AANR-Northwest
This week in the Northwest
*Saturday*
Halloween Party with theme of “Anything But Clothes” – Fraternity
Snoqualmie
Halloween Party – Lake Associates Recreation Club
Halloween Party – Lake Bronson Club
*Sunday*
Board Meeting – Fraternity Snoqualmie
Nudism and Science Fiction – by Mike Parker
Reprinted from the WellSpring
In the early 1960’s, the late Forrest J (Forry) Ackerman
nudist and penultimate science fiction fan (he won a HUGO award in 1953
for #1 Fan Personality), wrote an article in a nudist magazine with the
above title. Ackerman was the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland and
coiner of the abbreviated term “sci-fi”.
Some years back, your editor met Ackerman as well as famed authorRobert
L. Heinlein,
writer of far more than one book where nudity was featured. A rumor was
going around for years that Heinlein had been an early member of the
club now known as Mountain Air Ranch, which is the second oldest club in
the west. Subsequent to his death, we sent a query to his widow and
his estate agent asking if this was true. We received no answer. The
answer did come out recently in Heinlein’s posthumous biography,
published after the death of his widow, Virginia Heinlein, not long
ago. It acknowledged, in print, that Heinlein was indeed an early
member of that club. Did our request prompt this posthumous admission?
Perhaps.
Other major science fiction authors also have been nudists and some of
them were (and are) also members of our organization. Privacy concerns
prevent the release of their names.
Nudity was prominently featured in the late Phillip Jose Farmer
Riverworld
series, where each reincarnated person from Earth awoke as a young adult
and nude along the classic book series’ seemingly endless winding
river. Each time they died, they awoke in the same state, nude again,
still farther down the river.
Here is an on-line location where classic science fiction books are
reviewed by nudists:
http://io9.com/5889724/classic-science-fiction-novels-reviewed-by-nudists
. Another such location is: http://www.naturistplace.com/nudesf.htm
In space, no one can hear you scream and it definitely is too cold to
undress, but, inside the fictional literary space ships, perhaps they
truly were going where no one had gone before. And with nothing to wear!