By: Jason (aka AGoreanRPer)

Tarl Cabot: the quintessential example of how to live or how not to live?

I was rereading thru the Gor novels again lately and one thing that has always bothered me reared its head again. Tarl Cabot is in the novels as the main archetype hero figure yet he often is quite lost and following along his opponents like a small dog chasing a butterfly thru a pasture.

Throughout the series of novels, from Tarnsman where Tarl blindly follows the tasks set before him by his father to Nomads where Tarl is always the last one to figure out what and who are the important things to Assassins where Tarl is always a step behind Marlenus and Cernus to Hunters where Tarl plays second fiddle to most everyone including Sarus, Marlenus,Verna, and in the end even Samos to Tribesmen where Tarl does a repeat of his actions from Nomads in which he is again slow on the uptake to figure out who and what are the major things happening as he rushes from point to point led by allies and enemies alike to Explorers where Tarl is led along by Shaba to the end of the series novels Players, Mercenaries, Dancer, Renegades, Vagabonds, and Magicians where Tarl is a step and a thought behind most everyone on Gor other than the slaves.

Over and over again the pattern exerts itself. Tarl Cabot, the hero of the series, heads out either to do the work that others need him to do or to undertake a scheme or plot that he himself initiates only to find himself reacting to everyone else and rarely in charge of events around him. Indeed there are only brief events scattered thru the books such as his leading the revolts in Outlaw, events in the second half of Raiders where he organizes the defense of Port Kar, parts of Beasts and Marauders, and the end of Magicians where Tarl Cabot is in control of both his own actions and the events happening around him. Here is this character put forth as the quintessential Gorean archetype of living by Gorean ideals yet he remains almost completely without control over the majority of his existance and the events that affect his life.

Yet at this point my line of thought took a different turn. I wandered across one of my favorite lines from the novels. In Guardsman there is a line that goes "Goreans are only human." We often have little to no control of what goes on in our lives. Between job commitments, family commitments, community factors, and various other reasons, we all find ourselves at the whim of life and like Tarl Cabot in Tribesmen find ourselves darting along from oasis to oasis doing the best we can all the while never seeing the entire picture or knowing quite as much as we think we do. There is always a piece of information or an interaction wanted within our lives that keeps us wondering just what is ahead of us or just what is going on. It is the uncertainty in life, this fact that we are only human. It ties us all together and keeps us all on even ground.

That is the real example Tarl Cabot is in the books, not the fact that he stopped all the Kur plots or pleasured every slave girl he came across, but rather that even though he was often missing information and reacting to what others did, he still put his all forward in life and lived his experiences to their fullest. It didn't matter that he was far from the smartest, indeed he often in the novels played Kaissa and lost game after game to all manner of people, yet he still got great joy out of playing and watching the game be played. Winning was less important than enjoyment and best possible effort. That is the example we need to take from Tarl Cabot. As a hunter in the books said, the larl is not hunted because it is easy prey but rather it is hunted because it is dangerous and hard to hunt. It was a challenge, and that challenge is what made it worth doing. We don't have to pretend to know it all, or act like we have absolute control over everything around us. It's acceptable to admit that we are human. Indeed, it is in embracing our humanity, flaws and all, that enables us to get the fullest pleasures and joys out of life.

- Jason
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