4.0
The Jewel-Hinged Jaw
ByPublisher Description
Samuel R. Delany's
appeared originally in 1977, and is now long out of print and hard to find. 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.
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Jewel-Hinged Jaw Reviews
4.0
“Look, I'm not smart enough to have understood all of it, and quite a bit is very connected to the times it was written in. I've read only some of the books referenced. But oh my god, did I enjoy so much of it! The depth of affection this book of critical (academic-style) essays has instilled in me for Samuel R. Delany is huge!
He writes with a lot of bite and humor about the genre. The essays are very varied (one of them, [A Fictional Architecture that Manages Only with Great Difficulty Not to Mention Harlan Ellison] is more like a memoir piece). I also love how Delany doesn't just use the default pronoun 'he', when talking about writers, a lot of times it's also 'she', which still feels powerful today!
These were my favorites:
[Letter to the Symposium on "Women in Science Fiction" Under the Control, For Some Deeply Suspect Reason, of one Jeff Smith] - this essay is such a great railing of sexism, in the world, in science fiction. It's incredibly funny and keeps alluding that when men say people do this and that, they actually mean men. Delany talks about the two roles allowed women in SF at the time (Evil Bitch and Simp) and many other things! Like his wife discovering her jean pockets were much worse than his! There's also a cute tidbit where he, Jeff and *Tiptree* (the three men supposedly involved in this symposium) have to reckon with the sexism, because this essay was written in 1975, two years before the world found out about https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5340839366 being actually a woman!
[To Read The Dispossessed] - read this for the second time, because the first time I rushed it to get to book club, back in September. And it feels very validating, because Delany has most of the same critiques I have for Ursula LeGuin's novel (which I haven't written the review for, still, oof), aka we are told Anarres is an egalitarian society, but there are many instances when this thing we've been told is at odds with what's in the foreground of the book. Might do a re-read of Dispossessed and write a review in a few months!
[Thickening the Plot] - a super cool discussion on writing process and how you can't truly separate the elements, so it's better to talk about plot more as 'story process'.
[Quarks] - helping me articulate better my opinions on entertainment. And how all aesthetic problems (emotions, intellect and the pure pleasure we take in form) are actually entertainment. Yes, that's how I can be completely beguiled by political issues and history being used in historical romances! The politics in books is very entertaining to my brain.
There are also some really interesting comparisons between SF and poetry that I loved in this book, and I made a fairly long reading list of things mentioned within. And I really have to make time to read Dhalgren this year, I'm so excited! I've only read two Delany books, but I already rather love him.”
“I’ve heard from numerous people that they like Mr. Delany’s essays as much or more than his fiction. I thought “About 5750 Words” and “Faust and Archimedes” were excellent; but I didn’t read his famous analysis of The Dispossessed (because I haven’t read the book yet).
All in all some good, some a bit confused.”
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
