The Judas Rose (The Native Tongue Trilogy, 2) - Softcover

Elgin, Suzette Haden

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1936932644 ISBN 13: 9781936932641

Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2019

Synopsis

Originally published in 1984, this classic dystopian trilogy is a testament to the power of language and women's collective action. 

In the second volume of the Native Tongue trilogy, the time has come for Láadan—the secret language created to resist an oppressive patriarchy—to empower womankind worldwide. To expand the language’s reach, female linguists translate the Bible into Láadan and a group of Roman Catholic nuns are tasked to spread the language. But when outraged priests detect their sabotage, they send a double agent to infiltrate and destroy the movement from the inside.

About this title

About the Author

Suzette Haden Elgin (born Patricia Anne Wilkins; 1936–2015) was an American science fiction author. She founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and was considered an important figure in the field of science fiction constructed languages. Elgin was also a linguist; she published nonfiction, of which the best-known is the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense series.

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and author. In 2017, she published Printer's Error, a subversive history of printed books. She appears regularly as a rare book specialist on the HISTORY Channel. She is the cofounder of the Honey & Wax Prize, a book collecting award for young women. Now settled in Washington, DC, she is the co-founder of the rare book firm Type Punch Matrix.

Review

"Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue trilogy, a classic text of angry feminism, is also an exemplary experiment in speculative fiction, deftly and implacably pursuing both a scientific hypothesis and an ideological hypothesis through all their social, moral, and emotional implications." —Ursula K. Le Guin, author of The Left Hand of Darkness

"Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue. . . records female tribulation in a world where . . . women have no public rights at all. Elgin's heroines do, however, have one set of weapons—words of their own." —Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The New York Times Book Review

"Native Tongue brings to life not only the possibility of a women's language, but also the rationale for one. . . . [It is] a language that can bring to life concepts men have never needed, have never dreamed of—and thus change the world. Elgin never makes the mistake of easy utopiansim or over-optimism. Her women revel in patience." —Voice Literary Supplement

"Drastically and distinctly, Elgin has carried current fundamentalist views on women to their 'logical' conclusion. . . . Above all she understands that until women find the words and syntax for what they need to say, they will never say it, nor will the world hear it. . . . There isn't a phony or romantic moment here, and the story is absolutely compelling." —Women's Review of Books

"Elgin's novel will inspire those who believe that women's words can change the world." —Marleen S. Barr, author of Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond

About this edition

• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1936932644
• ISBN 13: 9781936932641
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 400