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juushikaTitle: The Lathe of Heaven
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Published: New York: Perennial, 2003 (1971)
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 34,845
Text Number: 100
Read For: my own enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: George Orr has the ability to dream things into being, changing reality smoothly and seamlessly into what he creates in his dreams. Scared by this power, he takes drugs to stop his dreams and soon ends up in mandatory sessions with a dream-specialist therapist who promises to help him—yet reveals that he has his own plans for George and his effective dreams. Unlike George, who did not want to change reality, the psychiatrist Haber has no qualms changing reality to serve what he views as the greatest good. A well-developed science-fiction text in its own right, Lathe of Heaven also delves into the realm of dystopic societies, utilitarian philosophy, and issues ranging from race to socialized medicine to human natures. The text is skilled, accessible, well-paced, and both thought-provoking and essentially satisfying as a book. I greatly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
I was impressed by how much ground and how many topics Le Guinn covers in such a short book, and how accessible the topics remain throughout. It is a very readable text, but not because Le Guin dumbs down or oversimplifies topics. Rather, she carefully juggles plot, characterization, and theory such that the book moves at a good pace without becoming rushed and the various factors combine in a way that brings out the best and most useful (to the reader and the story) in all of them. Therefore, I would recommend this book to all readers, including those that don’t generally read science-fiction.
The topics which Le Guin investigates are wide-ranging and, though she doesn’t investigate any in extensive depth, the text does provide a lot of food for thought. Covering everything from healthcare to the patient/doctor relationship, from utilitarianism to human nature, to race and war and the unconscious mind, she really does touch on a wide range of subjects in the series of dystopic realities that span the book. The topics are covered in enough detail to be realistically realized, but are kept open so that the book keeps moving at a good pace and the reader is never given a clear, absolute answer to any one topic. My only complaint with the novel is this level of brevity and indecisiveness, but I believe it is necessary. It would be impossible to delve into all of these topics in depth without completely changing the purpose and content of the novel, and it would also make for a lengthy, tiresome read. As it is, the book opens a lot of doors and closes none of them, providing apt food for thought and introducing more topics (such as human nature) that are only accessible because it is able to cover so many.
I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It read quickly, kept me interested, but never became simplistic or shallow. I highly recommend this text to all readers, and I think it has the potential to open up pathways to all sorts of new thoughts and genres for the reader. This is a wonderful book.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Published: New York: Perennial, 2003 (1971)
Page Count: 175
Total Page Count: 34,845
Text Number: 100
Read For: my own enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: George Orr has the ability to dream things into being, changing reality smoothly and seamlessly into what he creates in his dreams. Scared by this power, he takes drugs to stop his dreams and soon ends up in mandatory sessions with a dream-specialist therapist who promises to help him—yet reveals that he has his own plans for George and his effective dreams. Unlike George, who did not want to change reality, the psychiatrist Haber has no qualms changing reality to serve what he views as the greatest good. A well-developed science-fiction text in its own right, Lathe of Heaven also delves into the realm of dystopic societies, utilitarian philosophy, and issues ranging from race to socialized medicine to human natures. The text is skilled, accessible, well-paced, and both thought-provoking and essentially satisfying as a book. I greatly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
I was impressed by how much ground and how many topics Le Guinn covers in such a short book, and how accessible the topics remain throughout. It is a very readable text, but not because Le Guin dumbs down or oversimplifies topics. Rather, she carefully juggles plot, characterization, and theory such that the book moves at a good pace without becoming rushed and the various factors combine in a way that brings out the best and most useful (to the reader and the story) in all of them. Therefore, I would recommend this book to all readers, including those that don’t generally read science-fiction.
The topics which Le Guin investigates are wide-ranging and, though she doesn’t investigate any in extensive depth, the text does provide a lot of food for thought. Covering everything from healthcare to the patient/doctor relationship, from utilitarianism to human nature, to race and war and the unconscious mind, she really does touch on a wide range of subjects in the series of dystopic realities that span the book. The topics are covered in enough detail to be realistically realized, but are kept open so that the book keeps moving at a good pace and the reader is never given a clear, absolute answer to any one topic. My only complaint with the novel is this level of brevity and indecisiveness, but I believe it is necessary. It would be impossible to delve into all of these topics in depth without completely changing the purpose and content of the novel, and it would also make for a lengthy, tiresome read. As it is, the book opens a lot of doors and closes none of them, providing apt food for thought and introducing more topics (such as human nature) that are only accessible because it is able to cover so many.
I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It read quickly, kept me interested, but never became simplistic or shallow. I highly recommend this text to all readers, and I think it has the potential to open up pathways to all sorts of new thoughts and genres for the reader. This is a wonderful book.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
