Mack Reynolds

Commune 2000 A.D.

First published in the USA and Canada by Bantam Books in paperback, 1974 January.

According to the information on the author provided in this book's "Endpapers", Mack Reynolds was a freelance writer specialising in SF from 1950. The name was new to me, which means nothing - either I hadn't come across his work before, or I had but it didn't cause me to remember the author - so I looked him up in some reference works, still without sparking any recognition. Reynolds published widely, using various names: Clark Collins, Guy McCord, Mark Mallory, Dallas Ross, Maxine Reynolds, Todd Harding. He never used his full given name Dallas McCord Reynolds.

Commune 2000 A.D. is just one of a range of Reynolds' stories set in or around the year 2000, "dealing with the problems that will confront us at that time" (according to the endpapers). This particular book postulates a world in which automation has made manual labour redundant, so that the vast majority of the population live on a generous "Universal Guaranteed Income". Some informal collections of individuals have arisen which establish static or semi-mobile communities dedicated to particular lifestyles. Amongst the special-interest groups these communes cater for are homosexuals, artists, nudists, 18-30s, and fitness fanatics aiming to emulate ancient Greece.

In some respects, Reynolds comes across as a dedicated hippy - and even includes an ageing hippy in the book (seen on the cover of the Italian edition of the book above) to illustrate how commune attitudes evolved from 1960s/70s roots. There's also a fair amount of sex, and, as you can read in the extracts, it is not just the book's textile hero Theodore "Ted" Swain who gets plenty of "free love" - the nudist commune apparently regards ready availability of sexual activity as important. This goes beyond even what I understand to be the regime in the sex-and-social-nudity clubs to be found in England today, since Reynold's nudists regard all areas, including the commune's reception area, as suitable for sex.

Reynolds reminds me a little of Robert Rimmer, in that he sees the future in terms of an extension of aspects of hippy culture. But Commune 2000 A.D. is a much easier read than Rimmer's sociological soapboxes, and, to me, much more interesting. The idea that technology will eliminate labour seems bizarre these days, but around 1970 it really did seem that by 2000 the big problem in the developed world would be coping with a day devoted primarily to leisure - as those with fond memories of Tomorrow's World should be able to confirm. Reynolds also postulates a near-future slang including a fair sprinkling of 1970's buzzwords, such as "far-out", but with many new terms, including "poke", "razzle" and "spin", being commonplace, sometimes with a different meaning to their early incarnations. Fortunately, this is not taken to the point of obtrusiveness, as it's not done as subtly or convincingly as in, for example, A Clockwork Orange.

Although I wouldn't recommend searching out this book as a "must read", it is of interest in indicating ways in which various 1960s/70s trends and aims of alternative cultures within Western Europe and North America might have been developed. About the only aspect of the actual year 2000 which matches the fictional one is the searchable 'net and the extension of massive (linked) databases to cover every aspect of a citizen's life. Perhaps one more is that social nudity is still seen as a minority interest in Reynold's hypothetical future, notwithstanding his (unrealised) expectation that women would go top-free much of the time in California.

Ratings:

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2006 January 9.
 
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