I’m familiar with Ursula K. Le Guin’s work. I reviewed “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” some time ago. However, I had yet to actually read some of her novels. I decided to start with The Lathe of Heaven. Let’s get into the review.
Published in 1971 and winner of the 1972 Locus Award, Le Guin’s novel focuses on concepts she’s well-known for, including Taoism and utilitarianism. The book focuses on George Orr, a man who visits a doctor, hoping to find a cure for the strange dreams he experiences. George discovers that his dreams alter reality. The doctor decides to take matters into his own hands and begin hypnosis therapy. Through this manipulation, the doctor instructs George to dream specific dreams to alter the fate of the world and prevent nuclear devastation. However, these dreams come with drastic consequences.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s work always provides something different from what I typically read in more ways than one. In my quest to read more Golden Age of science fiction books, Le Guin offers a different perspective than authors like Clarke and Heinlein. Her work focuses more on philosophical ideas than scientific concepts. However, The Lathe of Heaven also offers an interesting concept, dreams, that become manipulated by science. The combination made for a somber experience as I read along. This was also a major introduction into Le Guin’s experience with Eastern traditions and philosophies, which I also never see in sci-fi. Le Guin allowed the idea of living, existing without a set purpose, to dominate this book, weaving in the sci-fi elements to convey the idea of man’s purpose in a changing world.
Because of this idea, I loved the character of George Orr. I thought it was interesting how he existed at the center of the concept of dreams manipulating reality and how he responded to it. I feel like his character would have been handled differently if he were created by any other author, to be honest. This also felt like a rare instance of a character being primarily swayed by the narrative, but still developing and becoming a different person in spite of it.
I plan to read Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness next. In the meantime, I have a ton more books on my TBR to finish. Stay tuned this week for another blog post. Happy reading!
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