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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
I had to read this book for a sci-fi class that I took in college. I wrote a huge paper on it. This book is trippy, and it kind of has that inception vibe, where you have to think about everything and make your own interpretation. It's about a man who every time he dreams.. his dreams change reality. If he dreams everyone is a zombie and the world is ending, when he wakes up.. that's whats going on now.. that's his reality. That's the "new" world. I'll just paste my old paper ;o
Distorted Reality
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, we enter a world filled with alternate realities. Falling asleep could mean shifting the world from one extreme to another. George Orr has the uncontrollable power to literally change the world. He experiences effective dreaming, shaping reality as he sleeps. Dreams and perceived reality merge, muddling the distinction between the two; what is real and what is not? In this world, George, Dr. Haber, and Heather’s sense of reality is only through their individual perception, or ultimately all inside of George’s mind.
George Orr is average to an extreme. He has average height, weight, appearance, and personality. He lives in an ordinary house and has an ordinary job. The only unordinary aspect of George is his dreams. Through his dreams, he unconsciously, effectively changes the reality around him. He is terrified of going to sleep in fear of what he might bring into this world or take from it. He does not believe in playing God, nor wants to take any part in it.
Trying to rid himself of dreams, George takes massive amounts of sleeping pills. In order to not serve time for his wrong doing, he is sent to a therapist, who also is a dream expert. Orr’s defenses are down and he is easy prey to manipulate and control. Dr. Haber believes that he can make the world a better place and George is the key to his success:
He's not...not an evil man. He means well. What I object to is his using me as an instrument, a means--even if his ends are good. I can't judge him--my own dreams had immoral effects, that's why I tried to suppress them with drugs, and got into this mess. And I want to get out of it, to get off drugs, to be cured. But he's not curing me. He's encouraging me. (Le Guin 45)
Using a machine called the Augmentor, Haber can record Orr's sleep patterns. Studying them in his effective state in order to reenact them on himself once he perfects it.
In the beginning, Haber was in denial about George's ability. He believed that George was just another disturbed patient waiting to be fixed. Even when he experienced Orr's effective dreaming state firsthand he was reluctant to believe anything changed at all:
When Haber spoke of using, employing his mental powers, he had thought for a moment that the doctor must mean his power of changing reality by dreaming; but surely if he'd meant that he would have said it clearly? Knowing that Orr desperately needed confirmation, he would not causelessly withhold it if he could give it. (32)
He could vaguely recall George changing his mural from Mount Hood to a horse. Haber dismissed that reality could be changed, even when witnessing it himself. He repressed those memories that seemed unexplainable at the time, bringing the new memories to the forefront. He perceived reality as steady, fixed, and so it was--until he began to question it.
Haber unconsciously improved his life using George. He empowered himself, making it so his reality was greater, without consciously meaning to do so. He conveniently forgot his old reality, believing that he had always been superior to others. Creating himself to be among the best of the best, a frontrunner to leading the world forward.
A glimpse that Haber may believe George begins to surface:
He told me to put back the mountain in my dream. So I had the horse put back in the mountain. But if he told me to put back the mountain then he knew it had been there before the horse. He knew. He did see the first dream change reality. He saw the change. He believes me. I am not insane! (39)
However, Haber both knew and dismissed that anything was happening at all. He pushed aside all dueling realities and only ever focused on the present one. Convincing himself that Orr was still the crazy one and he, himself, had always been successful.
Haber’s repression and cowardliness comes to a grinding halt when Heather Lache, the HEW observer (otherwise known as Orr’s lawyer), comes to watch a session. Since Haber is in denial about shifting the world, he slips up. He does not want to come off as giving profound, exact suggestions for George to dream about, thus gives him a very simplistic dream. Orr should dream about feeling less crowded, so that he no longer feels anxiety about being in crowds.
Not realizing his mistake, they wait patiently for George to begin dreaming, watching the monitors all around. Then it happens. The world shifts and billions of people are now dead. Heather is frightened, having witnessed it too, and Haber must now face the facts. George is not insane and he can change the world:
And this implied that he himself had not believed in the change, in what Orr’s dreams did. Though he had felt it, seen it, with bewilderment, fear, and exultation, a dozen times now; though he had watched the horse become a mountain (if you can watch the overlap of one reality with another), though he had been testing, and using, the effective power of Orr’s dreams for nearly a month now, yet he had not believed in what was happening. (Le Guin 63)
Witnessing firsthand that George changed the world could not convince the doctor that Orr was not disturbed. It was only when someone else, another individual, felt it too—could he believe that it is real. His reality was only through his own perception. It is whatever he wanted it to be. Whatever he wanted to believe at the time, dismissing everything else; reality is what he made it.
Heather also did not believe in the change. She felt connected to George, liked him, but what he purposed was unrealistic and deranged. Feeling the world shift frightened her, but Haber played damage control and made her doubt that anything strange had happened at all. It is a little hard to believe, though, since she had prior knowledge to George’s case. She knew that he thought he could change reality, and yet, when she experiences it firsthand, she immediately convinces herself the world was always this way. She has two corresponding memories, exactly as George told her he had, but decides to push aside her old one for the new one. Her perception of reality was whatever she chose it to be also. Only truly believing Orr when nothing else could possibly explain what she was seeing—or not seeing anymore.
Now that Haber knew how powerful he could truly become using George, he thinks he should ultimately play God. He shows no remorse for killing off billions of people, when George and Heather leave after that session, he is delighted, “’to a better world!’ Dr. Haber said, raising his glass to his creation, and finished his whisky in a lingering, savoring swallow” (72). Haber dreams of his own utopia, wanting his perception of what the world should be like to come true. He wants his perception of reality to become everyone else’s—to become God.
George understands what Haber is up to. It disheartens him, scares him, and expressing these worries does not change Haber’s outlook:
“…But anyway: look. You can’t go on changing things, trying to run things.”
“You speak as if that were some kind of general moral imperative.” He looked at Orr with his genial, reflective smile, stroking his beard. “But in fact, isn’t that man’s very purpose on earth—to do things, change things, run things, make a better world?” (82)
George is starting to become unraveled, he forcefully exclaims, “No!” but to no avail. Doctor Haber wondering what is man’s purpose in the world if not to run it, George solemnly replying:
“I don’t know. Thing don’t have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part had a useful function. What’s the function of a galaxy? I don’t know if our life had 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.” (82)
Life is what we make it, but not to control every aspect of the world. Letting what is, just be…is enough. Denying reality and our perceptions of what is right and true will only cause more harm than is necessary. Shaping our world into a utopia will ultimately only lead to a dystopia; everyone’s perception of reality is different and not completely interchangeable. How the world appears to Orr, Haber, and Lelache vary greatly, each of their perception of the world and what to make of it is not the same.
However, it can also be said that the entire book was a dream and the end of “reality” was at the beginning. Throughout the book, George talks about the end of the world. He states that it happened in 1998, yet the present date is 2002. The book starts when the world is ending and George shifts realities, but where did the extra four years go? It was never stated that he could somehow change the world and move it forward futuristically.
Also, those who are dead—stay dead. Heather mentions in three different realities: overpopulation, plague, and alien invasion; that her husband had died in some kind of accident. Even though the world shifts, the dead stay unmoving. George expresses anxiety about losing Heather in the “gray” world, because she has too much personality to conform to societal needs. Yet, it is highly unlikely that someone so important to him could be unborn through his shifting universe. It could be argued that the world ended and George is now just living inside of his own mind, whether it is in death, coma, or hallucinations.
In order to cope with everything around him falling apart, he created this illusion inside of his head. He feels pain, suffering, and insanity and those transpire into his made up world. He needed comfort throughout his chaos, thus Heather comes into play. He wanted to reach out for help, so he created Doctor Haber. His “real” world was turned upside down, thus his made up one began to cave in onto itself also. However, in the end, he pulled himself together, living in a created reality inside of himself that helped him deal. He found peace within.
In Conclusion, George, Haber, and Heather all have a different perception of reality. They view the world as they want to see it or believe it to be. Only truly seeing George’s point of view when witnessed by each other, needing to know they were not alone in this chaotic new world. Overall, The Lathe of Heaven seems to be entirely a dream. George uses this dream mechanism as a coping device for his “real” world that is falling apart and/or ending. Reality is in the eye of the beholder.
Distorted Reality
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, we enter a world filled with alternate realities. Falling asleep could mean shifting the world from one extreme to another. George Orr has the uncontrollable power to literally change the world. He experiences effective dreaming, shaping reality as he sleeps. Dreams and perceived reality merge, muddling the distinction between the two; what is real and what is not? In this world, George, Dr. Haber, and Heather’s sense of reality is only through their individual perception, or ultimately all inside of George’s mind.
George Orr is average to an extreme. He has average height, weight, appearance, and personality. He lives in an ordinary house and has an ordinary job. The only unordinary aspect of George is his dreams. Through his dreams, he unconsciously, effectively changes the reality around him. He is terrified of going to sleep in fear of what he might bring into this world or take from it. He does not believe in playing God, nor wants to take any part in it.
Trying to rid himself of dreams, George takes massive amounts of sleeping pills. In order to not serve time for his wrong doing, he is sent to a therapist, who also is a dream expert. Orr’s defenses are down and he is easy prey to manipulate and control. Dr. Haber believes that he can make the world a better place and George is the key to his success:
He's not...not an evil man. He means well. What I object to is his using me as an instrument, a means--even if his ends are good. I can't judge him--my own dreams had immoral effects, that's why I tried to suppress them with drugs, and got into this mess. And I want to get out of it, to get off drugs, to be cured. But he's not curing me. He's encouraging me. (Le Guin 45)
Using a machine called the Augmentor, Haber can record Orr's sleep patterns. Studying them in his effective state in order to reenact them on himself once he perfects it.
In the beginning, Haber was in denial about George's ability. He believed that George was just another disturbed patient waiting to be fixed. Even when he experienced Orr's effective dreaming state firsthand he was reluctant to believe anything changed at all:
When Haber spoke of using, employing his mental powers, he had thought for a moment that the doctor must mean his power of changing reality by dreaming; but surely if he'd meant that he would have said it clearly? Knowing that Orr desperately needed confirmation, he would not causelessly withhold it if he could give it. (32)
He could vaguely recall George changing his mural from Mount Hood to a horse. Haber dismissed that reality could be changed, even when witnessing it himself. He repressed those memories that seemed unexplainable at the time, bringing the new memories to the forefront. He perceived reality as steady, fixed, and so it was--until he began to question it.
Haber unconsciously improved his life using George. He empowered himself, making it so his reality was greater, without consciously meaning to do so. He conveniently forgot his old reality, believing that he had always been superior to others. Creating himself to be among the best of the best, a frontrunner to leading the world forward.
A glimpse that Haber may believe George begins to surface:
He told me to put back the mountain in my dream. So I had the horse put back in the mountain. But if he told me to put back the mountain then he knew it had been there before the horse. He knew. He did see the first dream change reality. He saw the change. He believes me. I am not insane! (39)
However, Haber both knew and dismissed that anything was happening at all. He pushed aside all dueling realities and only ever focused on the present one. Convincing himself that Orr was still the crazy one and he, himself, had always been successful.
Haber’s repression and cowardliness comes to a grinding halt when Heather Lache, the HEW observer (otherwise known as Orr’s lawyer), comes to watch a session. Since Haber is in denial about shifting the world, he slips up. He does not want to come off as giving profound, exact suggestions for George to dream about, thus gives him a very simplistic dream. Orr should dream about feeling less crowded, so that he no longer feels anxiety about being in crowds.
Not realizing his mistake, they wait patiently for George to begin dreaming, watching the monitors all around. Then it happens. The world shifts and billions of people are now dead. Heather is frightened, having witnessed it too, and Haber must now face the facts. George is not insane and he can change the world:
And this implied that he himself had not believed in the change, in what Orr’s dreams did. Though he had felt it, seen it, with bewilderment, fear, and exultation, a dozen times now; though he had watched the horse become a mountain (if you can watch the overlap of one reality with another), though he had been testing, and using, the effective power of Orr’s dreams for nearly a month now, yet he had not believed in what was happening. (Le Guin 63)
Witnessing firsthand that George changed the world could not convince the doctor that Orr was not disturbed. It was only when someone else, another individual, felt it too—could he believe that it is real. His reality was only through his own perception. It is whatever he wanted it to be. Whatever he wanted to believe at the time, dismissing everything else; reality is what he made it.
Heather also did not believe in the change. She felt connected to George, liked him, but what he purposed was unrealistic and deranged. Feeling the world shift frightened her, but Haber played damage control and made her doubt that anything strange had happened at all. It is a little hard to believe, though, since she had prior knowledge to George’s case. She knew that he thought he could change reality, and yet, when she experiences it firsthand, she immediately convinces herself the world was always this way. She has two corresponding memories, exactly as George told her he had, but decides to push aside her old one for the new one. Her perception of reality was whatever she chose it to be also. Only truly believing Orr when nothing else could possibly explain what she was seeing—or not seeing anymore.
Now that Haber knew how powerful he could truly become using George, he thinks he should ultimately play God. He shows no remorse for killing off billions of people, when George and Heather leave after that session, he is delighted, “’to a better world!’ Dr. Haber said, raising his glass to his creation, and finished his whisky in a lingering, savoring swallow” (72). Haber dreams of his own utopia, wanting his perception of what the world should be like to come true. He wants his perception of reality to become everyone else’s—to become God.
George understands what Haber is up to. It disheartens him, scares him, and expressing these worries does not change Haber’s outlook:
“…But anyway: look. You can’t go on changing things, trying to run things.”
“You speak as if that were some kind of general moral imperative.” He looked at Orr with his genial, reflective smile, stroking his beard. “But in fact, isn’t that man’s very purpose on earth—to do things, change things, run things, make a better world?” (82)
George is starting to become unraveled, he forcefully exclaims, “No!” but to no avail. Doctor Haber wondering what is man’s purpose in the world if not to run it, George solemnly replying:
“I don’t know. Thing don’t have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part had a useful function. What’s the function of a galaxy? I don’t know if our life had 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.” (82)
Life is what we make it, but not to control every aspect of the world. Letting what is, just be…is enough. Denying reality and our perceptions of what is right and true will only cause more harm than is necessary. Shaping our world into a utopia will ultimately only lead to a dystopia; everyone’s perception of reality is different and not completely interchangeable. How the world appears to Orr, Haber, and Lelache vary greatly, each of their perception of the world and what to make of it is not the same.
However, it can also be said that the entire book was a dream and the end of “reality” was at the beginning. Throughout the book, George talks about the end of the world. He states that it happened in 1998, yet the present date is 2002. The book starts when the world is ending and George shifts realities, but where did the extra four years go? It was never stated that he could somehow change the world and move it forward futuristically.
Also, those who are dead—stay dead. Heather mentions in three different realities: overpopulation, plague, and alien invasion; that her husband had died in some kind of accident. Even though the world shifts, the dead stay unmoving. George expresses anxiety about losing Heather in the “gray” world, because she has too much personality to conform to societal needs. Yet, it is highly unlikely that someone so important to him could be unborn through his shifting universe. It could be argued that the world ended and George is now just living inside of his own mind, whether it is in death, coma, or hallucinations.
In order to cope with everything around him falling apart, he created this illusion inside of his head. He feels pain, suffering, and insanity and those transpire into his made up world. He needed comfort throughout his chaos, thus Heather comes into play. He wanted to reach out for help, so he created Doctor Haber. His “real” world was turned upside down, thus his made up one began to cave in onto itself also. However, in the end, he pulled himself together, living in a created reality inside of himself that helped him deal. He found peace within.
In Conclusion, George, Haber, and Heather all have a different perception of reality. They view the world as they want to see it or believe it to be. Only truly seeing George’s point of view when witnessed by each other, needing to know they were not alone in this chaotic new world. Overall, The Lathe of Heaven seems to be entirely a dream. George uses this dream mechanism as a coping device for his “real” world that is falling apart and/or ending. Reality is in the eye of the beholder.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I really love Le Guin’s commitment to the unimpressive ‘hero’. This is the first novel of hers I’ve read, though Kathy Velikov introduced me to her words and essays throughout 2019.
Reminded me to revisit the Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, an essay I continue to find no fault or disagreements with. What a powerful writer. I wish I had found her when I was a child.
The anxiety of our world is real. Ursula K Le Guin is a future teller.
Reminded me to revisit the Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, an essay I continue to find no fault or disagreements with. What a powerful writer. I wish I had found her when I was a child.
The anxiety of our world is real. Ursula K Le Guin is a future teller.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Albeit a little confusing in the beginning of the novel the fantastical state of events that unfurl are worth the confusion. Give it some time it will all make sense in the middle of the book. Best to in with no information and enjoy the enpirence.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
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
This was the first Ursula K. Le Guin book I’ve read and I was absolutely blown away. This foundational work in the SciFi genre centers around a man who can change the past/present with his dreams and a psychiatrist/scientist who seeks to harness this power for himself. As one can predict the result is potentially catastrophic. This is not only a riveting, tragic, and terrifying read, it’s also a commentary on racism, sexism, man made ecological decay, genocide, eugenics, linguistics, existentialism, and a whole lot of philosophical quandaries packed into a concise work of fiction. What a book and I can’t wait to read more Le Guin.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes