Book Gor
also known as BTB, By The Books, Book-based Gor, Book-Accurate Gor
A tradition within Gorean community practice that treats the novels as the primary reference for custom and vocabulary.
Definition
Book Gor, often abbreviated BTB (By The Books), is the tendency within Gorean communities to look to the novels as the principal source of custom, protocol, castes and vocabulary. Practitioners aim to reproduce, adapt or extrapolate from the fictional material as faithfully as circumstances allow, while acknowledging that the setting itself is fictional.
Historical background
Book Gor emerged as a distinct current in online Gorean spaces during the 1990s and 2000s, in dialogue and sometimes in tension with more freely adaptive interpretations. It has produced extensive concordances, quotation collections and community study material.
Discussion
Book Gor communities vary in how strictly they read the novels. Some treat the text as canon in matters of protocol; others accept the text as a starting point and permit reasoned extrapolation.