Disrobing Suspense

With the aim of contributing more to the general discussion around naturist fiction, and following up on recent posts by Robert and Paul here on this site, I’d like to call attention to a series of interviews with writers of naturist fiction (and/or fiction strongly aligned with naturism) that I’ve been compiling over the years. “Disrobing Suspense” began some ten years ago when I had just published Co-ed Naked Philosophy. I had contacted naturist fiction pioneer Tom Pine for some advice – we had a very pleasant phone conversation, and he became one of my first interviewees. I reached out as well to Grace Crowley and Cor van de Sande for the initial run of three interviews. These interviews set out to examine how naturist writers deal with issues particular to our content, such as how (and how often) to indicate characters’ nudity, and whether the build-up to a textile character’s eventual nudist epiphany constitutes a unique kind of “disrobing suspense.” It’s quite interesting to see how such a small sample (three, plus my own thoughts on the matter) varies widely, especially regarding the extent to which disrobing could be a part of the suspense or even an important plot point.

A distinguishing feature of the interviews is that each includes a sample from the writer’s work. In the case of Grace Crowley’s The Bare Pit, the example is of course as much illustration as it is verbal narrative. Some years later I continued the series with interviews of this site’s co-writers Paul and Robert, as well as Nick Alimonos, DH Jonathan, and Wallace Greensage. Quite obviously, I need to get back to work and continue the series with folks like Ted Bun, Michael Beyer, Ahmed Raafat, Martin Brant, Matthew Black, and Andrew Calow among others. I sincerely hope to continue when possible!

What is also quite obvious is that we need to encourage more women and non-binary writers of naturist fiction. I’m very thankful that some of the contributors to the “In the Nudist Colony” series are women, and I encourage them to write much more! It’s also important to recognize the many women who have contributed invaluable works to the area of naturist studies more broadly, such as Annebella Pollen’s Nudism in a Cold Climate, Sarah Schrank’s Free and Natural: Nudity and the American Cult of the Body, Ruth Barcan’s Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy, Luz del Fuego’s A Verdade Nua (The Naked Truth), all the way back to Jan Gay’s 1932 On Going Naked, among many others.

In the end, and of course this is good news – if you love reading, and you love naturism, there is always a lot of material!