The Lathe of Heaven (1971)

A Book You Can Finish In A Day

Despite not accomplishing that feat, it can be done and is well worth the effort. As I've said in other reviews, I'm not generally a fan of science fiction. With all the books on my To Read list, I'm reluctant to suffer the typically sub-par writing of the genre for what might prove an interesting story when I can have both. The Lathe of Heaven, however, is well-written and engaging.

Ursula K. Le Guin's tale, published in 1971, centers on George Orr, a draftsman living in early 21st century Portland, Oregon, who discovers that his dreams change reality. George is the only person aware that the new reality has replaced the old — for everyone else, the new reality has always been reality. In the dystopian world George inhabits, all the worst predictions of the paranoid '70s have come true. The world is overpopulated, the climate has collapsed (the climate seems to always be collapsing - I remember reading that in the late 1800's it was predicted that London would be buried under sever feet of horse manure. Sage prognosticators didn't foresee the coming of the internal combustion engine), and an Orwellian government runs the country. George is caught fraudulently obtaining drugs using his friend's insurance card in a failed attempt to avoid dreaming, then forced to see a psychiatrist under a court-imposed Voluntary Therapeutic Treatment plan. When George dreams "effectively" with the assistance of Dr. Haber and once again changes reality, the good doctor realizes the power of George's gift and begins manipulating reality through George's dreams.

The constantly changing reality is revealed abruptly through Le Guin's habit of jumping into a new reality without stating that a change has occurred, then slowly providing details which reveal that a change has occurred. This forces the reader to experience the shifts simultaneously with George, as though they too are waking up from his dream. I found George's inability to keep straight which reality was the original version especially effective at conveying his confusion.

I won't reveal the rest of the story, only say that Le Guin effectively recycles the adage that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ( )

[[Le Guin]] is a legend in the Science Fiction canon, but someone I'd never tried before - this title seemed to be the one most recommended as a starting place. The story, set in the near future, deals with George Orr, a man who has the ability to change reality with his dreams. Despondent over the abilities effects, Orr self-medicates and is eventually mandated for mental health care. When the psychiatrist realizes Orr's power, he begins to use the man for his own purposes, changing the world to be what he considers a better place but also to help himself. The tricky tale shows off Le Guin's keen intellect, and is a study on the nature of reality.

Recommended.
4 bones!!!! ( )

I enjoyed this book. It had an interesting premise and intriguing moral questions. However, I never cared about any of the characters. Overall, I would recommend to sci-fi fans. ( )

Ursula Le Guin's wild imagination created a story that makes one think. In The Lathe of Heaven George Orr finds that his dreams are happening, becoming reality. Not just for him but changing the whole world. George dreams and the past changes, wars and famines that never happened are part of the world's history when he wakes up. An unscrupulous psychologists tries to bend George's dreams to his own purposes. Le Guin shows us a strange world from her imagination. After reading this I am glad that our dreams can't make things come true when we wake. ( )

George Orr is about as average a human being as anyone could be: mild-mannered, of middle intelligence and living a seemingly unremarkable life. In one respect, though, he is unique: his dreams—or rather, some of his dreams, special “effective” dreams—alter reality and he wakes next morning to find the world transformed.
. Early on I thought this was a “be careful what you wish for” story, similar to H G Wells’s The Man Who Could Work Miracles say, but it’s more intricately put together. George’s problem is that, since all this happens while he is sleeping, he has no conscious control over it and the resulting alterations to reality are unplanned, sort of random—and terrifying. He has resorted to drugs in an attempt to stop himself dreaming. This, in turn, alerts the authorities and he’s assigned a psychiatrist who, using hypnotic suggestion and a machine of his own design, takes control of George’s power himself. Now it is William Haber at the controls, but directing this power consciously and using it to remake the entire world.
. This is a “be careful what you wish for” story. But it’s also about power—not what you can do when you have it, but being seduced by the wielding of power itself, power as the most catastrophic of all addictive drugs. And finally, above all I think, it’s about the contrasts between two opposing ways of looking at life: on the one hand, allowing events to just happen and accepting them; on the other, trying to consciously, deliberately, direct them. East and West maybe (each chapter is prefaced by a Taoist or Buddhist quotation). The first way (to William Haber at least) is unthinkable; the second though (according to Ursula Le Guin at least) is an addictive, self-worsening, disaster. ( )