Capitalization of particular words, such as nouns is done much differently in the Gorean language. Rather than being based on the word being a noun, the context of the words determines capitalization.

“Interestingly, Goreans, although they do not capitalize all nouns do capitalize many more of them than would be capitalized in, say, English or French. Sometimes context determines capitalization.” — Beasts of Gor, page 37.

I had someone tell me once that in one of the books, two free men discussed lower-casing a slave’s name.  I suppose that person has different books than I have; I have first-editions of all, save 2 or 3, hard copies of the Gorean series, and none of my books contain anything like that.  Names, whether free or slave, were capitalized because they were considered nouns in the Gorean language.  While the quote above does not specifically mention names, there are various instances in the books were certain words were capitalized and at other times not. Prime examples are:  P/pager, U/ubar, K/kajira and M/master.  However, names were consistently capitalized.

Someone said to me, “Well, in the BOOKS it’s capitalized because it’s literary.”  Meaning, it’s in written word.  Hello!  That’s how online roleplaying takes place — with written word.

The idea of the lower case of a slave’s name comes not from Gor but from BDSM rooms.  This “tradition” which technically is not Gorean in the true sense of the word, was carried over into the Gorean world mostly because people wanted insta-knowledge.

This is a roleplay venue, and in such a venue, it adds to the intrigue, the all around roleplay environment and experience, to discover if a person is slave or free by — roleplaying!  What a concept, yes?  -smiles-   I know of a home that allowed no tags at all, other than an avatar, so that when you approach a person, you can “see” the person’s status (i.e., is he or she in robes of green? blue? yellow?  naked? ta-teera? silks? kes? collar?).  In fact, I had helped establish that home  hired to do their webpages.  I visited a few times as an observer just to watch, and it was rather remarkable roleplay mdash; and better still mdash; everyone ENJOYED it.  You learn about people a whole lot differently when you have to actually interact and not have that insta-knowledge that really is often times less than trustworthy.

I’m trying to picture a table-top roleplay scenario that would compare with say, an online scenario:

Man approaches a very obviously naked woman. He sees her wearing a collar of steel. Yet. He stops to question her: “Tal woman — is your name lower- or upper-cased first of all?”
“Tal capitalized Master, I am lower-cased shiela!”
“Tal lower-cased shiela http://viagr..otc-viagra/!”

Kind of silly, yes, but … I know there will be those that get it, and those that do not.

I am a Gorean from the time that Gor existed on a site known as Webmaze (I believe that goes back to 1998 if my brain serves me correctly!) and prior to that, I belonged to a select ragtag bunch that gathered together in the halls of AOL back in 1996, in a private room that was named not where a “Gorean” might recognize, but did engage in Gorean roleplay. In that room, names were capitalized. It was when I arrived in HTML chat to discover the lower capping of names.

There are those that argue that having your name lower-cased not only makes you a slave, but makes you feel like a slave.

That’s a bunch of bosk dung.

What makes a person a slave is what is within an individual.  What makes a person feel like a slave is the manner by which frees treats one who is a slave.  While a person may have a submissive nature, it’s up to the dominant to exert that control in such a way that one knows and understands their status.

I’ve worn my name lower-cased for many a year.  I’d say that 99% of the time, I did not feel like I was treated like a slave; oftentimes treated as an equal by select frees who still considered me their “sister.” However, there was one who did make me feel like I was a slave, but it had nothing to do with capitalization of the first letter of my name.  It was the manner in which he treated me, guided me.  Unfortunately, that lasted all of but a few months before real life took him away permanently. 

It has been argued by those in favor the of the lower case use of a slave’s name being that a name in itself is a gift of the free person who owns the slave, and by utilizing the lower case provides lesser emphasis on the slave’s name and increases importance of the free person’s name.

While it’s true that a name is the gift of one’s owner, to lower case the name doesn’t cause me to feel lesser emphasis on my name; it’s more a glaring defiance of good grammar.  As a slave, the importance of a free person’s name really ISN’T important to a slave, for slaves do not use the name of their owner.  Oftentimes, slaves did not know the name of who owned them.

There are dozens of influences which make up a slave, transform a slave.  I would say that a shift in capitalization is one of the more minor influences, but it is a clear distinction which began not as some sort of metagaming “insta-knowledge” but as a method to reinforce the slave’s condition.

Whenever owned and instructed by my owner to capitalize my name, I feel no superiority by wearing it as such.  Quite the contrary.  My master ensured that I did not feel superior, that I did feel and know that I am without a doubt, absolutely a slave.  In my few short months with a capitalized name, I had far exceeded feeling like a slave, acting like a slave in comparison to 8+ years of having a lower-cased name.  My master wass far from being a newbie, and I am certain that if I gave him just cause to take something away from me, there would be no hesitation on his part to do so. 

I had one master, briefly, who also kept my name capped.  However, if I did something wrong, he would speak to me using my name lower-cased, as a means of inflecting his demeanor, to know that he was reminding me of my status as his slave.  If he typed my name with a capital, then I knew I was not under punishment. It was a means of enunciating through written word, the demeanor of temperament.  Since roleplay relies heavily on the written word and expression of enuciation, it worked incredibly and I truly felt his displeasure.

Everytime I hear (or read) someone spout “Tradition!” I think of “Fiddler on the Roof” … Traditions were made for a reason, for a particular good at the time the event which led to the creation of it; traditions grow outdated and/or unnecessary.

However, the one and truly only valid point I will end with is this: 

As has been argued, it is the gift of the owner that a slave have a name. It’s also up to that absolutely up to the slave’s owner what is done with his slave, which includes whatever name is given, how it is spelled, written and/or typed.

“The relationship between a master and his slave is absolute,” it is said by John Norman.

I wish you well.