Editing Gor (section)

== Background ==
[[File:Gor-map-simplified.svg|thumb|Simplified map of known Gor]]

In an interview with the [[speculative fiction]] anthology ''[[Polygraff]]'',<ref name="PolygraffInterview">{{Cite news |date=2010 |title=An Exclusive Interview With John Norman, Author of the Gor Series of Novels |volume=1 |pages=47–53 |work=[[Polygraff]] |publisher=Polymancer Studios |issue=2 |location=Montreal |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/41530641/Polygraff-Magazine |access-date=2010-12-15 |issn=1918-655X}}</ref> John Norman spoke at length about the creation of the Gor universe and his influences.

<blockquote><poem>The [[Counter-Earth]], or ''[[Antichthon (hypothetical planet)|Antichthon]]'', is from Greek cosmology. Speculation on such a world, you see, is ancient. One of the premises of the Gorean series is that a race of aliens, whom we might speak of as the Priest-Kings, have a technology at their disposal compared to which ours would be something like that in the Bronze Age.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Norman, the philosophy professor who created the barbaric world of Gor |url=https://gizmodo.com/john-norman-the-philosophy-professor-who-created-the-b-5783833 |access-date=2022-01-08 |website=Gizmodo |date=22 March 2011 |language=en-us}}</ref>

I think, pretty clearly, the three major influences on my work are [[Homer]], [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]. Interestingly, however obvious this influence might be, few, if any, critics, commentators, or such, have called attention to it.</poem></blockquote>

In the same interview, he said "one of the pleasures of writing science fiction is the development of, and characterization of, alien life forms".