Draft:Gay Hunter

Gay Hunter is a science fiction novel by J. Leslie Mitchell published in 1934. The book follows the eponymous Gay Hunter as she is transported into a future England destroyed by nuclear war. The book is similar to a previous novel of Mitchell's, Three Go Back, and can be considered a companion book, although instead going into the future rather than back into the past.

Plot
Gay Hunter is an archaeologist in southern England, investigating Stonehenge. On the road, she encounters Major Ledyl Houghton, a retired army officer and fascist, and gives him a ride to a hotel in Pewsey.

At dinner time, Gay runs into Houghton again. Their conversation turns to An Experiment with Time, and Gay explains a method to glimpse into the future. Houghton is skeptical, and Gay proposes to put it the test. That night, she attempts to look into the future.

Gay wakes up naked on a grassy bank at twilight. Pewsey is gone from sight, and she is surrounded by nothing but nature. She runs into Houghton, who is also without clothes, and Lady Jane Easterling, a fascist acquaintance of Houghton. Isolated and with no sign of civilization, the three decide to trek east for London.

On the road, they are attacked by wildlife, including a bear and a panther. Gay runs into a wolf, who seems to understand her. As she encounters the wolf, Houghton and Lady Jane clothe themselves with grass clothing, much to Gay's opposition.

Approaching Windsor, the wolf refused to go eastward, and Gay leaves him behind to stay with the fascists. The three discover Windsor to be a cratered wasteland. In a hole by River Thames leading into the room of a house, they discover half-eaten mummified remains. The exit caves in, separating Gay from the fascists, who had fled and abandoned her.

The wolf finds her in the hole, who Gay names Towser. The two head to the Chilterns, where Gay encounters a naked primitive hunter named Rem, the owner of Towser. To her surprise, Rem speaks English, which he knows from the "Voices." Rem points out that his folk are to the North-East of the Chilterns, and Gay decides to accompany him to them, the Folk of the Dam, who inhabit a 20th century dam nearby the Chilterns. A distant tower looms nearby the dam, the source of Rem's understanding of English, known as the Place of the Voices to the Folk.

In the underground reservoir of the Dam, the Folk had captured Lady Jane and Major Houghton and apprehended them for the killing of one of the Folk. After a light punishment, they are released. After Gay tells of her present, she is shunned as her present resembles the evil message of the voices. At the tower, Gay learns from ancient recordings that the world was destroyed in an atomic conflict between the Hierarchs and Sub-men. Disgusted with humanity, she decides to run west, but is pursued by Rem. They begin a relationship and Gay decides to return to the Dam.

While Gay was away, Major Houghton and Lady Jane had convinced forty of the Folk of the Dam to assist them in restoring England to a modern fascist state, starting with retaking London. From the direction of London, a beam fires. Eighty hunters begin a trek to London to retrieve the folk and stop Houghton and Jane. Gay, who accompanies the party, insists that she march to London alone, afraid that Houghton will use the beam to kill the hunters. Progressing through the forest near London, she climbs a tree to sleep in when the Beam fires again, bending into the forest and beginning a wildfire. Gay burns her heel but escapes from the flames.

As she approaches London, she encounters a man-sized rat. Upon reaching London, she is found and apprehended by rogue Folk of the Dam, and held in a phallic tower that had replace the cross of St. Paul's. Houghton and Jane meet her in the tower. Gay attempts to convince the fascists to stand down, while the fascists attempt to convince Gay to persuade the rest of the Folk to start a colony in London. Both refuse to the other's request. Jane leaves the door to the room where Gay is held open, allowing rats to enter and maul her. Houghton, behind Jane's back, frees Gay.

Gay flees London and tracks down Rem's hunting party. She leads them back to London. Gay runs into Nurse Geddes' old cottage, and suddenly London is destroyed. The surviving Folk of the Dam celebrate, and Gay is suddenly pulled back to her present.

Gay wakes up in the cottage of Nurse Geddes. To the present, Gay had been gone Six weeks. She thinks of the hunters and Rem, recollecting the events of the future, before the book ends with Gay whistling a song.

Characters

 * Gay Hunter, a young English-American archaeologist who ends up in the far distant future
 * Ledyard Houghton, a retired Major and fascist, who also ends up in future England with Gay
 * Lady Jane Easterling, an acquaintance of Major Ledyard Houghton, who also ends up in future England
 * Rem, a primitive hunter living in distant future ruins of England, Singer for the Folk of the Dam
 * Towser, the dog of Rem who finds Gay and leads her to Rem
 * Allalalaka, a flirtatious hunter of the Folk of the Dam
 * Liu, a woman with the Folk of the Dam
 * Nurse Geddes, the caretaker of Gay in her childhood who lives in a cottage near London

Style and Theme
Like many of Mitchell's novels, Gay Hunter is critical of the old, such as the corruption of modern society which Mitchell had felt contempt for. Mitchell was opposed and loathed fascism, and Gay Hunter was written during Hitler's rise to powe r. The ruined post-nuclear future of novel to also be a post-fascism future. Similar to Three Go Back, Gay Hunter reverts humanity and society to a primitive state, advocating for the ideas of primitivism, diffusionism, and naturism in opposition to modern society, fascism, and evolution. The conflicts of the Hierarchs and Sub-men, each representing fascism and communism, signifying the major conflict between the two ideologies.