Nude exposure in Asimov

Isaac Asimov's "The Naked Sun": Gladia's first appearance

Detective Elijah Baley is from an overpopulated Earth, where lack of privacy has made everyone very prudish. With his robot partner Daneel, he's investigating a murder on the planet Solaria, where all communication is by absolutely realistic trimensional projection. Excerpts from "The Naked Sun" follow:

The robot said 'Masters, contact is made and approved. When you are ready it will be completed.'

'Ready', growled Baley, and as though the word were a signal, the far half of the room was alive with light...

It was a bathroom he was staring at. What might have been the shower stall, a large one, was shielded off by nothing that seemed material, but rather by a trick of lighting that set up a wall of shimmering opacity...

[Gladia Delmarre, after speaking to them (hidden) for a little while, needs to summon a robot.]

She stepped out of the drying cabinet, her hand extended toward the contact patch, still talking. 'I'm always thinking I ought to have more than one contact patch in this room. A house is just no good if it doesn't have a patch within reach wherever you stand - say not more than five feet away. It just - Why, what's the matter?'



She stared in shock at Baley, who, having jumped out of his chair and upset it behind him, had reddened to his hairline and hastily turned away.

Daneel said calmly, 'It would be better, Mrs Delmarre, if after you have made contact with the robot, you would return to the stall or, failing that, proceed to put on some articles of clothing.'

Gladia looked down at her nudity in surprise and said 'Well, of course.'

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A quote from Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves", about a colony on the moon:

Denison tried to beat down his self-consciousness. Time and again, he made a groping motion as though to hitch upward the pants he wasn't wearing. He wore only sandals and the barest of briefs, which were uncomfortably tight. And, of course, he carried the blanket.

Selene, who was similarly accoutered, laughed. "Now, Ben, there's nothing wrong with your bare body, barring a certain flabbiness. It's perfectly in fashion here. In fact, take your briefs off if they're binding you."

"No!" muttered Denison. He shifted the blanket so that it draped over his abdomen and she snatched it from him.

She said, "Now give me that thing. What kind of Lunarite will you make if you bring your Earth puritanism here? You know that prudery is only the other side of prurience. The words are even on the same page in the dictionary."

"I have to get used to it, Selene."

"You might start by looking at me once in a while, without having your glance slide off me as if I were coated with oil. You look at other women quite efficiently, I notice."

"If I look at you --"

"Then you'll seem too interested and you'll be embarrassed. But if you look hard, you'll get used to it, and you'll stop noticing. Look, I'll stand still and you stare. I'll take off my briefs."