Scan barcode
A review by lupetuple
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
3.0
While I had trouble understanding exactly what message le Guin is trying to put across, I thought this was an entertaining read. I felt like it was more interesting to think about the questions she poses more than anything, though I wish she had given definitive answers so I could understand her position better.
I loved the questions of power and the reversal of power dynamics especially within the patient-doctor relationship. At the same time, there was no fundamental change in the system by the end, so was it truly fitting?
The themes just became so convoluted; I think she was overambitious with this one. Le Guin takes a firm stance against utilitarianism, that's the clearest thing I can see. It could also be a good argument against eugenics and cultural cleansing, but the conception of race was so messy. Is race essential to our understanding of each other? Le Guin seems to content that it is, when George says "[Heather's] color, her color of brown, was an essential part of her, not an accident" and how she conflates skin color with race, while demarcating it from culture--however, it is, at the end of the day, a social construct. I think a more radical approach would be retaining physical characteristics, like skin color, while abolishing the idea of race. This was Dr. Haber, at the same time, so it's understandable that he would take this approach of making everyone's skin gray, but I do feel like le Guin just didn't challenge the concept of race at all. Maybe I misunderstood but that just proves how messy her handling of race was in this novel in my opinion.
I also thought her portrayal of Heather, a Black woman, was particularly antiblack; at one point in the narrative, when it switched to her point of view, she suddenly started swearing as if Black people cuss all the time, because she didn't use swears at any other point in the novel aside from some of the characters' dialogue. Then she described her as being aggressive. She also had Heather describe her own skin as "shit color."
Another thing that irked me was Dr. Haber himself, how he was made bisexual for seemingly no reason other than to perhaps highlight his megalomania... as if we haven't seen antagonistic bisexual men in media.
I also don't understand the contention that "Self is universe." I felt like that goes completely against what I understand to be le Guin's philosophy, which is more collectivist than individualist. This whole novel kind of falls on that individualism; it's so insular.
The novel just throws a bunch of questions at the reader more than anything, without giving proper answers. I give it 2.5 stars rounded to 3 because I love le Guin.
I loved the questions of power and the reversal of power dynamics especially within the patient-doctor relationship. At the same time, there was no fundamental change in the system by the end, so was it truly fitting?
The themes just became so convoluted; I think she was overambitious with this one. Le Guin takes a firm stance against utilitarianism, that's the clearest thing I can see. It could also be a good argument against eugenics and cultural cleansing, but the conception of race was so messy. Is race essential to our understanding of each other? Le Guin seems to content that it is, when George says "[Heather's] color, her color of brown, was an essential part of her, not an accident" and how she conflates skin color with race, while demarcating it from culture--however, it is, at the end of the day, a social construct. I think a more radical approach would be retaining physical characteristics, like skin color, while abolishing the idea of race. This was Dr. Haber, at the same time, so it's understandable that he would take this approach of making everyone's skin gray, but I do feel like le Guin just didn't challenge the concept of race at all. Maybe I misunderstood but that just proves how messy her handling of race was in this novel in my opinion.
I also thought her portrayal of Heather, a Black woman, was particularly antiblack; at one point in the narrative, when it switched to her point of view, she suddenly started swearing as if Black people cuss all the time, because she didn't use swears at any other point in the novel aside from some of the characters' dialogue. Then she described her as being aggressive. She also had Heather describe her own skin as "shit color."
Another thing that irked me was Dr. Haber himself, how he was made bisexual for seemingly no reason other than to perhaps highlight his megalomania... as if we haven't seen antagonistic bisexual men in media.
I also don't understand the contention that "Self is universe." I felt like that goes completely against what I understand to be le Guin's philosophy, which is more collectivist than individualist. This whole novel kind of falls on that individualism; it's so insular.
The novel just throws a bunch of questions at the reader more than anything, without giving proper answers. I give it 2.5 stars rounded to 3 because I love le Guin.