The Lathe of Heaven Analysis

Welcome to the future. Location: Portland, Oregon. Year: 2002. Wait, what?So, okay, The Lathe of Heaven was published in 1971, and back then 2002 was the future, while for us, it was just the year...

The narrator in The Lathe of Heaven is like a chameleon. We have a third-person narrator, but sometimes this narrator gets so close to the main characters that it almost seems like we're dealing wi...

The Lathe of Heaven probably isn't what you think of when you think of sci-fi, which is usually full of strange languages, aliens, space travel, and epic battles. Yeah, the novel has aliens, but ev...

You have to give Ursula Le Guin her props: even in a novel where billions of people are killed for the sake of a greater cause, she manages to make us laugh. In between all of the shifting realitie...

You might not have expected poetics and subtlety from a science fiction novel, but that's what you're getting with The Lathe of Heaven. The writing style used in this novel would not be out of plac...

The title of this novel is actually a terrible mistake.Wait, let us explain. First of all, it's from a quote by Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi that shows up as the epigraph to the third chapter of the...

"Thank you very much," Orr said, and shook hands with his boss. The big green flipper was cool on his human hand. He went out with Heather into the warm, rainy afternoon of summer. The Alien watche...

Normally, we'd say a book is tough because of its vocabulary, or because of its writing style, or even because of the historical information needed to understand it. But that's not what's going on...

George Orr is your average guy… except for one thing: his dreams change reality. He's caught overdosing on pills to stay awake and is sent to Dr. Haber for therapy and, you know, more drugs. So...

In this part of the rebirth story, the hero falls under the shadow of the dark power. Well, guess who that is? Dr. Haber? Ding ding ding.George falls under Dr. Haber's spell when he is forced in...

George Orr is your regular everyday guy except for one thing: his dreams change reality. He's sent to Dr. William Haber for therapy. The doctor doesn't believe him when he reveals his power… but...

You will never be as awesome as Ursula Le Guin. It's okay—we've come to accept it, too. She's created more books, short stories, and poems than you can imagine. Seriously, how does someone even p...

The closest this book comes to steaminess is a single mention of the word loins. So yeah, nothing to worry about here. We give The Lathe of Heaven a PG rating for the violence that is depicted duri...

A.A. Milne, Winne the Pooh and the Honey Tree (3.5) Zen Buddhism (5.17) The Darmachakra (7.96) ALCU (5.18) William Shakespeare (5.42) Macbeth (11.2) Hamlet (11.3) Gordian Knot (5.103) Lafcadio Hea...