Scan barcode
blaze_o_glory's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
The Lathe of Heaven discusses our responsibility to make the world a better place in a way that makes sure you can't weasel your way into a shortcut. The writing is a bit dry at times, but ultimately it's a ver y entertaining book.
__izzy__'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jazmelody's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
spenkevich's review against another edition
4.0
'Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.'
- [a:Zhuangzi|149093|Zhuangzi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1431422816p2/149093.jpg]
A few years ago I was listening to [a:Margaret Atwood|3472|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282859073p2/3472.jpg] on NPR discussing how for every person’s idea of a utopian society, there is someone who would find it to be a dystopia, and vice versa. Dystopian sci-fi has been quite popular in the past few decades and champions the spirit of rebellion and resistance, but something I find so charming about Ursula K Le Guin is that she tends to focus less on the struggles within dystopias and instead on the struggles that come trying to envision and forge a better world towards a eutopia. Though Le Guin also agrees with Atwood, having written ‘every eutopia contains a dystopia, every dystopia contains a eutopia,’ and in her novel The Lathe of Heaven, Le Guin explores the idea that even best intentions in creating a perfect world can fracture to chaos and hunger for power and be full of imperfections. Le Guin explores the philosophies of Taoism—central to many of Le Guin’s works— and critiques of Utilitarianism in this wildly imaginative story. Through shifting realities that barrel through an exciting variety of sci-fi tropes, The Lathe of Heaven is an excellent examination on power and control, the nuances that make up society and an expression that ‘it’s not right to play God with masses of people.’
‘This was the way he had to go; he had no choice. He had never had any choice. He was only a dreamer.’
[a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1633698608p2/4764.jpg] wrote that Lathe of Heaven is ‘one of the best novels, and most important to understanding of the nature of our world.’ Which is high praise from another master of science fiction, and the author this novel is most often compared with. He adds that in Lathe ‘ the dream universe is articulated in such a striking and compelling way that I hesitate to add any further explanation to it; it requires none.’ Which I tend to agree with, and there is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been better expressed by others of Le Guin herself but I love this book so much that I can’t help but ramble about it.
A short novel, but packed with amazing ideas, Lathe of Heaven rotates between three perspectives. First is George Orr, a man with the power to change reality with his dreams, keeping them at bay with a harsh drug addiction that winds him in the care of the character who is our second perspective: Dr. Haber. The doctor, representative of the taoist yang, has a belief in Utilitarian ideals leads him to exploit Orr in order to reshape the world as he sees fit. He has the best of intentions at first, but chaos and a thirst for power befall even the noblest of pursuits. Finally we have Heather Lelache, a Black civil rights lawyer and ACLU observer who attempts to aid Orr against Haber’s quest for control and with whom Orr falls in love. The three of them guide us through the changing realities as Haber directs Orr to imagine a more perfect world, though the results are often not what they expect.
‘The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.’
With each new reality—only Orr and Haber can remember what came before and the world is whiplashed into new realities with each dream—Le Guin is able to create a lot of good fun examining how these changes might go awry or how they alter society. Haber, a utilitarian, finds his quest for perfection often misses the nuances in their implications and one must ask if the maximum amount of happiness is actual extreme unhappiness for others. Such as his fears of the world being overpopulated leads Orr to dream of a plague that causes mass death and chaos, or his desire to world peace creates an alien race threatening the Earth which unites all the nations against a common enemy but has us on the brink of galactic war.
One of the most effective digs into the nuances of society comes when Orr dreams everyone into having gray skin under Haber’s orders in an attempt to eliminate racism. This makes for an excellent rebuttal against the ideas of ‘not seeing color’ or color-blindness in society as showing that cultural differences are a lively part of life and without them the world is rather bland (hence the grayness). As Heather is of mixed parentage, she is eliminated entirely from this reality, with Le Guin telling this segment from Orr’s perspective in a way that makes her absence emphasized. When Orr brings her into the world again through his dreams, the absence of her background that formed key elements of her personality leaves her docile and practically not Heather at all, the one who would ‘come on hard’ and intimidate with ‘fierce, scornful’ remarks (though it should be noted this is playing into a pejorative stereotype of the ‘angry Black woman’ that is rather harmful).
‘We're in the world, not against it. It doesn't work to try to stand outside things and run them, that way. It just doesn't work, it goes against life. There is a way but you have to follow it. The world is, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be.’
Returning to the concepts of Taoism, we have Orr representing a more passive stance while Haber is the more controlling one who’s attempts to play God have him destined to be ‘destroyed on the lathe of heaven’ (interestingly enough, Le Guin later admitted the title is based on a mistranslation). George Orr—named as both a nod to [a:George Orwell|3706|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1588856560p2/3706.jpg] and play on Kierkegaard’s [b:Either/Or|24970|Either/Or A Fragment of Life|Søren Kierkegaard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393892756l/24970._SY75_.jpg|25733], with Heather referring to him as ‘Mister Either Orr’—appears rather passive, though this stems from his belief that ‘it’s wrong to force the pattern of things.’ Often compared to jellyfish, Orr can be best understood through the way Le Guin describes the sea creatures:
Like the jellyfish using the strength of the ocean where it lacks personal defensiveness, George employs the world around him and his friends to help him out. While we first see him as soft, as the representation of yin, we discover that is only half the perception and Heather sees him as the ‘strongest person she had ever known, because he could not be moved away from the center.’ I mean, he reshapes reality, he just doesn’t want to. Haber’s depiction of him helps us see Orr more clearly as well:
George Orr represents the tao as a whole, being both yin and yang, being the duality that is needed. To be just one is to be unbalanced, as we see with Dr. Haber.
Le Guin often uses taoist philosophy in her works, and her essay on writing europias, a highly recommended read you can access here, uses the language of yin and yang to elucidate her ideas. Even The Dispossessed uses a blend of taoism and anarchism as a central part of the novel's social and philosophical construction. There are other expressions in here as well, most notably Mt. Hood being symbolic of wu wei, or ‘effortless action’, being a constant presence that also serves as an indication of the current state of reality in the novel. Water also serves as a symbol of this as well, being a natural order of things and the absence of it shows the disruption of the natural balance of life.
‘Those who dream of feasting wake to lamentation.’
[a:Chuang Tzu|18525420|Chuang Tzu|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
While George is compared to a jellyfish, Haber is frequently compared to a bear: a force of brute strength in nature. ‘He was gray, large, broad, curly bearded, deep-chested, frowning,’ we are told of his bearlike appearance, followed with ‘Your God is a jealous God,’ evoking the Christian depiction of God with Christianity often played as the foil to taoism in the novel. He seeks to rule the world and all reality as he sees fit, saying ‘this world will be like heaven, and men will be like gods!’ However, Orr replies ‘we are already,’ a further expression that the natural order of things is the best way. There are many consequences shown for playing God here, most notably the mass deaths and destructions that come as consequence of the changes, but also compiling reality on top of realities begins to create a sickening sense of unreality. Le Guin references a [a:T.S. Eliot|18540|T.S. Eliot|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1612500008p2/18540.jpg] poem, Burnt Norton from the Four Quartets, in which a bird argues ‘mankind cannot bear very much reality.’ However, here we see it is unreality that the mind cannot bear and it has terrible consequences.
This has all been a rudimentary look at the philosophical undertones of the book, and I wouldn’t want to make it appear rather stuffy or heady as the book is, in fact, a really fun and engaging story with a fast-moving plot. With each change it is exciting to see how the world responds and Le Guin moves through a lot of rather cliched sci fi scenarios that manage to still feel fresh in the framing of the novel as a whole. There’s a lot of action too, such as an alien invasion scene. The alien species, which is rather turtle-like, is quite fun once they are no longer a threat to humans. I love the moment where we learn of their social anxieties, having to point at the face of their interlocutor in order for their translation equipment to work while also knowing pointing is considered rude so they just don’t talk much. I FELT THAT.
‘You don't speak of dreams as unreal. They exist. They leave a mark behind them.’
Le Guin was an absolute master and Lathe of Heaven is yet another example of how she would courageously and creatively make literary gems within a science fiction framework. This book is packed with philosophical insight and a driving plot that will keep you turning pages to see what bizarre twist will befall them next. A fun story with a lot of heart, and something to keep in mind if you ever decide to play God.
4.5/5
‘A person who believes, as she did, that things fit: that there is a whole of which one is a part, and that in being a part one is whole: such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.’
- [a:Zhuangzi|149093|Zhuangzi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1431422816p2/149093.jpg]
A few years ago I was listening to [a:Margaret Atwood|3472|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282859073p2/3472.jpg] on NPR discussing how for every person’s idea of a utopian society, there is someone who would find it to be a dystopia, and vice versa. Dystopian sci-fi has been quite popular in the past few decades and champions the spirit of rebellion and resistance, but something I find so charming about Ursula K Le Guin is that she tends to focus less on the struggles within dystopias and instead on the struggles that come trying to envision and forge a better world towards a eutopia. Though Le Guin also agrees with Atwood, having written ‘every eutopia contains a dystopia, every dystopia contains a eutopia,’ and in her novel The Lathe of Heaven, Le Guin explores the idea that even best intentions in creating a perfect world can fracture to chaos and hunger for power and be full of imperfections. Le Guin explores the philosophies of Taoism—central to many of Le Guin’s works— and critiques of Utilitarianism in this wildly imaginative story. Through shifting realities that barrel through an exciting variety of sci-fi tropes, The Lathe of Heaven is an excellent examination on power and control, the nuances that make up society and an expression that ‘it’s not right to play God with masses of people.’
‘This was the way he had to go; he had no choice. He had never had any choice. He was only a dreamer.’
[a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1633698608p2/4764.jpg] wrote that Lathe of Heaven is ‘one of the best novels, and most important to understanding of the nature of our world.’ Which is high praise from another master of science fiction, and the author this novel is most often compared with. He adds that in Lathe ‘ the dream universe is articulated in such a striking and compelling way that I hesitate to add any further explanation to it; it requires none.’ Which I tend to agree with, and there is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been better expressed by others of Le Guin herself but I love this book so much that I can’t help but ramble about it.
A short novel, but packed with amazing ideas, Lathe of Heaven rotates between three perspectives. First is George Orr, a man with the power to change reality with his dreams, keeping them at bay with a harsh drug addiction that winds him in the care of the character who is our second perspective: Dr. Haber. The doctor, representative of the taoist yang, has a belief in Utilitarian ideals leads him to exploit Orr in order to reshape the world as he sees fit. He has the best of intentions at first, but chaos and a thirst for power befall even the noblest of pursuits. Finally we have Heather Lelache, a Black civil rights lawyer and ACLU observer who attempts to aid Orr against Haber’s quest for control and with whom Orr falls in love. The three of them guide us through the changing realities as Haber directs Orr to imagine a more perfect world, though the results are often not what they expect.
‘The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.’
With each new reality—only Orr and Haber can remember what came before and the world is whiplashed into new realities with each dream—Le Guin is able to create a lot of good fun examining how these changes might go awry or how they alter society. Haber, a utilitarian, finds his quest for perfection often misses the nuances in their implications and one must ask if the maximum amount of happiness is actual extreme unhappiness for others. Such as his fears of the world being overpopulated leads Orr to dream of a plague that causes mass death and chaos, or his desire to world peace creates an alien race threatening the Earth which unites all the nations against a common enemy but has us on the brink of galactic war.
One of the most effective digs into the nuances of society comes when Orr dreams everyone into having gray skin under Haber’s orders in an attempt to eliminate racism. This makes for an excellent rebuttal against the ideas of ‘not seeing color’ or color-blindness in society as showing that cultural differences are a lively part of life and without them the world is rather bland (hence the grayness). As Heather is of mixed parentage, she is eliminated entirely from this reality, with Le Guin telling this segment from Orr’s perspective in a way that makes her absence emphasized. When Orr brings her into the world again through his dreams, the absence of her background that formed key elements of her personality leaves her docile and practically not Heather at all, the one who would ‘come on hard’ and intimidate with ‘fierce, scornful’ remarks (though it should be noted this is playing into a pejorative stereotype of the ‘angry Black woman’ that is rather harmful).
‘We're in the world, not against it. It doesn't work to try to stand outside things and run them, that way. It just doesn't work, it goes against life. There is a way but you have to follow it. The world is, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be.’
Returning to the concepts of Taoism, we have Orr representing a more passive stance while Haber is the more controlling one who’s attempts to play God have him destined to be ‘destroyed on the lathe of heaven’ (interestingly enough, Le Guin later admitted the title is based on a mistranslation). George Orr—named as both a nod to [a:George Orwell|3706|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1588856560p2/3706.jpg] and play on Kierkegaard’s [b:Either/Or|24970|Either/Or A Fragment of Life|Søren Kierkegaard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393892756l/24970._SY75_.jpg|25733], with Heather referring to him as ‘Mister Either Orr’—appears rather passive, though this stems from his belief that ‘it’s wrong to force the pattern of things.’ Often compared to jellyfish, Orr can be best understood through the way Le Guin describes the sea creatures:
‘Hanging, swaying, pulsing, the most vulnerable and insubstantial creature, it has for its defense the violence and power of the whole ocean, to which it has entrusted its being, its going, and its will.’
Like the jellyfish using the strength of the ocean where it lacks personal defensiveness, George employs the world around him and his friends to help him out. While we first see him as soft, as the representation of yin, we discover that is only half the perception and Heather sees him as the ‘strongest person she had ever known, because he could not be moved away from the center.’ I mean, he reshapes reality, he just doesn’t want to. Haber’s depiction of him helps us see Orr more clearly as well:
‘you’re a median…Both, neither. Either, or. Where there’s an opposed pair, a polarity, you’re in the middle; where there’s a scale, you’re the balance point.’
George Orr represents the tao as a whole, being both yin and yang, being the duality that is needed. To be just one is to be unbalanced, as we see with Dr. Haber.
Le Guin often uses taoist philosophy in her works, and her essay on writing europias, a highly recommended read you can access here, uses the language of yin and yang to elucidate her ideas. Even The Dispossessed uses a blend of taoism and anarchism as a central part of the novel's social and philosophical construction. There are other expressions in here as well, most notably Mt. Hood being symbolic of wu wei, or ‘effortless action’, being a constant presence that also serves as an indication of the current state of reality in the novel. Water also serves as a symbol of this as well, being a natural order of things and the absence of it shows the disruption of the natural balance of life.
‘Those who dream of feasting wake to lamentation.’
[a:Chuang Tzu|18525420|Chuang Tzu|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]
While George is compared to a jellyfish, Haber is frequently compared to a bear: a force of brute strength in nature. ‘He was gray, large, broad, curly bearded, deep-chested, frowning,’ we are told of his bearlike appearance, followed with ‘Your God is a jealous God,’ evoking the Christian depiction of God with Christianity often played as the foil to taoism in the novel. He seeks to rule the world and all reality as he sees fit, saying ‘this world will be like heaven, and men will be like gods!’ However, Orr replies ‘we are already,’ a further expression that the natural order of things is the best way. There are many consequences shown for playing God here, most notably the mass deaths and destructions that come as consequence of the changes, but also compiling reality on top of realities begins to create a sickening sense of unreality. Le Guin references a [a:T.S. Eliot|18540|T.S. Eliot|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1612500008p2/18540.jpg] poem, Burnt Norton from the Four Quartets, in which a bird argues ‘mankind cannot bear very much reality.’ However, here we see it is unreality that the mind cannot bear and it has terrible consequences.
This has all been a rudimentary look at the philosophical undertones of the book, and I wouldn’t want to make it appear rather stuffy or heady as the book is, in fact, a really fun and engaging story with a fast-moving plot. With each change it is exciting to see how the world responds and Le Guin moves through a lot of rather cliched sci fi scenarios that manage to still feel fresh in the framing of the novel as a whole. There’s a lot of action too, such as an alien invasion scene. The alien species, which is rather turtle-like, is quite fun once they are no longer a threat to humans. I love the moment where we learn of their social anxieties, having to point at the face of their interlocutor in order for their translation equipment to work while also knowing pointing is considered rude so they just don’t talk much. I FELT THAT.
‘You don't speak of dreams as unreal. They exist. They leave a mark behind them.’
Le Guin was an absolute master and Lathe of Heaven is yet another example of how she would courageously and creatively make literary gems within a science fiction framework. This book is packed with philosophical insight and a driving plot that will keep you turning pages to see what bizarre twist will befall them next. A fun story with a lot of heart, and something to keep in mind if you ever decide to play God.
4.5/5
‘A person who believes, as she did, that things fit: that there is a whole of which one is a part, and that in being a part one is whole: such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.’
catgirlrights's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
art_h's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
zoemeyer16's review against another edition
4.0
Requires the reader to be a sci-fi fan. The first half cosplays as your run of the mill, trippy, time-bendy thriller before entering into true science fiction themes (complete with alien spaceships and made-up language). I really liked it and felt it gave the exhilarating thrill of a particularly ungrounded “Doctor Strange” scene. Despite being less than 200 pages, it is not a quick read and does require the reader’s full attention to engage thoroughly in the book’s themes.