John Brunner
	Quicksand

First published by Sidgwick & Jackson, 1969. Sphere paperback published 1970.

John Brunner died in 1995, after more than forty years of success as an science fiction writer. His most popular works include Stand On Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up. Brunner was more interested in people than in technology, and his writing is full of complex characters. He is one of the few in SF who never produced work that was less than good - at least, that is my opinion.

Quicksand tells the story of a strange young woman found naked in a wood. Dubbed "Urchin" as the best approximation to what she calls herself, she is taken in by the local mental hospital. Her origins are obscure, and she has both intriguing abilities and perplexing inabilities, along with some distinctly different ways of looking at the world and its inhabitants. One of these differences concerns clothing. She is happy to wear clothes, but has no problem with nudity. This is not at all the way the rest of the characters think, as can be seen in the extract.

An active socialist, Brunner took part in (and wrote about) the Aldermaston "Ban The Bomb" marches, and many of his stories consider how pacificism of various forms interacts with more warlike attitudes. His writing also shows up his strong beliefs in racial and sexual equality. Therefore I think it is a shame that he didn't decide to investigate the contrasts between sexual and non-sexual nudity more. Even so, I have no hesitation in recommending everyone to read anything by John Brunner that they come across! Following that recommendation myself, I found and read The World Swappers and Bedlam Planet - dispelling the idea that Quicksand was the only instance of naturist nudity in Brunner's work:

The World Swappers

First published by Ace Books Inc, 1959. (Prior and/or subsequent UK publication likely but not yet traced)

In this earlier work, mankind has colonised some nearby planets - clearing Earth of various troublesome factions and classes of humanity (note that Eric Frank Russell's The Great Explosion has a similar background). One of the colonies is Ymir, a bleak, near-frozen world, well-suited (in Brunner's view?) to a very repressive fundamentalist religious sect. Two brief references in the text indicate that Brunner knew something of naturism, and that he regarded naturist nudity as an inevitable commonplace in an advanced society, to the extent that it hardly needs mentioning. That second aspect closely mirrors my analysis of how H G Wells thought. I suspect some would complain about the term "naturist colony", but in 1959 that description was, perhaps, not uncommon.

Bedlam Planet

First published by Ace Books Inc, 1968. (Prior and/or subsequent UK publication likely but not yet traced)

As the culmination of a project dominating Earth's economy for a decade, a small colony is established on a planet of Sigma Draconis. Despite a hospitable ecosystem and abundant natural resources, the colonists encounter a range of problems. As might be expected from John Brunner, mind has to become subordinate to spirit before true resolutions of the difficulties can begin to be approached. In the course of the story several characters get naked in public - with no sexual overtones or sensationalism, and little comment. This nakedness is almost incidental to the main plot, but quoting enough of the text to demonstrate its naturist-like character would constitute a "spoiler", so there are no extracts this time.

Good Men Do Nothing

First published by Hodder and Stoughton, 1970.

Brunner wrote a total of three (non-SF) books about agent-for-hire Max Curfew. A buccaneer, agent provocateur and occasional journalist, Curfew carries a large chip on his shoulder. Having spent his early years in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, he has good reason for his strong sense of justice, and for feeling that most of the Western world hasn't the faintest idea of what true freedom is really like. While his appearance and skills are not disimilar to John Ball's Virgil Tibbs, Curfew has "bad attitude" in place of Tibbs's stoicism and sweet reason. However, this rejection of the false standards of supposedly polite society extends to Curfew being quite happy to sunbathe nude when the circumstances allow - as described in the extract. If you would like to see what happens when the archetypal suave Bond-style secret agent is replaced by Shaft, do try these stories: A Plague On Both Your Causes, Good Men Do Nothing and Honky In The Woodpile, like almost all Brunner's work, these are long out of print, but they are readily available from online second-hand dealers.

Catch a Falling Star

First published in paperback by ACE in the USA, 1968.

In this story about Earth's far future, humanity's numbers are sparse. Communities are mostly small and isolated, but none of those in the tale espouse social nudity. However, individuals and societies generally accept nudity without comment or criticism. Included only for completeness, and omitted from the indexes because the instances of nudity are essentially incidental.

Children of the Thunder

First published in paperback by Sphere, 1990.

One of Brunner's last works, this is also - in many respects - one of his darkest. Less than a decade ahead of the time of writing, Brunner portrays the British economy and society collapsing (not exactly a new scenario for a Brunner novel), and much of the rest of the world is doing little better. A medical / scientific journalist and a sociologist try to track down some adolescents with very singular talents. Clearly, there are echoes of John Wyndham's Midwych Cuckoos, Brunner's own The Stone That Never Came Down and many other tales. But this is a very original story, told with all of Brunner's usual passion and attention to detail. One episode takes place at a progressive private school which, like Dartington School (see Patrick Raymond's Daniel and Esther, and Eva Ibbotson's A Song for Summer), has no rule against nudity. Instead, "we're all encouraged to be terribly natural and healthy about our bodies and boys and girls share the same dormitory and go to the showers together and all the rest of it". Again included only for completeness, and omitted from the indexes because there's no real social nudity in the story itself.

Ratings (which apply to all six books):

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2006 September 23.
 
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