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Although the book makes references to musical groups of the time, it still holds up. This is reflected by book sales and by the fact that Ellis is still asked about the characters in this novel. There has been talk of a movie remake.
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Nihilism is not a new phenomena. Dostoevesky explored it, to some length, in the 1800's.. Russian teens had embraced it, without benefit of goth music or the internet. Baudelaire and Shelly wrote of wanton excess decades ago. Like it or not, there is glamour in destruction, especially when it's decked out in designer duds and attractive people. Ellis lets us watch with the the insider's scoop usually reserved for the annonymous National Inquirer writer.
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In l985 the kids were not all right; they were starting to melt under all that Hollywood sun. Reality television had yet to be invented, but Ellis wrote of it. He came from the Hills and these were his homies. Hollywood is a land of illusion and pretend, with what's on the outside that counts. "Less Than Zero" reveals that how the worship of the superficial causes one to lose themselves...to disappear here.
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Decades later, Clay is brought back as the main character in "Imperial Bedrooms.". He was a blank canvas in the earlier book. Nature, abhorring a vacuum, allowed something to occupy that space; that being a person who beats women, somebody who would sell out his friend.
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Clay, Trent, Rip, Blair and the others had been taught the names of all the right bands to listen to and all the cool designer labels. What they had not learned was right and wrong and how to figure out what they truly believed. As a result, they needed the images on the screen to tell them who they were. Without it, they didn't exist. Clay no longer needed the billboard to disappear, or drugs, as he himself was the void. Perhaps our constant need to take selfies is emblematic of this.
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