds, than it recovers ( this using the RC client). I have not found any rhyme or reason to the cycles. I am starting to suspect that LL have changed the server code to 'pre-rez' locations nearby but still out of view, I'm running the latest RC client, so it may be something in the client. LL are also moving to a distributed asset server model, and this could be a side effect of that. On the other hand, it could be my PC! The thing I have noticed is that when its good, its very good, and when its bad, its very bad.
I recently installed a Stargate, I loved that program and Stargate Atlantis, but I think the UK stopped showing them (Atlantis at the end of season 2 I think). This is the way teleporting should work, its fun. Anyone can set up a Stargate, and there are something like 3 networks in operation.
I have recently been looking at different 'societies' in SL, ones based on books or tv shows. The Gorean series seem to well established, more so than any other. The philosophy behind Gor is one I find I cannot subscribe to, to subjugate an entire Gender is, to my mind, wrong. There are many folk out there who are willing to be totally submissive, and some who are willing to be totally dominating, but to base a society on an entire Gender to be willing to be subjected to total submission is very far fetched.
In my view, the books are based on one man's misunderstanding of ancient gender roles (which are no longer applicable). In pass times, women were the home makers, they looked after the children, and did all the chores in the home (be it tent, cave, etc), the men went hunting. In such a society, a women's best survival strategy was to join with a strong man, one who could bring home the best cuts. Strong men tend to be domineering, so a women's best method to catch such a man would be to be submissive.
Why is this?
For the women, they had many tasks and the best way to deal with them was to cooperate and share out the tasks, this type of cooperation dose not need a strong leader, simply for folk to accept fairness. For the men, its different, they had one task that they all had to cooperate in (to hunt), and in that a strong leader is needed. From this, successful men tended to be strong and aggressive, successful women tended to be social and sympathetic (_not_ weak!).
In my view John Norman misinterpreted the gender roles as Master/Slave and based a society on it. I believe such a society would collapse, because the driving force for women is not as he describes in the books.
So, why are Gorean sims successful in SL? There are a number of reasons. First, those that parcipitate are self selecting, unlike the books. Second, there must be a respect for all, even slaves, for even slaves have free choice and cannot be compelled against their wishes, unlike the books. Third, many folk feel pressured in RL, to have all choice removed is a pleasure in itself, some folk feel helpless in RL, with no control, to have absolute control over others is, again, a pleasure esp when they know that control is freely given, not forced.
No doubt many feel (as i did at first) that the Gorean sims had no place in SL. I have come to a different conclusion. They represent an escape from RL, a way to experience a different life, a way to release tensions. I know some try to follow Gorean ways in RL, that is their choice (even a Gorean slave in RL has freedom of choice!).
I have been invited to a Gorean sim and I will be interested to see how my views change (if they do)
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