The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction - Softcover

Delany, Samuel R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425038521 ISBN 13: 9780425038529

Publisher: Berkley Windhover, 1978

Synopsis

This is the Berkley trade paperback edition of Samuel R. Delany's The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, from 1978. The impact of its demonstration that science fiction was a special language, rather than just gadgets and green-skinned aliens, began reverberations still felt in science fiction criticism. This edition includes two new essays, one written at the time and one written about those times, as well as an introduction by writer and teacher Matthew Cheney, placing Delany's work in historical context. Close textual analyses of Thomas M. Disch, Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Joanna Russ read as brilliantly today as when they first appeared. Essays such as "About 5,750 Words" and "To Read The Dispossessed" first made the book a classic; they assure it will remain one.

About this title

About the Author

Winner of both Hugo and Nebula awards, SAMUEL R. DELANY is a novelist and critic, who currently teaches English and creative writing at Temple University. His critical work has won him the Pilgrim Award for science fiction scholarship. MATTHEW CHENEY is a columnist for Strange Horizons and writes regularly about many topics at his weblog, The Mumpsimus.

Review

"Delany's first work of non-fiction, The Jewel Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction, remains a benchmark of sf criticism thirty-three years after its initial publication in 1977. ... Extensively revised and reissued in 2009, JHJ has become even sronger, containing twelve essays in ten chapters and two appendixes."—Isiah Lavender, Science Fiction Studies

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley Windhover
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0425038521
• ISBN 13: 9780425038529
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 303