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A review by lexish00
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
5.0
Hello, do you like books about language? About women? About linguistics as a science? About resisting oppression? About secret societies? About murders? THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. This is 1980's sci-fi with a feminist-bent and ALL LINGUIST CAST! Okay, not all linguist, but largely linguist, which was all I needed to be hooked; the rest was just extra.
But honestly this is a wonderful wonderful book. It turns many sci-fi tropes on their heads, and it has very sharp-witted prose. True, it is a product of its time and outdated in some ways, but what sci-fi isn't? That's part of the greatness of older sci-fi -- seeing what was thought and then what actually happened (and what still could).
The main criticism I've read is that this book is dry and spent too much time on exposition. I find this a very interesting critique as that is the way of much classic "hard" sci-fi, only this time the exposition is on certain social or "soft" sciences. I found it fascinating and thought-provoking and very much in line with what I'd expect from mid/late-20th-century sci-fi.
But honestly this is a wonderful wonderful book. It turns many sci-fi tropes on their heads, and it has very sharp-witted prose. True, it is a product of its time and outdated in some ways, but what sci-fi isn't? That's part of the greatness of older sci-fi -- seeing what was thought and then what actually happened (and what still could).
The main criticism I've read is that this book is dry and spent too much time on exposition. I find this a very interesting critique as that is the way of much classic "hard" sci-fi, only this time the exposition is on certain social or "soft" sciences. I found it fascinating and thought-provoking and very much in line with what I'd expect from mid/late-20th-century sci-fi.