Gorean Harshness... a discussion

I am posting this as a discussion for all to partake.. which would be geat if both free and slave could have a discussion without it getting...nasty per say.

Recently I herd of a situation where a Free Man was punishing a slave, and a Free woman, as she felt it was 'too harsh'. While Gor is a online fantasy world, it is natural that what we feel in real life as unnaceptible would be considered medocre in terms of punishment (example, a free mans foot on a slave's neck as punishment). 

What are your thoughts.. should we continue to strive to rp things as were in the books (as much as possible), do people that rp gor fully understand the harshness of it?, do we accept responcibility for our actions and consequences to our actions? 

I have included some quotes of supporting reference for such from the books to aid in this discussion.

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Slaves---

"One after another had raped and beaten me, and thrown me to the next. I was handed about as an object. Fierce was the discipline to which they subjected me. Though I wept for mercy, and cried out, none gave ear; no consideration nor lenience was shown to the piteous slave girl in their power. Then, strangely, late in this abuse, the event occurred, which even now troubled me. I lay on my back, weeping, my head bound in the blanket, thrashing and squirming, struck, held, unable to withdraw from, helpless to withstand the plunging discipline of the brute to whom I had been last thrown, and it had occurred. I suddenly felt an indescribable sensation. First, it seemed to me, incredibly, that this was fitting, what was being done to me; I had been proud and vain before men; what did I, truly, expect men, such men, men on a world such as this, to do about that? As his force struck me, I felt, strangely, "Be disciplined, Woman." I was half choked in the hood. Then, to my amazement, I welcomed the abuse I felt.There was, beyond its sense of fittingness, seeing that I, a woman, had displeased strong males, and must thus be punished, a sense of profound complementarity; the abuse, if he chose, was simply his to give, and mine to bear; he was a man, I was a woman; he was dominant; I was not; it was his to rule, mine to submit. I experienced then, degraded and abused though I was, with a flood of elation, primitive organic, animal, primate complementarity, the complementarity of man and woman, the complementarity beyond mythology and rhetoric, the complementarity of he who takes and she who is taken, of he who has, and owns, and of she whom he has, whom he owns, and makes his. " Slave Girl of Gor, p. 94-95

"In this punishment, the girl clothed or unclothed, is bound tightly to an oar, hands behind her, her head down, toward the blade. When the oar lifts from the water she gasps for breath, only in another moment to be submerged again. A recalcitrant girl may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however, some danger in this, for sea sleen and the white sharks of the north occasionally attempt to tear such a girl from the oar. When food is low, it is not unknown for the men of Torvaldsland to use a bond-maid, if one is available on the ship, for bait in such a manner. The least pleasing girl is always used. " Marauders of Gor, p.66

"'Cut off her feet,” said Kamchak, “and her nose and ears, and blind her in one eye---then release her to live as she can among the wagons.” Nomads of Gor, p. 167

"'Penalty brands,' she said. 'They are tiny, but clearly visible. There are various such brands. There is one for lying, and another for stealing." Captive of Gor, p. 289

"His right hand, in a backhand blow, lashed forth, fierce and powerful, striking her from her knees to her side on the tiles. She rose to her hands and knees and, blood at her mouth, regarded him, disbelievingly. "Must a command be repeated?" he inquired. Swiftly she tore away the slave tunic, stripping herself." Guardsmen of Gor, p.257

Free Women

If found guilty in the court of the arsenal, the male thief would be sentenced, for a week to a year, to hard labor in the arsenal or on the wharves; the female thief would be sentenced to service, for a week to a year, in a straw-strewn cell in one of Port Kar's penal brothels." Hunters of Gor, p. 304

"'Her ear was notched.'" Rim and Thurnock laughed. 'A thief,' said Thurnock.'" Hunters of Gor, p. 47

"In some cities an unveiled free woman is susceptible to being taken into custody by guardsmen, veiled, by force if necessary, and publicly conducted back to her home. Indeed, in some cities she is marched back to her home stripped, except for the face veil, which has been put on her. In these cases a crowd usually follows, to see what home it is that she is to be returned. Repeated offenses in such a city is usually result in the enslavement of the female." Players of Gor, p.125

Lady Claudia shuddered. In such an impalement, the female is usually simply set upon the spear. It is not necessary to bind them, as, straightened, they cannot reach the spear nor obtain any leverage for removing themselves from it. They are held upon it, helplessly, by their own weight.Usually such a fate is visited only upon a free woman. It is thought that it gives them time to consider and repent their ways. A slave girl, on the other hand, would be more likely,, like meat, to be thrown to sleen." Renegades of Gor, p. 223-224

"I wished that I were a slave, that I might have a chance for life, that I might have an opportunity to convince a master somehow, in any way possible, that I might be worth sparing. But, I was a free woman and would be subjected to the cold and inhuman mercies of the law. I was being transported to Argentum for impalement." Kajira of Gor, p.19

Free Men---

"'If he should kill me, see then that he dies a lengthy, unpleasant death.' "Yes," said more than one, almost eagerly. As with most Goreans, they did not much care for traitors." Prize of Gor, p. 1099

"A man who refused to practice his livelihood or strove to alter status without the consent of the Council of High Castes was, by definition, an outlaw andsubject to impalement." Tarnsman of Gor, p. 45-46

"The stake was some ten feet in height, and some four inches in diameter. It had been wedged between rocks and braced with stones. Its point was roughly sharpened, probably with an adz. This point had been entered in the victim's back and thrust through with great force. It emerged from the belly, and protruded some two feet above the body. "Perhaps that is a spy, " I said. "More likely it is a straggler or a deserter," said the driver." Mercenaries of Gor, p.40

"The death would not be a pleasant one. Bound helplessly, without food or water, my own body would torture me by its weight dragging on the hand and ankle ropes, suspended a few inches above the roiling, muddy surface under the fiery sun. I knew that I would not, some days hence, reach the delta of the Vosk and the cities in the delta except perhaps as a bound corpse, withered by exposure and the lack of water. Indeed, it was unlikely my body would reach the delta at all. It was far more likely that one of the water lizards of the Vosk or one of the great hook-beaked turtles of the river would seize my body and drag it and the frame under the water, destroying me in the mud below. There was also the chance that a wild tarn might swoop down and feed on the helpless living morsel fastened to that degrading frame. Of one thing I was certain – there would be no human assistance or even pity, for the poor wretches on the frames are none but villains, betrayers, and blasphemers against the Priest-Kings, and it is a sacrilegious act even to consider terminating the sufferings." Tarnsman of Gor, p. 110