Laith
Now listen carefully, George, and remember what I say.
You are deeply hypnotized and will follow explicitly all instructions I give to you. You are enamored by the writing of Ursula Le Guin and Philip K. Dick, and you will read all the recommendations I give to you. You're going to go to thriftbooks when I tell you to, and you'll purchase a copy of Lathe of Heaven for your bookshelf. Now lie back. Get comfortable. You're going online. You're online. Antwerp!
Yet another nugget of gold from Le Guin and another great book from the 70s. This is a (fantastic) piece of speculative fiction about George Orr, a character whose dreams alter reality. Orr lives in 2002 Portland and is terrified of his dreams. He is eventually forced into therapy after his self-medication to avoid REM sleep is discovered by the authorities. Orr begins a round of mandatory sleep therapy with Dr. Haber and his specialized dream machine, The Augmenter. Haber initially believes Orr to be a psychotic, but he quickly realizes that Orr's dreams are exactly as described on the tin. Using his dream machine and the power of hypnotic suggestion, Haber begins to use Orr's dreams to change their world for the better.
There are a lot of moving parts to this book, it's not just the landscape that changes along with Orr's dreams but the entire makeup of his reality. When Orr wakes up from his effective dreams, neither Orr nor Haber, not even the reader, knows just how his dreams have reshaped the world this time. Le Guin uses this framework to talk philosophically about man's desire to control the world around him, coupled with an exploration of mentally derived alternate realities. I would call this book an example of speculative fiction at its best, using this improbable set up to highlight inconsistencies with established philosophies and theories. There's no shortage of problems that arise due to Orr's dreams, and they challenge our modern understanding of psychology and behavior, as well as traditional ethical philosophies. The core conceit of the book being, "If you had the ability to change the world for the greater good, should you change it? How should you change it? What even is the greater good?"
I can't write another sentence without calling out the strong PKD influence. Le Guin was one of the earliest writers to publicly acknowledge PKD's talent, and she has gone on the record that this work was a tribute to PKD. Not that she needed to say anything because this read like a cleaned up copy of Ubik; PKD's fingerprints are all over this. Just because the influences of this work are obvious does not mean that it's an inferior or derivative work. This is wholly a Le Guin original, just with flourishes and subject-matter that evokes Dick's contributions to the genre in the 60s; it's psychological and dreamy. Allow me to re-iterate that this is Le Guin's take on Dick, as a reading experience this book is much more straightforward than a lot of 60s PKD so don't let his influence put you off reading this book (if you find PKD confusing or incoherent).
If you majored or minored in psychology in college, I think I'll have to assign this as mandatory reading. I took a few general surveys of the subject, and despite being a layman, I found this book thought-provoking (in addition to entertaining). It surprises me that, given how much Le Guin was fascinated with dreams and the study of psychology, her work was never introduced to me in an academic setting. Obviously this isn't hard science, but a lot of college courses are about dissecting theories and approaches, which this book does brilliantly. I actually feel this way about every Le Guin book I've read so far, there's more than just entertainment value in most of her work.
PS: I didn't know where to add this comment, but this book is almost exactly as long as The Word for World Is Forest and is considered a Novel and not a Novella. I guess the rules must have changed between '71 and '72/'76.
Now listen carefully, George, and remember what I say.
You are deeply hypnotized and will follow explicitly all instructions I give to you. You are enamored by the writing of Ursula Le Guin and Philip K. Dick, and you will read all the recommendations I give to you. You're going to go to thriftbooks when I tell you to, and you'll purchase a copy of Lathe of Heaven for your bookshelf. Now lie back. Get comfortable. You're going online. You're online. Antwerp!
Yet another nugget of gold from Le Guin and another great book from the 70s. This is a (fantastic) piece of speculative fiction about George Orr, a character whose dreams alter reality. Orr lives in 2002 Portland and is terrified of his dreams. He is eventually forced into therapy after his self-medication to avoid REM sleep is discovered by the authorities. Orr begins a round of mandatory sleep therapy with Dr. Haber and his specialized dream machine, The Augmenter. Haber initially believes Orr to be a psychotic, but he quickly realizes that Orr's dreams are exactly as described on the tin. Using his dream machine and the power of hypnotic suggestion, Haber begins to use Orr's dreams to change their world for the better.
There are a lot of moving parts to this book, it's not just the landscape that changes along with Orr's dreams but the entire makeup of his reality. When Orr wakes up from his effective dreams, neither Orr nor Haber, not even the reader, knows just how his dreams have reshaped the world this time. Le Guin uses this framework to talk philosophically about man's desire to control the world around him, coupled with an exploration of mentally derived alternate realities. I would call this book an example of speculative fiction at its best, using this improbable set up to highlight inconsistencies with established philosophies and theories. There's no shortage of problems that arise due to Orr's dreams, and they challenge our modern understanding of psychology and behavior, as well as traditional ethical philosophies. The core conceit of the book being, "If you had the ability to change the world for the greater good, should you change it? How should you change it? What even is the greater good?"
I can't write another sentence without calling out the strong PKD influence. Le Guin was one of the earliest writers to publicly acknowledge PKD's talent, and she has gone on the record that this work was a tribute to PKD. Not that she needed to say anything because this read like a cleaned up copy of Ubik; PKD's fingerprints are all over this. Just because the influences of this work are obvious does not mean that it's an inferior or derivative work. This is wholly a Le Guin original, just with flourishes and subject-matter that evokes Dick's contributions to the genre in the 60s; it's psychological and dreamy. Allow me to re-iterate that this is Le Guin's take on Dick, as a reading experience this book is much more straightforward than a lot of 60s PKD so don't let his influence put you off reading this book (if you find PKD confusing or incoherent).
If you majored or minored in psychology in college, I think I'll have to assign this as mandatory reading. I took a few general surveys of the subject, and despite being a layman, I found this book thought-provoking (in addition to entertaining). It surprises me that, given how much Le Guin was fascinated with dreams and the study of psychology, her work was never introduced to me in an academic setting. Obviously this isn't hard science, but a lot of college courses are about dissecting theories and approaches, which this book does brilliantly. I actually feel this way about every Le Guin book I've read so far, there's more than just entertainment value in most of her work.
PS: I didn't know where to add this comment, but this book is almost exactly as long as The Word for World Is Forest and is considered a Novel and not a Novella. I guess the rules must have changed between '71 and '72/'76.