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Author Barely Stays Ahead Of The Future With Transparent Jeans
At a recent book signing, author Gary Shteyngart discussed his views on modern culture and technology.
Here's the relevant quote from his new novel Super Sad True Love Story:
And the actual "transparent jeans".
When asked if he was concerned that some of the futuristic details of the novel would become outdated, he said that has already begun. “I created Onionskin jeans as a joke. Two months after the book came out, models in Paris were wearing completely transparent jeans on the runway.”
We wended our way through a half-kilometer of racks and hit upon the Onionskin outlet... Women, tired and aggrieved, were plowing through the brand's signature transparent jeans, hanging like rigid, empty skins in the center of the Retail space.
(Transparent Jeans)
Of course, SF writer Philip K. Dick was about a half-century ahead in thinking about similar women's fashions, like the plastirobe from his 1954 short story Sales Pitch:
She leaped to her feet. "Let's go out tonight and celebrate. Okay?" Her slim fingers fumbled at the zipper of her shorts. "I'll put on my new plastirobe, the one I've never had nerve enough to wear."Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she hurried into the bedroom. ""You know the one I mean? When you're up close it's translucent but as you get farther off it becomes more and more sheer until -"
"I know the one," Morris said wearily. "I've seen them advertised on my way home from work..."
(Read more about Dick's plastirobe)
From Electric Literature; thanks to the anonymous reader who tipped me on this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/6/2011)
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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