"---All You Zombies---" was written by Robert Heinlein (follow link for his bio) and was first published in 1959. Heinlein is considered as a Science fiction writer who was apart of a Golden Age which is often seen as a time of heavy experimentation and pushing of boundaries, in other words, a time of revolution in Science Fiction. Much of his work is seen to meld the best of Fantasy and Science Fiction genre writing togther.^[1]

This narrative is told from the point-of-view of an unnamed time traveler part of a larger agency of time travelers. What little information we are given about the agency leads the reader to have a sense of militaristic or FBI-like organization in charge of regulating time travel and resolving paradoxes and recruiting. As you read, think about the diction (word choice) Heinlein utilizes to describe or refer to this organization indirectly, as our narrator never describes it out right.

Similarly, Heinlein takes his time revealing the relationship of this narrator to the "Unmarried Mother" and of course, I won't spoil the read going into too much detail. However, this is the second time, remember the Man Who Folded Hismelf, we have been introduced to this concept of fascination with one's self, being able to encounter yourself at different points in time. It takes the notion of "self love" to a whole new level.  

 <<<Image on left utilizes the ouroboros as an emblem of mortality, the baby as a figure of birth beside a skull representing death^[2]

This is the second time we have a reference made to the ouroboros, world snake. Once again, the ouroboros is traditionally seen as an"emblem of the eternal and indivisible, and of cyclic time."^[3]

The word ouroboros comes from the Greek and literally means "devouring its tail." Within the actual depiction of the ouroboros, the image has been variously interpreted as "combining the creation symbolism of the egg (the space within the circle), the terrestrial (earthly) symbolism of the serpent and the celestial symbolism of the circle."^[4]

posted by JM Venturini on 06/02/09.

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