title: The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction
author:  Samuel R. Delany 
description: 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.
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  **PRAISE FOR THE WRITING OF SAMUEL R. DELANY**
  
  
  “I consider Delany not only one of the most important SF writers of the
  present generation, but a fascinating writer in general who has invented a new
  style.” —Umberto Eco
  
  
  “Samuel R. Delany is the most interesting author of science fiction writing in
  English today.” — _The New York Times Book Review_
  
  
  **_Dhalgren_**
  
  
  “ _Dhalgren_ ’s the secret masterpiece, the city-book-labyrinth that has
  swallowed astonished readers alive for almost thirty years. Its beauty and
  force still seem to be growing.” —Jonathan Lethem
  
  
  “A brilliant tour de force.” — _The News & Observer_ (Raleigh)
  
  
  “A Joyceian tour de force of a novel, _Dhalgren_ … stake[s] a better claim
  than anything else published in this country in the last quarter-century
  (excepting only Gass’s _Omensetter’s Luck_ and Nabokov’s _Pale Fire_ ) to a
  permanent place as one of the enduring monuments of our national literature.”
  — _Libertarian Review_
  
  
  **The Ne