Help me find a hazily-remembered short story!

May 6, 2020 8:04 PM

What I remember: several characters (who may be aliens?!) are observing people on the street, maybe in L.A., and are being weirded out by the breast implants and lip augmentations they're seeing. They have a pretty long conversation about how embarrassing it is to see people's anxieties playing out in such a public way, visible to strangers.

That's basically all I remember.

If I had to guess I'd say I read it 20+ years ago but that seems unlikely, because I don't think lip augmentation was a thing before the 2000s. I have no idea where I read it, and it could have been written by practically anybody. (I think the tone and style reminded me of Ray Bradbury, but it obviously wasn't him. I think it was a male author though.)

Sorry this is so hazy! Probably half of what I've written here is wrong and just blanks I've filled in with false memories. But I think about this story a couple of times a year, and I would love to find it again. Thank you for any help you can provide!

posted by Susan PG to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

This probably isn't the book you're thinking of, but Generation X by Douglas Coupland has its cast of burned-out young people living in L.A. around 1990 and making wry observations about society. I don't think your anecdote is in the book but it would fit right in.
posted by mekily at 9:24 PM on May 6, 2020

Response by poster: Ahhhhh no it wasn't Generation X: I just checked. But that was an inspired guess -- I used to love that book, and it could have been that book. Thank you :)
posted by Susan PG at 5:40 PM on May 7, 2020