{"product_id":"hard-reading-learning-from-science-fiction-hardcover","title":"Hard Reading: Learning from Science Fiction - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eTom Shippey\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe fifteen essays collected in Hard Reading argue, first, that science fiction has its own internal rhetoric, relying on devices such as neologism, dialogism, semantic shifts, the use of unreliable narrators. It is a \"high-information\" genre which does not follow the Flaubertian ideal of le mot juste, \"the right word\", preferring le mot imprévisible, \"the unpredictable word\". Both ideals shun the facilior lectio, the \"easy reading\", but for different reasons and with different effects. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe essays argue further that science fiction derives much of its energy from engagement with vital intellectual issues in the \"soft sciences\", especially history, anthropology, the study of different cultures, with a strong bearing on politics. Both the rhetoric and the issues deserve to be taken much more seriously than they have been in academia, and in the wider world. Each essay is further prefaced by an autobiographical introduction. These explain how the essays came to be written and in what ways they (often) proved controversial. They, and the autobiographical introduction to the whole book, create between them a memoir of what it was like to be a committed fan, from teenage years, and also an academic struggling to find a place, at a time when a declared interest in science fiction and fantasy was the kiss of death for a career in the humanities.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTom Shippey\u003c\/strong\u003e is Professor Emeritus at Saint Louis University and has published widely, especially on J. R. R. Tolkien. He was special academic advisor to director Peter Jackson for the Lord of the Rings\/Hobbit films.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 351\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.9 x 9.3 x 6.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 23, 2016\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47294667751673,"sku":"9781781382615","price":136.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/vvLhmrb5MF9781781382615.webp?v=1769191939","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/hard-reading-learning-from-science-fiction-hardcover","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}