Since the last part of the story, the plot has been considerably warped and convoluted, as I no longer know what is really happening or not in the book. At this point in the book, George Orr has had an effective dream that eliminates Heather Lelache, for whom Orr has developed feeling as well as all skin colour and racial prejudice. To justify all this, Haber places the blame on Orr's subconscious mind and its inability to directly follow Haber's suggestions and instead "taking the short cut" as the doctor says in his own words. He then talks at length about how what George is doing will be for the greater good of the world, and that it's "God's work." Haber then starts to speculate on how George came to have this condition. With regards to Orr's physical, mental, and emotional state, he (Orr) is exactly in the "middle" of everything, meaning that he belongs to neither extreme; that he is both yet neither. This could be why George has the ability to dream effectively. Orr starts to openly rebel against Haber's manipulation of his dreams. Dr. Haber then tells George of all the progress they've made, and how it's "changing the world."
Soon after this, Orr leaves and is making his way home when he stops at an antique shop. There, he encounters an Alien, who asks what or whom he is looking for. Orr mentions to the Alien that he is looking for Heather Lelache, but the Alien replies that he hasn't heard of anyone by that name. He (the Alien) then speaks in a riddle and hands George an old vinyl record of a Beatles song. George thanks the Alien and heads back home. Once in his home, Orr plays the record on his machine until he falls asleep. When he wakes, Orr finds himself in a new reality in which he and Heather Lelache are a married couple. Together, they go to Orr's last "therapy" session to Dr. Haber's office. In this session, Haber tells George to dream that he can no longer have effective dreams. After this, Orr and Heather leave to eat lunch at a restaurant. As they are about to eat, however, George notices a not-so-subtle shift in the fabric of reality and instantly knows that Dr. Haber has attempted something very dangerous. He immediately rushes back towards Dr. Haber's office, only to watch reality as he knows it crumble quickly around him. Skip to a different point in time. Orr visits Dr. Haber in a mental institution with the latter in a catatonic state, and somehow gets back to Heather Lelache, if only in as acquaintances. The whole book essentially described in extreme accuracy the path of corruption that power leads people down on. When Haber was saying earlier that what he and George Orr were doing was "God's work," it is highly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's resolve to exterminate all the Jews, as it was "God's work," thus brainwashing several loyal German citizens. In this same way, Haber is trying to brainwash Orr into cooperating with his ideals.The main theme that I noticed in the story was the continual cycle of the abuse of great power by those in authoritative positions and the manipulation of the weak for selfish reasons. I did think that the book had a good ending, as justice was served to those who tried to disturb the order of natural laws.George also got back to Heather, even though it wasn't exactly in the way that he would have liked it to be. I would recommend this book to a friend if they enjoyed the more scientific and psychological explanations of dreams and their effect on a person's brain. The story line gets very confusing and increasingly harder to follow as reality is being warped each time. To those who want to read it, I wish them good luck in understanding the plot. I will be commenting on the reading blogs of Maddi P., Michael Q, and Matthew E.
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Since last time, the plot has changed greatly. The story line gets increasingly more confusing and difficult to follow as George Orr's dreams change reality more and more. When I picked up reading after the last blog post, Orr consults the help of a civil rights lawyer named Heather Lelache, known by many as the Black Widow for her fierce yet cold demeanour. He approaches her with concerns regarding Dr. William Haber's use of the Augmentor to use Orr's dreams to change reality. Miss Lelache inadvertently takes pity on George and decides to try and see whether what the doctor is doing to Orr is privacy infringement or not. She mentions in her dialogue with herself that though she believes that Orr is more than a little neurotic, she does admire the quiet dignity with which Orr carries himself and his openly honest disposition, however milquetoast he may be. On the day of Orr's next therapy session, Miss Lelache observes the situation in Dr. Haber's office. This time, Mr. Orr has a particularly bad effective dream, namely one in which he dreams about decreasing overpopulation. In the process, he unknowingly wipes out six billion people from the face of the earth. Miss. Lelache becomes aware of the change as she had witnessed the hypnosis and heard Orr's recounting of the dream.
Afraid of his own subconscious mind, Orr does not return to Dr. Haber's office for weeks, now being convinced that he is being manipulated for someone else's selfish reasons. In order to escape the living hell he had been facing, Orr retreats to a cabin in the coastal forests of Northern California (or southern Oregon?). He had earlier made plans with Heather Lelache to discuss what exactly had happened that session over lunch, but he never showed up. Thoroughly irritated by this, Miss Lelache gets word of where Orr may be hiding out and drives over to his cabin. However, she is shocked and once again overcome by pity when she sees Orr haggard and worn from three days' lack of sleep. They then discuss what to do about Dr. Haber once inside. As this is happening, they see bright flashes of light in the sky outside and Orr suddenly remembers what they are. A space battle is taking place between an alien race (whom they call the Aliens) that has just landed on the moon and the military forces of Earth. The next time he goes to Dr. Haber's office, they are visited by an Alien. It is described as about nine feet tall and looking like a turtle, and speaks through translators embedded in its outer armour. In further "therapy" sessions, Haber grows continually more ambitious about his plans for Orr to change the world. The plot line of this book is really reminiscent of that of the Hunger Games or the Giver series. Essentially, the weaker and less intelligent people are taken advantage of by people in positions of authority, like the Capitol in the Hunger Games, or the Council of Elders in the first book of the Giver series. Giving them illusions of peace, happiness, and a facade of a perfect world, they are able to bend the whole world to their iron will. With regards to this book, however, the main protagonist is fully aware of how the antagonist is manipulating him, but is powerless to put a stop to it. It is mainly a manipulation of the weak by the strong that is a common theme in these books/movies.The governmental structure as mentioned in the book is still a democracy, but has significantly crumbled in effectiveness, as politicians grow increasingly indifferent towards the state of America's affairs. If we do not elect educated leaders dedicated to the welfare and service of the people, this may very well be not too far in our nation's future. I will be commenting on the reading blogs of Maddi P., Michael Q., and Matthew E. The Lathe of Heaven, a dystopian novel written by Ursula K. Le Guin, begins from the perspective of the story's protagonist. He is in a strange dreamlike state in which he imagines himself to be suffering from radiation sickness. He is vaguely conscious, but not of the world that his body is in. He stumbles out of his apartment and into the hallway, where the elevator man (Mannie), notices him and asks him (the protagonist) whether he's drunk or high, to which the protagonist responds that he "couldn't find the fit," meaning he couldn't find the right drug to suppress his dreams for some reason. The man soon comes to a groggy sort of consciousness and the medic who came up to treat him confronts the protagonist about the drugs he's been taking and how he's been getting them off of someone else's pharmacy cards. The medic then writes a referral to the police and talks at length about how quality of life in the cities is slowly getting worse. On that note, our protagonist slowly fades back into unconsciousness.
The perspective of the story shifts to Dr. William Haber, the psychiatrist that the protagonist had been referred to. As the doctor waits for his next patient, he reminisces about the past of his childhood, when there was no global warming and when the havoc wreaked on the environment was considerably less than it was in the present. The protagonist, now addressed as George Orr, enters the office. Immediately, Dr. Haber judges Orr's mental state based on his appearance and composure. He then asks Orr about why he took the drugs that he did. Orr responds that he would just be written off as insane if he revealed the reason for it. Dr. Haber insists on knowing the reason. Orr finally says that he took certain drugs to suppress his dreams. Haber starts to assume some reasons as to why this would happen, but the answer he got from Orr was completely unexpected. The patient claimed to the doctor that certain specific and vivid dreams that he had could alter reality. Now Dr. Haber is almost convinced that Orr is neurotic, and asks Orr to describe a specific experience that he had with these so-called reality-altering dreams. Orr describes a particularly vivid dream that greatly affected him personally. He recalls that after he had the dream, no one was aware that anything had changed except for him. Still skeptical, Dr. Haber decides to test that theory with a new piece of technology known formally as the Augmentor, or as he calls it, Doctor Haber's Palace of Dreams. Before connecting Orr to the machine, Haber performs a simple hypnosis on his patient, which leads the latter to obey the doctor's commands even while asleep. Dr. Haber then tells Orr to dream of a horse and monitors his EEG readings. When Orr wakes up a few minutes later, Haber asks him to describe his dream. Orr says that in his dream, he was riding a huge, hairy, reddish-brown horse in a wide field. Incidentally, he looks over to a far wall of Haber's office where there was a large mural photograph of Mount Hood and points out that it has changed to that of a horse galloping in a field of grass. Dr. Haber laughs and says that it's always been there and that everyone jokes about it. But as Orr leaves the office, Haber does notice something strange about the picture and somehow knows that it doesn't actually belong there. I think this story is rather interesting so far with regards to the fact that it's more psychological than other dystopian novels. It also predicts an accurate version of our future that wouldn't be too far off considering the way things are going right now with regards to environmental issues especially. I have read other dystopian novels, particularly the Giver series of books. In my opinion, it is very eye-opening to read about what could be if we don't change now and what we could do to prevent countless horrible futures that are described in said novels. I immediately saw how similar the world described in the book is to our world today because of the uncontrolled climate change and the increasing amount of violence and hate crimes committed in large cities. This novel is set on Earth presumably in the early 1990's, based on the references to certain pieces of technology like the typewriter. Overall, I think that this book is off to a great start and I look forward to reading about what happens next. |