Headscratchers / —All You Zombies—

• So when he says "all you zombies", what is he talking about, exactly? I'm fairly sure he means metaphorical zombies, but other than that, I'm not very sure at all. Is it some kind of reference to the inherent predeterminism of being in a Stable Time Loop? His choices aren't his own, therefore he's like a zombie, and it's "all you zombies" because there are seemingly multiple iterations of him? I mean, I can guess, but it seems awfully cryptic to me.
  • I'm pretty sure it's philosophical zombies: he knows he's real, because he created himself. Other people he's not so sure of.
  • I've heard two possible interpretations of that passage, and they might both be true - the first is that the Zombies in question are his past selves - after all, he seems to be addressing someone who is likely one of his past selves ("you really aren't there", "I miss you terribly") and in a way, they're dead now, forever in his past. The other interpretation is nearly identical to the entry directly above me, that he is talking to everyone else. He has spent 25 years of his life as no less than 4 different people - the child in the orphanage, the young woman, the re-assigned surly writing man, and the seducing drifter. He has met himself and his future self knows all too well the emotions and thoughts of his younger self. How would you view other people after having that experience?
  • Almost certainly the zombies are the other people in the world. The first titles that Heinlein considered for the story were "The Egoist" and "The Solipsist". (Source: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=730952 ). We find the idea of a Stable Time Loop weird. Jane finds the idea of a person who did not create himself or herself weird.
  • Never considered that he means all the zombies already gulped down in the bar?
• How did the drifter not recognize his past female self?
  • He did recognize her. As the narrator points out, it's apparently natural for people to want to bond with their past selves when they cross paths in person, even sexually. He fell in love with the young girl he used to be and no longer was. The only reason he ran out on her is because his future self came to take him away. At least, that's what I gathered from the story.
• Here's the big one: how does the main character even exist?
  • Give one reason why they shouldn't.
    • Bootstrap paradox aside, the genetics really shouldn't work out for this level of narcissism.
    • Why not? It only have to work once (and it already has). Plus, the big question: are we even sure about how human the main character even is? They are just similar enough for doctors to work of them (assuming they even are correct, it might honestly be the reason the delivery gets botched) but they are actually completely separated from humanity. For all intent and purpose, they are a different species for which these genetics work.
  • In fact, they have the same question about regular humans. And they turn out to be right — we vanish when they take headache medicine.