Pamela Zoline (or Pamela Lifton-Zoline; born 1941) is an American science fiction writer and painter.
Background edit
Zoline was born in Chicago, Illinois, but lived in the United Kingdom, especially London, for the first two decades of her life.[1][2] She studied at the Slade School of Art in London.[3]
Writing edit
Zoline is admired for her experimental approach to both the form of the short story and the genre of science fiction, especially for using the language of science to interrogate the scientific world view. Among science fiction fans, she is best known for her short story "The Heat Death of the Universe", published in 1967 in New Worlds. Called a "classic" of the genre by contemporary scholars,[4][5][6] it has been frequently reprinted since its original publication.[7]
"Heat Death" is structured in a loosely encyclopedic style, with 54 numbered paragraphs narrated in a deliberately matter-of-fact third-person voice. It centers on a day in the life of middle-class housewife Sarah Boyle as she goes about preparing her children's breakfast and organizing a birthday party. Boyle's domestic sphere is presented as a possibly closed system analogous to the universe itself, and Boyle as subject to the ravages of literal and metaphorical entropy.[2] As the narrative veers back and forth among scientific explanations, descriptions of household events, and philosophical speculation, the cumulative effect is of a mind and a culture on the verge of collapse.
Zoline went on to publish further stories in magazines including The New SF, Likely Stories, and Interzone. She has also written a children's book (Annika and the Wolves), libretti for two operas (Harry Houdini and the False and True Occult, The Forbidden Experiment), and original science fiction radio plays for the Telluride Science Fiction Project. Along with science fiction writer John Sladek, she was an editor of and contributor to two issues of Ronald Reagan: The Magazine of Poetry (1968).[2]
Personal life edit
Zoline and her husband, John Lifton-Zoline (also known as John Lifton), have lived in Telluride, Colorado since the late 1970s.[3][8] In 1984 she co-founded the Telluride Institute with Lifton and others.
Works edit
- The Heat Death of the Universe and Other Stories, 1988 (short story collection).
- Annika and the Wolves. Coffee House Press, 1985.
- Sheep. Likely Stories: A Collection of Untraditional Fiction. Treacle press, 1981.
- Instructions for Exiting This Building in Case of Fire. Interzone #12 1985
- Busy About Tree Life. The Women's press, 1988.
- Aulde Fleet. Polder: A Festschrift for John Clute and Judith Clute. Old Earth Press, 2006
Notes edit
- ^ "Search Results for Pamela%20Zoline - Oxford Reference".
- ^ a b c "Zoline, Pamela". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Sept. 12, 2022.
- ^ a b "Pamela Zoline, John Lifton, and Eward Hall". Story Corps Archive, Sept. 10, 2020.
- ^ Latham, Rob, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 143.
- ^ Cavalcanti, Ildney and Joan Haran, "Of Death (and Birth) of Universes: Gender and Science in Pamela Zoline's 'The Heat Death of the Universe'". Revista Graphos 14:2, 2012, pp. 174-187.
- ^ Donawerth, Jane. "Teaching Science Fiction by Women". The English Journal 79:3, 1990, pp. 39-46.
- ^ Papke, Mary E. "A Space of Her Own: Pamela Zoline's 'The Heat Death of the Universe'. In Daughters of Earth, ed. Justine Larbalestier. Wesleyan: 2006.
- ^ "The Zoline Family". Telluride Arts District website, n.d.
Further reading edit
- Aldiss, Brian W. "Foreword" to "The Heat Death of the Universe". In Robert Silverberg (ed.), The Mirror of Infinity: A Critics' Anthology of Science Fiction. New York: Harper & Row, 1973, pp. 267–273.
- Merril, Judith (ed.), "P. A. Zoline . . ." In England Swings SF. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968, pp. 329–330.
- Page, Alison. "'The Heat Death of the Universe' by Pamela Zoline: An Appreciation by Alison Page". On the Ellen Datlow/SCI FICTION Project blog.
- Hewitt, Elizabeth: "Generic Exhaustion and the 'Heat Death' of Science Fiction". SFS 64:3, 1994.
- "Zoline, Pamela A." In Curtis C. Smith (ed.), Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981.
External links edit
- The Heat Death of the Universe at the Wayback Machine (archived March 8, 2007) (short story)
- Telluride Institute
- Photo of Pamela Zoline