NAKEDNESS

ISBN-13: 978-0-9652085-1-2
Writer: Richard Ungewitter

Τitle:Nakedness in an Historical, Hygienic, Moral and Artistic Light
Translated from the German by Tessa Wilson
Introduction: Cec Cinder
Language: English

Edition: First Edition

Place of Publication: Riverside, CA
Publisher: The Ultraviolet Press
Year of Publication: 2005

Format: 150x228mm

Pages: lxv+93
Illustrations: 15 black and white pictures and sketches by Bili Turner
Front Cover Design by Arden Williams
Binding: Paperback with duotone covers

Weight: 269gr.
Entry No.: 2006008
Date of Entry: 17th April 2006

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Why should a book written in German almost exactly a century ago,  and never hitherto translated into English, be of any interest to modern readers?

The answer is that this book introduced a radical idea into the civilized discourse–the conviction that people of both sexes and all ages can associate together “stark” naked without precipitating an orgy.

Actually, anthropologists will confirm that in the world's more primitive (tropical) cultures the less clothing worn the less lubricity. Indeed, the women, accustomed to near or complete nakedness in their usual ambience, soon grow uncomfortable and cover up when exposed to the leering gazes of the more moronic–invariably male–Western visitors.

Today, after a century of growth–despite ubiquitous official suppression–the number of nudists planetwide is estimated at about fifteen million, a conglomeration that if brought together geographically would equal the population of the Netherlands or Syria.

But the Nudist Nation exists only in the hearts and minds of its “citizens,” its adherents. Its “terrain” ranges from the primitive and temporary use of remote and public lands to the patronage of posh, well-established and perfectly legal. multi-million-dollar resorts.

At any rate, even their most outspoken and virulent opponents cannot with any credibility claim that nudists are “crazy” human beings. Though they may vary as widely in characteristics as the general population, the citizens of the Nudist Nation are united upon a single belief–that the notion that certain body parts might be considered “indecent” or “obscene” is nonsense, usually religious nonsense.

This book was the first extended exploration the world had ever seen of the cluster of conceptions that formed the basis of the movement, which, originating  in Germany, spread eventually to all corners of the Western world. Nakedness is the movement's Old Testament, or at least its Pentateuch.