The Lathe of Heaven (1971) [/]
Feb 03 2025
The Lathe of Heaven is a 175-page science fiction novel by Ursula K Le Guin.
Set in the present. George Orr is a man who doesn't want to dream and because of drug use is sent to a renown psychiatrist Dr Haber. Apparently when George has an Effective Dream he changes reality and everyone else thinks this is the way it has always been.
Once Dr Haber is convinced about George's power he uses George to make the world better. But dreams are finicky and even with the help of hypnotic suggestions the good changes that Haber wants are often balanced by unwanted changes. George on other hand doesn't like that Dr Haber is changing so much reality but George is a very passive man and goes along with the therapy sessions. Eventually George enlists legal aid from Heather Lelache and there is a small romance element there.
There are also vague turtle-like aliens that George dreamed up in order to bring Peace to humanity by making an external enemy. Once again after more dreams the aliens turn out to be friendly and integrate with humanity. George has a few enigmatic interactions with individual aliens and it's apparent that they know about Effective Dreaming and why his are so chaotic.
Meanwhile Dr Haber has been using an Augmentor machine to analyze and amplify George's dreams and he finally is ready to use the Augmentor to give himself the power of Effective Dreaming…
I've always believe that The Lathe of Heaven was really long and boring. I think this may be from watching parts of the PBS film adaptation when I was a kid and that was boring to me as a kid.
Reading it now it's well written and relatively quicker read than I expected. Although only three main characters only George is developed in that you see a lot of his thoughts and life. Dr Haber gets a bit of his thoughts also and Heather you do get a bit of her thoughts but definitely a minor character.
There's an element of how power corrupts and Dr Haber is not an evil man but more of a Utilitarian which is greatest good for greatest people which in this case means everyone being the same gray color (no racism nor racial wars) and everyone has the authority to execute anyone with cancer (though to be fair that may be more George dreaming something wacky than what Haber had intended).
George is a weirdly passive character to me. He could dream for himself, or try to stop Haber, or run away or commit suicide to save the world from Haber. But he does nothing and doesn't even expect things to turn out well in the end. As a protagonist he is rather dull and I guess one problem is that there is no one to care about. I don't care about George or Haber or Heather and I guess I care about what's going to happen in the end but in the end not a novel I'd ever want to read again.
This is a classic science fiction novel. Worth reading once.
Set in the present. George Orr is a man who doesn't want to dream and because of drug use is sent to a renown psychiatrist Dr Haber. Apparently when George has an Effective Dream he changes reality and everyone else thinks this is the way it has always been.
Once Dr Haber is convinced about George's power he uses George to make the world better. But dreams are finicky and even with the help of hypnotic suggestions the good changes that Haber wants are often balanced by unwanted changes. George on other hand doesn't like that Dr Haber is changing so much reality but George is a very passive man and goes along with the therapy sessions. Eventually George enlists legal aid from Heather Lelache and there is a small romance element there.
There are also vague turtle-like aliens that George dreamed up in order to bring Peace to humanity by making an external enemy. Once again after more dreams the aliens turn out to be friendly and integrate with humanity. George has a few enigmatic interactions with individual aliens and it's apparent that they know about Effective Dreaming and why his are so chaotic.
Meanwhile Dr Haber has been using an Augmentor machine to analyze and amplify George's dreams and he finally is ready to use the Augmentor to give himself the power of Effective Dreaming…
I've always believe that The Lathe of Heaven was really long and boring. I think this may be from watching parts of the PBS film adaptation when I was a kid and that was boring to me as a kid.
Reading it now it's well written and relatively quicker read than I expected. Although only three main characters only George is developed in that you see a lot of his thoughts and life. Dr Haber gets a bit of his thoughts also and Heather you do get a bit of her thoughts but definitely a minor character.
There's an element of how power corrupts and Dr Haber is not an evil man but more of a Utilitarian which is greatest good for greatest people which in this case means everyone being the same gray color (no racism nor racial wars) and everyone has the authority to execute anyone with cancer (though to be fair that may be more George dreaming something wacky than what Haber had intended).
George is a weirdly passive character to me. He could dream for himself, or try to stop Haber, or run away or commit suicide to save the world from Haber. But he does nothing and doesn't even expect things to turn out well in the end. As a protagonist he is rather dull and I guess one problem is that there is no one to care about. I don't care about George or Haber or Heather and I guess I care about what's going to happen in the end but in the end not a novel I'd ever want to read again.
This is a classic science fiction novel. Worth reading once.