You're Another

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You're Another

Overview
You're Another is a science fiction short story by American writer Damon Knight. It first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in June 1955 and was later collected in Far Out (1961). The story is notable for an early depiction of reality television and the idea that past events are staged for entertainment.

Plot
Johnny Bornish, a young painter in New York, is famously unlucky—getting his shirt caught in zippers, trapped by elevators, and tripping over pebbles. His friend Duke lends him fifty dollars and suggests a trip to Florida to change his luck. At the airport, Johnny realizes his troubles began ten years earlier when he found a strange Japanese coin in high school. He tries to get rid of the coin, but it keeps returning. A mysterious device—along with the coin—appears, and their powers become connected.

As Johnny and Duke explore, the devices reveal a startling truth: Johnny is actually an actor playing a painter in a live “livie” (reality) show, where the past is recreated for entertainment. They are transported to a future film set where the director explains that the past is continually being staged for viewers. In Johnny’s supposed 1950s life, Duke planned to use Johnny’s apartment for a murder and pin it on him. Johnny convinces the director to rewrite the script so that he becomes the hero and Duke the comic villain. He returns to the present and surprises Duke as he’s about to enter Johnny’s apartment. Duke says, “Johnny, my boy, you’re a character.” Johnny replies, “You’re another,” recognizing that Duke’s life is also a fictional role.

Publication details
- Short story by Damon Knight, United States, in English.
- First published June 1955 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
- Later included in the Far Out collection (1961) by Mercury Press.

See also
- Simulated reality
- Reality television