Co-ed Naked Philosophy

by Forest, Will

  Mostly to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, I discussed the call with my colleagues and my wife, who all egged me on. I was flattered, confused, unable to sleep all week. Too concerned about ramifications on my fledgling career, I never did the striptease. But I did start writing, and little by little the writing became this novel.

  I have always considered nudity mundane, and yet fascinating, a contradiction born from our society’s mixed messages. In general, the characters and events in Co-ed Naked Philosophy spring from my years of practicing naturism, including reading about it in several languages and meeting some of the movement’s outstanding leaders in the US as well as Brazil.

  The splashy, nude-negative episodes that punctuate the first part of the novel come straight from the headlines: the concerned citizen asking to cover up a replica of the David statue; the cop detaining women drivers and forcing them to strip; the woman who threw her menstrual pad at a cop who was harassing her; young women (and men) working as strippers to pay tuition. However, some of the characters’ specific experiences, whether positive or negative, are based on my own. I did see a suspicious person fussing with his hat on my family’s visit to a non-official nude beach in Florida; he may well have been taking photos. It was still a great day at the beach, though, and I have also visited and had uniformly positive experiences at official nude recreation areas and nude 5K races. The enterprising sing-nude-for-a-buck naked Santa cyclist was someone I observed in traffic myself; he rode right off the street and into the novel!

  At the public university where I was employed in Alabama, the challenge of state-mandated viability, based on a minimum of 7.5 majors per year, proved transformational for some academic units, including the philosophy department. The references made by Christopher, Maggie, Jaime and other characters to matters of philosophy, mythology, religion, and art history are correct as far as I know. Their interpretations of the facts are, for the most part, mainstream.

  Angela’s research deserves special attention. The Fri Skola 5 in Stockholm is fictional, but the English Summerhill school that Angela mentions still exists. Although Summerhill is still known for its alternative curriculum, what no longer seems to characterize the school is its pioneering nudity, which was implemented upon its founding in 1921. There is no such organization (yet!) as the Institute for the Study of Cognitive Development, but associations of similar names exist. And there is a vast body of research on the matters that Angela studies, such as the effects of uniform (clothing) policies in schools, and the coordination of bodily movement with learning. Finally, the American Nudist Research Library certainly does exist, in Kissimmee, Florida, just as Angela states.

  I extend my gratitude to several anonymous readers and fiction workshop participants for their insights during the process of composing this novel. Deep and sincere thanks to my family, as well, for their patience and understanding.

  You can follow my work at nudescribe.blogspot.com, where you’ll see posts, tweets, poetry, links, and previews of upcoming titles!

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