Eric Frank Russell		The Great Explosion

First published by Dobson, 1962. Panther paperback published 1964.

Eric Frank Russell was one of several British SF writers, who provided much of the content of the "pulp" magazines of the 40s and 50s. If some of his basic plots are well-worn, he normally manages to introduce a new twist or two, and his leading characters are always three-dimensional. The stories have a distinctly period feel in these politically-correct times. Men (and males of alien species) usually fall into cliché categories such as hero, wimp and stuffed-shirt, whilst any females are usually just for decoration.

The title The Great Explosion refers to the sudden development of economic faster-than-light travel. This allowed "every family, cult, group or clique that imagined it could do better someplace else" to leave Earth in search of a planet to call their own. This spontaneous and totally unregulated "Great Explosion" left Earth more than a bit shell-shocked - not to mention quiet, and even rather boring. Eventually, adminstrators decide they have to find out what has become of the emigrants, ostensibly to tie them into a network of mutual support. If this allows a galactic empire to be formed, so much the better.

Russell's book started life as a novella, And Then There Were None. First published in 1950, this excellent tale has featured in many anthologies. As well as providing The Great Explosion's chapters 8 through 12, And Then There Were None also mentions several collections of the disaffected which made up the diaspora. Two characters talk about related groups, the naturists and the Doukhobors, who settled on Hygeia, and there's a bit of banter about the problems which ensue when uniforms, like all clothing, is unacceptable to the natives.

For The Great Explosion, these idle remarks are expanded into an episode on Hygeia of comparable length and complexity to And Then There Were None. Russell's delightfully shambolic collection of military and diplomatic dunderheads find it difficult to believe that the Naturists and the Doukhobors will have retained their clothes-loathing over the decades since leaving Earth. They discover that the reverse is true, with clothing not just the subject of disapproval, but treated with outrage. In good naturist tradition, a major split has developed, so that the Naturists and the Doukhobors, are almost at war. Sadly, Russell provides little information about the "Douks", beyond the fact that they were the original settlers, allowing naturist immigration because there appeared to be shared ideals. Social evolution has driven the Naturists to develop the concept of a healthy mind in a healthy body, to the point where it is the leitmotiv of society. Fanatical about cleanliness, teetotalism and exercise, while abhoring "un-natural" aids such as glasses, the Naturists regard most of the visitors as dreadful apologies for the glories of the human body.

Russell makes some good points about whether the emigrants are lunatics, now happily occupying asylums of their own, or if it is those who dream of empire who are the real lunatics. The novel's collection of asylums are each logical in their own terms, yet clearly nutty from a conventional point of view. Stripping Earth of its fanatics has left it more than a little stodgy, occupying a dull middle-ground. The horror with which the visitors view the convictions of the radical emigrants is amusingly portrayed, and the combination of shame and fascination with which the Naturists are regarded is, of course, a close parallel with attitudes we know and encounter today from some bigots. A couple of examples are shown in the extracts, including both novel and novella versions of an exchange from the And Then There Were None material - or you can read the whole thing online at The Memory Hole.

Readers who aren't keen on space opera might find the book a little irritating, but Russell is easy to read, with the accent on entertainment. In 1962, an SF novel rarely exceeded 200 pages, and trilogies were uncommon. The pulps provided something to read on the bus, rather than material to be debated on Newsnight Review. Forget about critical analysis and high-brow intellectual stimulus, sit back and enjoy this light-hearted journey through the backwaters of Western idiosynchrasies.

Exposure

First published in Astounding (July 1950 US issue, December 1950 British issue). Anthologised in Operation Future (Conklin, 1955), Flying Saucers (Asimov, Greenberg and Waugh, 1975) and the Eric Frank Russell collection Like Nothing On Earth (1960?). Outside SF-only publications, it also appears in Let's Go Naked, compiled in 1952 by that prolific and accomplished SF editor, Donald A. Wollheim.

In 1950, Russell produced this short story involving social nudity. Exposure starts off as an apparently formulaic alien invasion tale, but there are several twists along the way. No extracts, as it would spoil the enjoyment of these twists for a first-time reader.

Ratings (primarily for The Great Explosion):

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2005 March 19.
 
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