Intertexts, Zombies and Multiple Selves

Came across a note suggesting a piece of research. That is, whether the multiple protagonists (whose names all begin with "J") who populate The Female Man by Joanna Russ might in small part be connected to the "Jane" hero of a Robert Heinlen short story entitled "— All You Zombies —". Not having the Heinlein at hand, I did a search and found a lovely synopsis through Wikipedia

"'—All You Zombies—'" chronicles a young man (later revealed to be intersex) taken back in time and tricked into impregnating his younger, female self (before he underwent a sex change); he thus turns out to be the offspring of that union, with the paradoxical result that he is both his own mother and father. As the story unfolds, all the major characters are revealed to be the same person, at different stages of her/his life.

Also found that:

"All You Zombies" is the title of a chapter in the John Varley novel Millennium, a time-travel story which uses the titles of famous time-travel stories as chapter titles.

A direct link between Heinlein and Russ may be a stretch, still the parallels are worth exploring.

And so for day 582
17.07.2008