Group Read: The Lathe of Heaven

[[deleted user]]

For discussion.

[Brad]

Mmmm ... must reread, but not until after I finish Promoted to Wife.

[Phoenixfalls]

So. . . I haven't read any of Le Guin's SF yet. I have access to pretty much all of it (at least all of the classic stuff) but have never quite known where to start.

How's this for a starting place? It's not part of the Hainish Cycle, right?

[Robert]

No, it isn't part of the Hainish cycle.

[Mir]

I've ordered it, since I have no clue where the copy I own is. But I too must first read Promoted to Wife.

[Tatiana]

It's a stand-alone book, and a really excellent one!

[Robert]

I wonder if my books will arrive before everyone finishes reading it?

[Ian]

I'm looking forward to it! I need to get it online as my local county library (I live in a big metropolitan county) has only one copy and it's listed as "missing" ... not good.

[[deleted user]]

I just skimmed it again because I was teaching with it.

[Tatiana]

What did you think, Sho? Any new observations?

[Robert]

OK - my books have been delivered! Is anybody still reading this? Or even started?

[[deleted user]]

Well, UKL is pretty understated, so with every re-read I get a slightly more nuanced understanding of Dr. Haber. However, that may be me more than UKL; also, I've seen both versions of the film, the one she liked and the one she had no input on, so that makes a contribution to a sense of the details as well. I live near Portland and there's been a lot of rain this winter and spring, so I'm in touch with the atmospheric elements--another gray, rainy day; wet ponchos dripping in the hall; the smell unheated, concrete stairwells exude; the general hopelessness and exhaustion of doing everything while damp.

[Tatiana]

I've been waiting to start it until someone else was commenting, so I wouldn't get out in front.

[[deleted user]]

I will start this now as well!

[Robert]

I will try to find my copy in the vast number of vast piles of books littering my apartment...

[[deleted user]]

Robert wrote: "I will try to find my copy in the vast number of vast piles of books littering my apartment..."Your4 apartment sounds wonderful.

[Robert]

I estimate about 1000 books and shelf space for 1/2 - 2/3 of them...

[Rick]

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Beautifully written and wonderful characters.

[Tatiana]

I realize that I'm definitely the Dr. Heber type, barreling away with my own ideas for making the world a better place. Going step by step from problem to solution. I see existence as a complicated interacting physical system that we can tweak and optimize to run better.

Thinking about how to fix that (hah), I guess the first step is humility and awe at the depth and complexity of people and of the universe, which is so far beyond my understanding in so many ways, despite how much science has illuminated. Is that what Dr. Heber's tragic flaw was? Lack of humility? Or was it obliviousness? Or what? What do you guys think?

[[deleted user]]

The hubris of the professions (I say as a professional).

[Lily]

Hi! As a new member of this group, an introduction: With three novels in print and recorded as author-read audio books, I'm in a cycle of reading selected works to expand skills in characterization, elements of fantasy and vision, utilizing point of view, and even learning from what doesn't work for other authors. A few references to the works of Ursula K. LeGuin, especially some 23 pages devoted to her writing in "The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons" by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew, convinced me to initiate this cycle with LeGuin's complete works. I began with "The Lathe of Heaven". Whew! It was so unusual, engaging, and often surreal; my comment to my husband was, "I have to be careful not to read from this just before (or during) a meal." Sometimes it made me dizzy.