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kassiani's review against another edition
Changing reality through your dreams - and keeping a moral compass through it.
Horror genre: is there truly anything more terrifying than a man with a massive ego, dubious morals and a sense of playing God?
Hypnosis terrifies me! Therapist turning your own mind against you - nightmare scenario.
QUOTES:
"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"
"The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means."
"They had been married seven months. They said nothing of any importance. They washed up the dishes and went to bed. In bed, they made love. Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. When it was made, they lay in each other’s arms, holding love, asleep"
"Of course (his thoughts proceeded, also at a walking pace), if that’s true, then the whole world as it now is should be on my side, because I dreamed a lot of it up, too. Well, after all, it is on my side. That is, I’m a part of it. Not separate from it. I walk on the ground and the ground’s walked on by me, I breathe the air and change it, I am entirely interconnected with the world"
"There is a bird in a poem by T. S. Eliot who says that mankind cannot bear very much reality; but the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear."
Horror genre: is there truly anything more terrifying than a man with a massive ego, dubious morals and a sense of playing God?
Hypnosis terrifies me! Therapist turning your own mind against you - nightmare scenario.
QUOTES:
"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"
"The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means."
"They had been married seven months. They said nothing of any importance. They washed up the dishes and went to bed. In bed, they made love. Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. When it was made, they lay in each other’s arms, holding love, asleep"
"Of course (his thoughts proceeded, also at a walking pace), if that’s true, then the whole world as it now is should be on my side, because I dreamed a lot of it up, too. Well, after all, it is on my side. That is, I’m a part of it. Not separate from it. I walk on the ground and the ground’s walked on by me, I breathe the air and change it, I am entirely interconnected with the world"
"There is a bird in a poem by T. S. Eliot who says that mankind cannot bear very much reality; but the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear."
rubylewis97's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.5
bim10's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I feel like I still need to process this book, but it’s VERY good. Le Guin really took this simple concept and analyzed it from every angle. I love George Orr as a protagonist, and Dr. Haber is a great villain.
There’s a lot going on in this book, but the theme that stuck out to me the most was that of Taoism. I think there’s a lot of discussion to be had about the implications of the events in this novel, and the question “What is your rightful place in the world?” Are you deserving of power just because you intend to use it for good? Is it possible to use such great power for good at all? What do you do with this kind of power of you don’t want it?
I’ll definitely reread this at some point. I feel like I only sorta have a grasp on it.
There’s a lot going on in this book, but the theme that stuck out to me the most was that of Taoism. I think there’s a lot of discussion to be had about the implications of the events in this novel, and the question “What is your rightful place in the world?” Are you deserving of power just because you intend to use it for good? Is it possible to use such great power for good at all? What do you do with this kind of power of you don’t want it?
I’ll definitely reread this at some point. I feel like I only sorta have a grasp on it.
seeceeread's review against another edition
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? [...] He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safe for children to grow up in.
George Orr, Jor Jor, Either Or, a man trapped in nightmares of his own making. When George dreams, sometimes they're 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, they make themselves real as he slumbers. He cannot control them, and loathes the way they force him to remember myriad timelines. He's always tripping into new details that rationalize the last tectonic continuum shift. Seeking respite, he takes advantage of others' pharmaceutical rations to tamp dreams. But the meds aren't strong enough to beat his mind's need to creatively wander (and using others' pills is a crime). So he's coerced into treatment with a dream specialist. Dr. Haber is thrilled to find a subject whose mind he can manipulate, which in turn means he can tweak the universe. As he inches closer to godlike status, Haber melts under the pressure. While George finds jetties from which he can better navigate the stream.
Le Guin carefully builds plot and character in service of substantive philosophical inquiry: How much can (should) humans control? Are there ethical frameworks consequential enough to guide the scale at which our species can unwind [pick a noun]? Each chapter opens with a quote, many from the Tao Te Ching, by which the author seems to offer an answer.
As I get more familiar with her style, I like Le Guin's literary approach more and more. Her work breezes past formulaic and demands careful attention to layers. For the same reason, her work invites revisiting, dipping a toe into her stream when I will have been changed, to be swayed anew.
jocelyn_cole's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
wasabimouse's review against another edition
reflective
- 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
libellum_aphrodite's review against another edition
4.0
"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new."
[And now on from cyptic quotes to legit spoilers - you have been warned.]
My favorite part of all the world's remakings via Orr's dreams is the absence of an easy way out of humanity's various predicaments. Haber tries to find easy fixes, but only precedes to complicate the situation and eventually plunges himself into a mental abyss. If you want to solve humanity's problems or your own problems, you have to look them straight in the face and accept the consequences.
[And now on from cyptic quotes to legit spoilers - you have been warned.]
My favorite part of all the world's remakings via Orr's dreams is the absence of an easy way out of humanity's various predicaments. Haber tries to find easy fixes, but only precedes to complicate the situation and eventually plunges himself into a mental abyss. If you want to solve humanity's problems or your own problems, you have to look them straight in the face and accept the consequences.
luckyowl's review against another edition
Wasn't for me, despite enjoying a lot of Ms Le Guin's work. Found the therapist's long monologues were losing my interest, and his manipulations uncomfortable.