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Gorean Book Quote Requests
Requests 1-173 were asked and answered back when there were only 25 books.
Also, some of the early questions were unintentionally truncated and cannot be restored. However, the answers are shown in their totality.
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| Q # | Question |
| 53 | "how were white silk and red silk girls referred? i have heard the terms glana and falarina used, are these correct?"
Answer
Hello,
Ok, here are the passages from the books which speak of glana and falarina.
It is pretty self-explanatory and I see no need to elaborate.
Fogaban
also reference: Silks
"Virginity, as I understand it, in English," I said, "is sometimes spoken of as though it might be something which could be lost. In Gorean, on the other hand, it is usually conceived of as something which is to be outgrown, or superseded."
"Interesting," she said.
"What, in English," I asked, "is a woman who is not a virgin?"
She thought for a moment. "A nonvirgin, I suppose," she said.
"This type of distinction is drawn in various ways in Gorean," I said, the closest to the English is the distinction between 'glana' and 'metaglana.' 'Glana' denotes the state or virginity and 'metaglana' denotes the state succeeding virginity. Do you see the difference?"
"Yes," she said, "in Gorean, virginity is regarded as a state to be succeeded."
"Another way of drawing the distinction is in terms of 'falarina' and 'profalarina.' 'Profalarina' designates the state preceding falarina, which is the state of the woman who has been penetrated at least once by a male."
"Here," she said, "the state of virginity is regarded as one which looks toward, or has not yet attained, the state of falarina."
"Yes," I said. "In the first case, virginity is seen as something to be succeeded, and, in the second, it is seen as something which is conceived of as merely antedating the state of falarina. It takes its very meaning from the fact that it is not yet falarina."
"Both of these situations are quite different from the English," she said.
"In English, as I see now, interestingly, virginity is spoken of as a positive property, and nonvirginity, in spite of its obvious and momentous importance, and even its necessity, presumably, for the continuation of the species, seems to be regarded as being merely the absence of a property, or the privation of a property."
"Yes," I said. "It is as though the whole spectrum were divided into the blue and the nonblue. Properly understood the nonblue is every bit as real, and is even more extensive and variegated than the blue."
"Yes," she said.
"It is thus that pathological conceptions, ingrained in common speech, can produce distorted notions of reality," I said.
"I understand, Master," she said.
"In Gorean, as not in English," I said, "the usual way, however, of drawing the distinction is in terms of 'glana' and 'falarina.' Separate words, these, are used for the separate properties or conditions. Both conditions, so to speak, are accorded a similar status. Both are regarded as being equally real, equally positive, so to speak."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Sometimes, metaphorically, in English, however," I said, "a distinction is drawn between the virgin and the woman, a distinction which is almost Gorean in tone. Strictly, of course, in English, one might be both a woman and a virgin."
"Do Goreans speak freely of these things?" she asked.
"Free persons do not commonly speak freely of them," I said. "For example, whether a free woman is glana or falarina is obviously her business, and no one else's. Such intimate matters are well within the prerogatives of her privacy."
"Such matters, however, I suspect," she said, "are not within the prerogatives of a slave's privacy."
"No," I said. "Such matters are public knowledge about slaves, as much as the color of their hair and eyes, and their collar size."
"And my most intimate measurements?" she asked.
"Public knowledge," I assured her, "if anyone should be interested."
"What privacy am I permitted, then?" she asked.
"None," I told her.
"And what secrets?" she asked.
"None," I told her.
"I see," she said.
"You perhaps now understand, a little better than before," I said, "what it will be to be a slave."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Your opening, for example, is not to be kept a secret," I said.
"The blood you smeared on my leg will see to that," she smiled.
"Do you fear the criticism, the derision, or ridicule, of the other girls?" I asked.
"I fear only," she said, "that I may not have sufficiently pleased my master."
"Excellent," I said.
"As they, too, soon shall fear," she said.
"Yes," I said. I wondered if she knew how truly she spoke. The girls on a chain, once opened and made to serve, usually begin to compete among themselves, and soon, to see who can serve the masters best, and those who do not enter earnestly into this competition, it might be mentioned, are usually the first to be fed to sleen.
"I was glana," she smiled. "Now I am falarina."
I put my hand, forcibly, over her mouth. Then I removed it from her mouth.
"Such expressions," I said, "are commonly to be spoken of, and by, free persons. They are not to be applied to slaves, any more than to tarsk sows."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"You were white silk," I said. "Now you are red silk."
"We are not even entitled to the same words as free persons in such matters?" she asked.
"No," I told her.
"I understand, Master," she said, tears in her eyes.
"Even here, however," I said, "you will note that both words suggest a similar status. Both notions are equally positive, both properties are conceived of as being equally real."
"That is true," she said.
"To be sure," I said, "'white' in the context of 'white-silk girl' tends less to suggest purity and innocence to the Gorean than ignorance and naivety, and a lack of experience. 'Red,' in the context of 'red-silk girl,' on the other hand, connotes rather clearly, I think, experience. One expects a red-silk girl, for example, not only to be able to find her way about the furs, but; subject to the whip, owned and dominated, perhaps chained, to prove herself a sensuous treasure within them."
"I am red-silk," she said. "Have me."
"Perhaps," I said. I began to touch her, gently.
Savages of Gor Book 17 Pages 202 - 205
The buyers were also informed that I was "glana," or a virgin. The correlated term is 'metaglana', used to designate the state to which the glana state looks forward, or that which it is regarded as anticipating. Though the word was not used of me I was also 'profalarina', which term designates the state preceding, and anticipating, that of "falarina," the state Goreans seem to think of as that of being a full woman, or, at least, as those of Earth might think of it, one who certainly is no longer a virgin. In both terms, 'glana' and 'profalarina', incidentally, it seems that the states they designate are regarded as immature or transitory, states to be succeeded by more fully developed, superior states, those of "metaglana" or "falarina." Among slaves, not free women, these things are sometimes spoken of along the lines as to whether or not a girl has been "opened" for the uses of men. Other common terms, used generally of slaves, are 'white silk' and 'red silk', for girls who have not yet been opened, or have been opened, for the uses of men, respectively.
Dancer of Gor Book 22 Page 128
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