“The Lathe of Heaven” ; 1971 ( Ursula Le Guin received the 1973 Locus Award for this story)
George Orr has a gift – he is an effective dreamer: his dreams become reality when he wakes up. He is aware of his past and present, two or more sets of memories, although the people around him are only aware of the current reality.
This science fiction story is set in Portland, Oregon, in/around the late 1990s - early 2000s. Orr begins to take drugs to suppress dreams but eventually he is sent to a psychotherapist, Dr. William Haber, who has developed an electronic machine, the Augmentor, which records the brain patterns of a person as they dream. When Haber realizes that he can use Orr's unique ability to change their world, the consequences are both beneficial and frightening, both locally and globally. Orr seeks out the help of a civil …
“The Lathe of Heaven” ; 1971 ( Ursula Le Guin received the 1973 Locus Award for this story)
George Orr has a gift – he is an effective dreamer: his dreams become reality when he wakes up. He is aware of his past and present, two or more sets of memories, although the people around him are only aware of the current reality.
This science fiction story is set in Portland, Oregon, in/around the late 1990s - early 2000s. Orr begins to take drugs to suppress dreams but eventually he is sent to a psychotherapist, Dr. William Haber, who has developed an electronic machine, the Augmentor, which records the brain patterns of a person as they dream. When Haber realizes that he can use Orr's unique ability to change their world, the consequences are both beneficial and frightening, both locally and globally. Orr seeks out the help of a civil rights lawyer, Heather Lelache, who attends a treatment session, and sees Portland change before her very eyes as Orr awakens. In a strange turn of events, Heather helps Orr by putting him in a dream state where Orr can undo some of Haber's actions. The result – Aliens on the Moon land on Earth ! A special affinity exists between George Orr and the Aliens, who seem to understand his unique gift. Ultimately Haber decides to impose Orr's brain patterns on his own, so that he can bring about world-wide changes. Orr and Heather feel the chaos and a sense of a void as Haber dreams. Orr rushes back to Haber's office and turns off the Augmentor. The world returns to April 1998.
Full spoiler free review here : system-failure.trbn.xyz/lathe-of-heaven-wip/
[...]
“Reality is an odd choice of word, when all that shapes it is a dream”, thinks the jellyfish.
We meet George Orr in the middle of an overdose. Whilst society deems him an addict, his issue is one much greater than that : he is a Dreamer.
His bed is a boat with no helm to speak of, and as he catches odd things shift in the world behind his eyes, so too does reality shape itself anew. The change terrifies him.
Should Orr attempt to swim ? Should Orr dream with intent, for the betterment of humankind, to become the Lathe of a heaven of his own making ? Or should Orr rid himself of this terrible and frightening power ? “Worse…” he thinks. “if my dreams have such potency… what will come with my nightmares ?”
This is probably my favorite of all of Le Guin's novels. It's not just that The Lathe of Heaven works as a really fun and tightly written sci-fi concept, but also that Le Guin weaves together a ton of parallel narratives into what outwardly seems to be a very simple story idea.
In part, The Lathe of Heaven is a surrealist work about a person whose dreams suddenly start becoming real, and who has to contend with all the problems that arise as a result of this fact. However in another respect this book is also a very honest and compassionate depiction of a character suffering from severe anxiety and mental illness, while on top of both of those stories is also a very political dystopian science fiction novel about the end of the world.
Yet what makes this book work is that Le Guin writes all of these conflicting …
This is probably my favorite of all of Le Guin's novels. It's not just that The Lathe of Heaven works as a really fun and tightly written sci-fi concept, but also that Le Guin weaves together a ton of parallel narratives into what outwardly seems to be a very simple story idea.
In part, The Lathe of Heaven is a surrealist work about a person whose dreams suddenly start becoming real, and who has to contend with all the problems that arise as a result of this fact. However in another respect this book is also a very honest and compassionate depiction of a character suffering from severe anxiety and mental illness, while on top of both of those stories is also a very political dystopian science fiction novel about the end of the world.
Yet what makes this book work is that Le Guin writes all of these conflicting realities and perspectives in such a way that never negates any one single narrative. It would be very easy for a novel as surreal as The Lathe of Heaven to just come across as scattered, but Le Guin anchors us in the many realities of this book by focusing this story on the single enduring conflict which her characters confront--their misguided need to impose their own reality upon the numerous realms in which they live.
A few months ago I wrote a longer review of this book for my blog where I go into more detail about how I think this story operates, and so I'll post a link below. Just be warned that I get into plot spoilers.
A few aspects of the story will strike 21st century readers as quaint, naive, or dated. For example the reliance on hypnosis as a foolproof method of making people dream whatever you want them to dream. However, this is a minor quibble, and the overall story arc is truly haunting, thought-provoking, and unsettling. It's sweet and beautiful in places, too. No wonder it's a classic.
Overall, this was an interesting short novel. While deceptively simple, the premise makes you think about a lot its concepts, including dreams, reality, and the power to change it. The characters lead the conflict- there is an abusive relationship at its core as one takes advantage of the other. That was disturbing but the main character is a little too passive in working to get out of it.
A development of medical and societal ethics through the lens of a sci fi thriller
5 stars
A slow-burn psychological thriller that ramps up to a fever pitch while hitting quite a few strong notes along the way.
The Lathe of Heaven is uniquely gripping because its themes seem to morph so fluidly throughout the novel, giving just enough breath to each to offer social commentary while still leaving plenty of air for the reader to ponder the implications. Just to name a few, the book hits on self medication, spiraling into incarceration, medical/psychological research and its ethical implications, weighing ethical responsibilities to individuals against humanity at large, our duty to monitor our unconscious biases and an amnesic fading grasp on reality. Explored in a surrealist fictional present, these topics are provided with enough distance from our real-world understanding to mull them over with fresh eyes.
Of these, I was particularly interested in the ethics of research science as these considerations still ripple through the field of …
A slow-burn psychological thriller that ramps up to a fever pitch while hitting quite a few strong notes along the way.
The Lathe of Heaven is uniquely gripping because its themes seem to morph so fluidly throughout the novel, giving just enough breath to each to offer social commentary while still leaving plenty of air for the reader to ponder the implications. Just to name a few, the book hits on self medication, spiraling into incarceration, medical/psychological research and its ethical implications, weighing ethical responsibilities to individuals against humanity at large, our duty to monitor our unconscious biases and an amnesic fading grasp on reality. Explored in a surrealist fictional present, these topics are provided with enough distance from our real-world understanding to mull them over with fresh eyes.
Of these, I was particularly interested in the ethics of research science as these considerations still ripple through the field of medical research today. The book offers a caricature of a fantastical medical research scenario, but its underpinning themes are still critical factors of any medical research. How patient consent is communicated, how experiments are approved, how the disadvantaged (in this case the addicted and incarcerated) may be exploited for medical gain, the professional impact of discovery, the profit motive of research and the calculus of weighing advancing knowledge that can benefit all of humanity against the sacrifices of individuals. These problems surface in our daily lives in an attenuated capacity and the book offers a hyperbolic chamber of decision making to allow us to weigh their impact.
Beyond the themes themselves, the mechanics of the story unfold in a very
tangible way. The only other work of Le Guin's that I've read so far is The Left
Hand of Darkness, and I found the two novels to be quite the stark contrast.
Where it felt like understanding Left Hand of Darkness' world was preconditioned on an encyclopedic memory of the world's setting, The Lathe of Heaven trimmed a lot of the sci-fi fat down to only what was necessary to drive an analysis of its themes. I appreciated how direct this was, letting me devote more of my reading energy toward reflecting on the book instead of constantly retreating into the recesses of world lore to keep up. What's more, for as much as the Lathe of Heaven sticks close to many science fiction tropes, they're approached from such a unique angle that no part of the book felt like it's been overdone, even half a century after it was written.
The Lathe of Heaven was a refreshingly concise analysis of a litany of social themes, packing quite a few narrative beats into such a concise form factor. I would consider it a must read for any fans of socially critical science fiction.
Reminiscent of H.G. Wells’ Time Machine in its form and language. Felt, to me, like a short story lengthened into a slim novel.
Best part for me in terms of writing is in chapter ten where the writing gets poetic:
“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.” P. 159
And on p.165, Le Guin describes leather as “the intermediate surface between a cow and the universe.” Nice.
As for the story itself, it’s an interesting premise. I think about my own dreams and how entirely disjointed reality would be with them as a blueprint.
A really solid piece of science fictional thinking and writing, Lathe of Heaven has a strong Dickian flavour with its focus on the questionability of reality and the mental stability of its protagonist, but Le Guin engages with the philosophical and ethical questions of the situation in a more upfront manner and the ending is less dark than a PKD novel. For all it's a slim volume, Lathe has more ideas and incident in it than many contemporary works. Strongly recommended.