Elayne Zalis, PhD, MA
Writer, Editor, Consultant
Reimagining The Twilight Zone: A Young Fan’s Stories blends fact, fiction, and fantasy to explore how the Twilight Zone television series sparked the imagination of a young girl growing up in Miami, Florida, in the late 1950s and early ’60s. The collection of twenty hybrid essays considers selected episodes from the child’s perspective and includes remixes and mash-ups of the shows, similar to fan fiction.
Each episode prompts the young fan to exercise her imagination in new ways. She learns to push the boundaries of what is possible while also expanding her worldview. In the process of telling these stories, the adult narrator reinvents both the child she was and the woman she has become. The Twilight Zone serves as a springboard to creative thought.
A portrait emerges of a writer as a young TV fan in the Kennedy era. Her personal stories contribute to public dialogues about the impact of television and popular culture on the baby boomer generation, and the collection as a whole experiments with novel approaches to life writing in the digital age.
"A Wondrous Land of Imagination"
You are invited on a Miami-style journey into “a wondrous land of imagination." Next stop, my personalized Twilight Zone.
Imagine Jordan Peele’s reboot of The Twilight Zone as a speculative memoir that could appeal to adults and young readers alike. Although the essays in Reimagining The Twilight Zone: A Young Fan’s Stories can stand on their own, they gain greater meaning when read in relation to one another, particularly when they bring together characters from different episodes. Several characters appear in multiple story lines.
The memoir is likely to appeal to fans of The Twilight Zone, to baby boomers who identify with the popular culture addressed in the essays, and to readers who appreciate creative approaches to autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, and other forms of life writing. Beyond simply recounting one person's stories, the essays provide new models for framing personal and cultural memories. Some readers may even feel inspired to experiment with innovative writing of their own.
