The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin

This was a fascinating little sci-fi book.  It perfectly embodies what I see as the power of sci-fi:  to explore humanity through the introduction of bizarre and fantastical alterations to our world.  The story follows George Orr as he attempts to come to grips with his strange ability to have "effective" dreams that change the world.  Read on for further discussion that may present some spoilers.

As a more complete summary, the book documents the struggle of George Orr to control his dreams and fight their exploitation by his psychiatrist, Dr. Haber.  His psychiatrist aims to make George dream effectively under hypnosis so as to study the effect.  Using a new tool called the "augmenter," Haber directs George via hypnosis to effectively dream a world into existence in which Haber himself is a researcher of growing power and importance.  Taking things further, Haber tries to direct George to dream a more peaceful and perfect world.  Each time, however, his attempts are foiled as George's dreams follow the directions but foil their purpose - for example, the war in the middle east is ended, but only as humanity unites against aliens or overpopulation is solved but only by a great plague that wiped out most of the population.  Eventually, Haber directs George to the obvious solution of effectively dreaming to end his ability to dream effectively.  Perhaps due to his unwillingness to relinquish power, Haber further directs George to transfer the ability to effectively dream on to Haber himself.  Haber's resulting nightmare mixes each of the worlds George has dreamed into a single point in space and time.

The ties this book has to eastern philosophy are made obvious throughout.  There are quotes at the beginning of each chapter from Chuang Tzu as well as more subtle references to Taoist tenants like that of the "uncarved block."  George Orr is a very Taoist person - seemingly unassuming and easily manipulated, but impossible to budge when pushed; not one to push in any given direction but looking to follow the path and natural order (even in mixed up realities).  Further, he works with, not against, his surroundings to achieve a harmony in his life despite the ever changing and turbulent world in which he finds himself.  There are also some implications of Hindu-like "Brahman" as George works with the (now) friendly aliens to understand the nature of effective dreaming.

What is the knowledge to be taken away from this book?  Perhaps that solving the worlds problems is more difficult than we can immagine - even with unlimited power to develop a solution, there are many ways for things to go awry.  Perhaps that humans must fight their tendencies towards greed and power. But most of all, I think it mirrors many of the lessons of Taoism and other eastern philosophy:  to work with, not against, the world to become comfortable with your role.  I don't mean that we are each a mysterious cog in the machine of the world trying to figure out where we fit, but I think this book demonstrates, through bizarre circumstances, the necessity to be cognizant of the Way and how to work with the people and the world around you in an organic way to create an environment of peace and harmony.