Goodbye Personal Pronouns
» Humbling
One of the two illustrations I’ve seen attributed to ‘Joe.’ Irrelevant to this entry but I’d rather be doing that than typing this.
My very limited knowledge of John Norman’s Gor series comes from flipping through a few of them in my shop. The novels are clearly inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars stories: but spiced with Maledom/femsub.
Partly I was shocked. Some of it seemed genuinely male supremacist - sort of a reverse Elise Sutton - women were really only happy when submissive. They were property to be bought and sold. Or fed to wild animals when found unsatisfactory. Given the plentiful supply of slave girls what happened to them I wonder when they grew too old - probably about the ripe old age of 25?
Sexism whether Norman’s or Sutton’s isn’t for me so I never read much. Don’t like fantasy adventure fiction anyway. (Goreans if you see this save your breath and go have a good time).
Can’t recall if slave girls had names. Must’ve had someway to identify them. They weren’t allowed personal pronouns. The words ‘I,’ ‘me,’ and ‘mine’ were banished from their vocabulary. A slave girl with a full bladder would have to say “Master’s slave needs to go tinkle.” (Well, I did know a woman who used that locution.)
As I mentioned in yesterday’s entry I found the pronoun elimination arrestingly humbling. When Alexandra does as well. So when next I’m down on my knees before her ‘I’ will vanish.
She finds it affirming of our roles. I wholly agree.
At first I’m sure I’ll forget at least a couple of times. Guess that is what quirts and canes are for.
Comments
i bet these male supremacist authors never got laid much. ah, the bitterness comes through in their work. after all, when you’re a writer in the sci-fi genre, how much trim could these guys have possibly been getting?
on another note, i like the new look. it’s “cheery” yet somewhat “antiseptic” with the new white background. don;t know if my adjectives work, but those were the words i thought of when i saw the new background.
Posted by: laura | May 3, 2005 6:14 PM
You are reinforcing the science fiction fan as sexless nerd stereotype. Owning a store that sells SF and comic books I have to admit that is exists. But if you are a cult author you are probably ‘getting more’ than the average jerk.
You know how cults work. Maybe Norman had/has (don’t know if he’s alive or dead) a harem. That he was a tenured professor of philosophy says more about academics than I could ever put into words.
Antiseptic is dead on. I realized I don’t have the design talent to create something pretty so I opted for plain.
Posted by: Richard | May 3, 2005 9:02 PM
but if he is a cult author, most of his fans would be male, rather than female. i stand by my assertion that he’s not getting more than the average jerk. if you throw in good looking and good athlete amongst the average jerks, this science fiction author wouldn’t be beating the babes off with a stick.
kind of reminds me of the band king crimson. an irish band (can’t recall the name) opened for them and there were plenty of pretty girls in the audience. then the headliner (that’s king crimson) came on and the girls disappeared. the only ones left were white guys (and a smattering of asian guys). king crimson is a band that does very well, and the band members make very good money. but their fan base are mostly white guys. they couldn’t possibly have a harem, because they lack the charisma that would appeal to women. i suppose they could get a harem the old fashioned way: by paying for it. lord knows they can’t attract fawning female admiration honestly.
for a cult author to have access to plenty of ‘tang, he has to have a pretty sizeable female readership. i suppose he may have had one silly submissive female fan here or there that gets turned on by his lack of respect for her self worth and intellect, but most of the fans for science fiction are male.
i suppose the cult author could have have gotten laid often by paying for it. true casanovas know how to charm their way into people’s pants, and frankly, this guys doesn’t sound terribly charming. and casting women as nothing more than submissive beings to be thrown to animals when they prove unsatisfactory doesn’t sound like someone who even wants to do the work of charming and impressing a woman with his mind and imagination.
i’m a comic book lover. i know many scinece fiction lovers, and they tend to be a male dominated, introverted lot. people who get laid often either pay for it or know how to charm they way into getting laid. and this guys is so far from charming and being socially adept. i’ll take back the “not getting laid often”. he probably just pays for it.
Posted by: laura | May 4, 2005 8:00 PM
oh—and he was a tenured philosophy professor? that’s so funny—he even has less access to decent trim! if you are a male professor looking to get a piece of your hot young students, the department to be at is english, business, or law! jesus, the ratio of male to female in that department is so bad—a female 3 or 4 gets treated like a 10 because of the bad disparity!
now i can see why he hates women so much!
Posted by: laura | May 4, 2005 8:04 PM
Not using personal pronouns is a practise extolled by some “Magickal” schools. I have not done it myself but apparently it is quite an eye opener to see how tied up we are to our egos.
On a side note, I think that when a submissive goes into subspace, there is a certain amount of ego-dissolving going on. By forcing the submissive to not use personal pronouns, you can probably help the sub reach subspace a little quicker.
Posted by: Jonnay | May 5, 2005 7:03 PM
Dissolving my ego is one of the most important part of D/s for us. That is one of the reason for writing about things like testicle leashing. There may be days when it is hard for me to get there. So I help her know which buttons she can press.
Forcing me to express myself only in reference to her is a way of reaffirming her control and power.
Posted by: Richard | May 5, 2005 7:09 PM