Co-ed Naked Philosophy

This book is consummately well-written and it makes a very logical argument for public acceptance of nudity. Given, it assumes some rather unlikely outcomes in today’s society, but the theme and storyline is compelling.If only it could be this easy to start a nudist movement!

It is a shame to start off this review with criticism, but the initial chapter does too good a job of setting the stage and introducing characters. It gets bogged down in excessive sensory details. An introduction should be more like a watercolor painting, lightly suggesting details that will be filled in with photographic oil-painting details later. The reader can almost get bogged down with too much detail dump at the start of the story. But that very richness of detailed description serves the storyteller so well later that it actually becomes the best feature of the writing. Will Forest is introducing the engaging ideas and philosophy of the naturist/nudist lifestyle in a fictional account of a college philosophy professor's discovery and embracing of it. As Forest tells it, it becomes a sensual experience that is hard to find anywhere else in literature. This is a lovely story that goes a long way toward normalizing naturism. I highly recommend this book, even if you are only slightly interested in the naturist/nudist experience.

The author does a good job presenting many of the core benefits of nudism, but he really misses one: nudism is not about sexual arousal. In many places, he makes it very sexual, and parts of the book borderline on describing pornography—there are numerous mentions of erections and bouncing breasts and erotic touch just within the first quarter of the book; I gave up on the book when it described a sex scene in a strip club. If you are looking for a book that expresses nudism/naturism as family-friendly and non-sexual social nudity, this is not the book for you.

After reading this book, I only wish the events had happened just as described (and that I could have gone to school there). This depicts an academic year in the life of philosophy instructor Christopher Ross who is hoping to earn tenure at the university where he works. As someone who believes that public nudity should at least be legal, I enjoyed the book and the subject matter. The novel was episodic, with each episode spread throughout the standard school year, September through May (with a couple of really short chapters covering June and July at the end). There were times that things got a little too academic as some of the professors' lectures were covered in a little too much detail. There was an episode with a television reporter that seemed a bit too spontaneous and therefore difficult to swallow, but other than that, I really enjoyed this book. It was very well-written.

It was educational in the sense that it brought some of the finer points for appreciation of nudity. In my studies of many things historical, I find that bare skin was quite common throughout history even among those who we would not suspect of showing themselves. Since most folks take the story of Adam and Eve, quite literally in the contemporary view, and look no further, we distort Biblical accounts of such living. (As a pre-teen I learned that the average working girl in Egypt wore nothing. As a youth, I had an incomplete idea of what a naked girl looked like but pictured one at a typewriter in Pharaoh's outer office. Pharaoh didn't have typewriters?) That would have been in the time of Israel's slavery so it is likely the slaves went naked. See Isaiah 20 about God demanded nudity. The Romans didn't put little napkins across the genitals of those they crucified, although that's what we see now in "pictures" of Jesus. Cloth was expensive to produce so many slaves in Roman times went without clothing. It is likely that a Roman woman shopping had naked slave, men and women, along to carry purchases. (Paper or plastic?) Until about the seventh century baptisms were performed with both the baptizer and the baptizee removed their clothes and went into the water (for immersion, which is what baptizo meant.) Some of these points were made with many more.

I would very much like to have gone to that college and participated in those classes. Whether nudity in class actually improves learning and class participation or not, as the study in the story suggests, I would certainly have liked to try it myself and see if it works for me. And I wish the world at large were as accepting of social nudity as this story suggests. It is a delightful fantasy that I wanted to jump into.

When naked people get together, the course of conversation is predictable, "Isn't this weather great? Isn't it great to be naked? Where else have you been naked? Wouldn't it be great if we could be naked ____?" At first, this finely-wrought novel seemed to be a fantastical excursion on the last topic -- what if there were a naked college? Absurd. Right? Then, as I read along, I realized I had, in a way, lived it. SUNY-Binghamton, where I went to college in the late '70s and early '80s, had an institution known as Lake Empire -- a retreat center owned by the student association where clothing was optional, and students (along with a few professors), shed their inhibitions and their clothes. As in Forest's novel, the sensibility was not so much about licentiousness as about freedom and joy. Such places as Forest describes do exist. We just need more of them.

It's appallingly badly written, but I did quite enjoy it nonetheless

a well written book it is difficult to fault the logic that they follow in becoming nudists and I am sure many people will read it and say only if. The problem is that society on a whole would not accept the view

A fun read. Our hero, a mild mannered college teacher and philosopher, observes two naked people emerge from the sea and walk off up the shore to a known nudist beach.From that point on he gets drawn into naturism and he gets arrested, finds a girlfriend, becomes embroiled in college politics ...His students start a national movement ....Does he get the girl? Keep his job?A very funny book

Entertaining read - numerous characters, viewpoints and ideas. The most interesting book involving naturism I have yet read.

A serious philosophical look at the whole range of the clothing optional and naktive movement which still manages to be a readable novel. Total fantasy of course but very enjoyable for all that.The idea of 'corperal freedom' the freedom to be naked is a great opening for naturism to get away from the closet of the private club.