"How long has it been since you were a virgin?" I asked.
"A thousand years," she smiled. "I think perhaps ten thousand years."
"Do you feel now less than you were before," I asked, "less important, somehowless significant?"
"No," she said, "I feel ten thousand times more important, more significant,than I was before."
"Virginity, as I understand it, in English," I said, "is sometimes spoken of asthough 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 In Gorean, on the other hand,it is usually conceived of as something which is to be outgrown, or superseded."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. "Theclosest to the English is the distinction between "glana' and "metaglana. "Glana' denotes the state or virginity and "metaglana' denotes the statesucceeding 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 isthe 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 besucceeded, and, in the second, it is seen as something which is conceived of asmerely antedating the state of falarina. It takes its very meaning from the factthat it is not yet falarina."
"Both of these situations are quite different from the English said. "InEnglish, as I see now, interestingly, virginity is spoken of as a positiveproperty, and nonvirginity, in spite of its obvious and momentous importance,and even its necessity, presumably, for the continuation of the species, seemsto be regarded as being merely the absence of a property, or the privation of aproperty."
"Yes," I said. "It is as though the whole spectrum were divided into the blueand the nonblue. Properly understood the nonblue is every bit as real, and iseven more extensive and variegated than the blue."
"Yes," she said.
"It is thus that pathological conceptions, ingrained in common speech, canproduce 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 thedistinction is in terms of "glana' and "falarina. Separate words, these, areused for the separate properties or conditions. Both conditions, so to speak,are accorded a similar status. Both are regarded as being equally real, equallypositive, so to speak."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Sometimes, metaphorically, in English, however," I said, "a distinction isdrawn between the virgin and the woman, a distinction which is almost Gorean intone. 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 oneelse's. Such intimate matters are well within the prerogatives of her privacy."
"Such matters, however, I suspect," she said, "are not within the prerogativesof a slave's privacy."
"No," I said. "Such matters are public knowledge about slaves, as much as thecolor 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 willbe 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?" Iasked.
"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, andsoon, to see who can serve the masters best, and those who do not enterearnestly into this competition, it might be mentioned, are usually the first tobe 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. "Suchexpressions," I said, "are commonly to be spoken of, and by, free persons. Theyare 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 similarstatus. Both notions are equally positive, both properties are conceived of asbeing equally real."
"That is true," she said.
"To be sure," I said, "white in the context of "white-silk girl' tends less tosuggest purity and innocence to the Gorean than ignorance and naivety, and alack 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, forexample, not only to be able to find her way about the furs, but, subject to thewhip, owned and dominated, perhaps chained, to prove herself a sensuous treasurewithin them."
"I am red-silk," she said. "Have me."
"Perhaps," I said. I began to touch her, gently.
"Ohhh," she said, "yes."
"Do you like that?" I asked.
"Must I respond to such a question?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said. "I like it." She closed her eyes. "Oh, yes," she said,"I like it."
"Master," she said, looking up at me.
"Yes," I said.
"More than once tonight," she said, "you have mentioned binding, or chaining."
"Yes," I said.
"I would fear to be bound or chained," she said.
"All the more reason to bind or chain you," I said.
She shuddered.
"Master," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"Why would you bind a woman who is a slave?" she asked. "She knows that there isno escape for her. She is not going to run away. She knows that you may do withher as you please."
"It holds her in a given position," I said, "for your leisured work upon herbody."
"That is true," she said.
"But the primary reasons," I said, "are, as you might suspect, psychological,both from the point of view of the master and the slave. She, chained, or bound,is helpless. She knows that she might, at the master's whim, be slit like alarma. This increases her terror, her vulnerability, her desire to be foundpleasing. This makes her feel more slave like and, accordingly, more ready torespond to the touch of the master. From the master's point of view, of course,this is also stimulating. It is pleasant for a man to have absolute power over awoman, to have her bound or chained in a position of his choosing, and to knowthat she must submit to whatever be chooses to do to her. In this situation theequations of nature, those of dominance and submission, are intensified. This isfelt by both the master and the slave. Too, to be sure, there is, forphysiological reasons also, commonly, some boosting of the female's responses,as the result of the binding, the restraint. The orgasmic spasms, somewhatrestricted, or, perhaps better, channeled, regulated and controlled, confinedwithin the parameters set by the master, must then seem more intense, moreconcentrated."