The Lathe of Heaven is a 1971 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first serialized in the American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. It won the 1972 Locus Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the 1971 Nebula Award for Best Novel and 1972 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Two television film adaptations were released: the PBS production, The Lathe of Heaven (1980), and Lathe of Heaven (2002), a remake produced by the A&E Network. The novel explores themes and philosophies such as positivism, Taoism, behaviorism, and utilitarianism. Its central plot surrounds a man whose dreams are able to alter past and present reality and the ramifications of those psychologically derived changes for better and worse.
Title The title is from the writings of Chuang Tzu (Zhuang Zhou) – specifically a passage from Book XXIII, paragraph 7, quoted as an epigraph to Chapter 3 of the novel:
Other epigraphs from Chuang Tzu appear throughout the novel. Le Guin chose the title because she loved the quotation. However, it seems that quote is a mis-translation of Chuang Tzu's Chinese text. In Nothingness, Being, and Dao: Ontology and Cosmology in the Zhuangzi, Chai describes the concept of 天鈞 as 'heavenly equilibrium'. In an interview with Bill Moyers for the 2000 DVD release of the 1980 adaptation, Le Guin clarified the issue:
... it's a terrible mis-translation apparently, I didn't know that at the time. There were no lathes in China at the time that was said. Joseph Needham wrote me and said "It's a lovely translation, but it's wrong". In 1997, Le Guin published a translation of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, traditionally regarded as the founder of Taoism (Daoism). In the notes at the end of the translation, she explains her choice of title for the novel:
The language of some [translations of the Tao Te Ching] was so obscure as to make me feel the book must be beyond Western comprehension. (James Legge's version was one of these, although I found the title for a book of mine, The Lathe of Heaven, in Legge. Years later, Joseph Needham, the great scholar of Chinese science and technology, wrote to tell me in the kindest, most unreproachful fashion Legge was a bit off on that one; when Chuang Tzu was written the lathe hadn't been invented.) Translated editions of Lathe of Heaven titled the novel differently. The German and first Portuguese edition titles, Die Geißel des Himmels and O flagelo dos céus, mean literally "the scourge [or whip] of heaven". The French, Swedish and second Portuguese edition titles, L'autre côté du rêve, På andra sidan drömmen and Do outro lado do sonho, translate as "the other side of the dream". The Italian edition title is La falce dei cieli (The scythe of the heavens)
Plot summary The book is set in Portland, Oregon, in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. Many citizens suffer from malnutrition and poverty. The world is seriously affected by war in the Middle East and climate change. George Orr is a draftsman with a mysterious ability. Some of his dreams are "effective" dreams that change reality. Orr's effective dreams shift the entire universe, changing both the past and present and creating a new timeline. Only Orr remembers that things were ever different, with the exception of people who watch him directly when the dreams occur. Orr begins abusing drugs to suppress his dreams. Orr begins attending mandated therapy sessions with ambitious psychiatrist and sleep researcher Dr. William Haber. After he witnesses Orr's dreams change a picture in his office, Haber believes in Orr's powers. Dr. Haber seeks to change the planet. Haber's experiments with a biofeedback/EEG machine, nicknamed the Augmentor, enhance Orr's abilities while producing a series of increasingly intolerable alternative worlds based on an assortment of utopian (and dystopian) premises:
Eliminating over-population is disastrous after Orr dreams that a devastating plague eliminated most humans. Attempting to remove the scourge of cancer from society creates a world where citizens are routinely allowed to euthanize one another for being considered a threat to the gene pool. "Peace on Earth" results in an alien invasion of the Moon, uniting mankind against the external threat while creating new conflict in cislunar space. Orr is concerned that Haber is violating his civil rights. He contacts lawyer Heather Lelache, who witnesses one of Haber's therapy sessions. Lelache then gains memories of two different timelines, proving the existence of effective dreaming. Orr tells Lelache that the world was destroyed by nuclear war in April 1998. Orr dreamed it back into existence as he lay dying in the ruins. He now doubts the reality of what now exists, considering it a mere dream.
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