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futurefishy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug use, Gaslighting, Ableism, Addiction, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
psychological horror abuse of power by a therapist & coercion via threat of institutionalisationsamdalefox's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
However, pacing aside, this is a solid classic scifi book where a simple concept is continually escalated until we see its natural (disastrous) conclusion. Both lead characters, Haber and Orr, are imbued with heavy symbolism. And the tertiary character
It wasn't until page 149 that I understood the title of the book 'The Lathe of Heaven'...
Haber and Orr represent opposites in the extreme. Haber - Selfish benevolence. Disrepect, or at least misunderstanding, of nature. God ego. Insatiable will/ambition. Individualism. Ultimately his perfectionist tinkering led to eugenics, and the climate changes issues persisted throughout all his changes. Who did he really help? Did the means of achieving the desired ends, justify them? e.g.,
Quotes:
"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.
"Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass."
"But the big man was like an onion, slip off layer after layer of personality, belief, response, infinite layers, no end to them, no center to him. Nowhere that he ever stopped, had to stop, had to say Here I stay! No being, only layers."
"He had gone into sleep research and oneirology in the first place to find therapeutic applications. He was not interested in detached knowledge, science for science' sake: there was no use in learning anything if it was of no use. Relevance was his touchstone..
"A person is defined solely by the extent of his influence over other people, by the sphere of his interrelationships; and morality is an utter meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fufiling of one's function in the sociopolitical whole."
"Orr was not a fast reasoner. In fact, he was not a reasonor. Hi arrived at idas the slow way, never skating over the clear, hard ice fo logic, nor soaring on the slipstreams of imagination, but slogging, plodding along on the heavy ground of existence. He did not see connections, which is said to be a hallmark of intellect. He felt connections - like a plumber."
“We're in the world, not against it. It doesn't work to try to stand outside things and run them, that way. It just doesn't work, it goes against life. There is a way but you have to follow it. The world is, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be.”
“The quality of the will to power is, precisely, growth. Achievement is its cancellation. To be, the will to power must increase with each fulfillment, making the fulfillment only a step to a further one. The vaster the power gained, the vaster the appetite for more. As there was no visible limit to the power Haber wielded through Orr’s dreams, so there was no end to his determination to improve the world.”
"It's not that he's evil. He's right, one ought ot try and help other people. But that analogy with snakebite serum is false. He was talknig about one person meeting another person in pain... You have to help the other person. But it's not right to play god with masses of people. To be God you have to know what you're doing. And to do any good at all, just believing you're right and your motives are good isn't enough. You have to... be in touch. He isn't in touch... He sees the world only as a means to his end. It doesn't make any difference if his end is good; means are all we got... He can't accept, he can't let be, he can't let go."
"He seemed not to know the uses fo silence."
"... a machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own."
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, War, Mental illness, and Drug use
The book focuses on the relationship between a patient and his psychiatrist, who abuses his power in various ways.lettucelaugh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Drug abuse and Medical trauma
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
tiernanhunter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, and War
jessthanthree's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Medical trauma
lipka's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Mental illness
Moderate: War, Ableism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Murder, Racism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Car accident
satanicangel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, War, and Genocide
tiemzahra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I don’t have a strong opinion on this book. Centralising the question of ethics, I believe this book has stated its preferences already based on the outcomes narrated. It also contains elaborated explanations on sleep and dream, go figure what it has led me to.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Genocide and Racial slurs
Minor: Drug use
keen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Grief, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, and Drug use
Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Death, and Child death
candelabracrystarium's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Genocide and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Addiction